About the Play:

Pipeline has become a favourite of acting teachers for Female Monologues.

 

Pipeline is a full-length drama by Dominique Morisseau. Nya, a high school teacher at a New York City public school, wrestles with the realization that her teenaged son, Omari, though enrolled in a private school in upstate New York, may be in danger of straying into the "school-to-prison" that ensnares so many young men of colour. Issues of class, race, parenting, and education in America are brought to the front lines, as we are left to question the systematic structures that ultimately trap underserved communities.

Pipeline is about the school-to-prison pipeline and a mother desperately trying to keep her son from becoming ensnared in it. Nya, a single mom and dedicated inner-city public high school teacher, is committed to her students but desperate to give her only son Omari opportunities they'll never have. When an altercation with a teacher at his upstate private school threatens to get him expelled, Nya must confront his rage and her own choices as a parent. But will she be able to reach him before a world beyond her control pulls him away? With profound compassion and lyricism, Pipeline brings an urgent conversation powerfully to the fore. Dominique Morisseau pens a deeply moving story of a mother's fight to give her son a future – without turning her back on the community that made him who he is.

Pipeline premiered in 2017 at Lincoln Center Theater off-Broadway in New York City. Since then the play had regional premieres at professional theatres across the US and has been mounted by high schools, colleges, and community theatres.

Cast: 3 female, 3 male

What people say:

"Pipeline confirms Dominique Morisseau's reputation as a playwright of piercing eloquence." — The New York Times

"Pipeline is an emotionally harrowing, ethically ambiguous drama that raises barbed questions about class, race, parental duty, and the state of American education." — Variety

"This is a writer who has a flawless ear for the way kids see the world and their ability to navigate it with surgical eloquence. Pipeline is at once an homage to such authors as Lorraine Hansberry, Langston Hughes and Amiri Baraka and yet firmly the product of a unique, deeply resonant sensibility." — Deadline

"A powerful, passionate, and intelligent new play." — The Village Voice

"If Dominique Morisseau wasn't already established as one of the most exciting theater voices that have emerged in this young century, Pipeline should surely confirm that status." — BroadwayWorld

"Pipeline showcases an American playwright in full blaze." — Huffington Post

About the Playwright:

Dominique Morisseau is an African-American author, playwright, and screenwriter. She is perhaps best known as a writer for the comedy-drama Shameless on Showtime and as the author of The Detroit Project, a three-play cycle that includes Detroit '67, Paradise Blue, and Skeleton Crew.