Sparking Conservation on the School to Prison Pipeline through Pipeline by Dominique Morisseau
Session Title
Additional Projects
College
College of Visual and Performing Arts
Department
Theatre & Dance
Abstract
The public school system is broken. The faults therein have created a school to prison pipeline in a seemingly endless cycle. The direction of Pipeline by Dominique Morisseau was a way to spark conversation of these parallels by exploring, through the perspective of a Black mother, how America’s broken education system strips away the innocence of Black children. The incorporation of sound design and projection provided the audience with visual and auditory perceptions of Black children in schools and various sounds of a school day. The set was designed in a minimalistic style to further convey the lack of resources available to students who are at higher risk of being a part of this pipeline. In addition, the design was minimal to allow the audience to focus on the text provided by the playwright rather than the pieces on stage. The costume design was specific to the color palette of red, white, and blue to symbolize the stories intent to comment on the American school system. The parallels between school and prison are too overwhelming to ignore. They begin with students walking in the hallways in single file lines as inmates would travel from place to place in a prison, strict schedules are enforced in schools as prison would to instill order and control, bare classrooms with cinderblock walls resemble jail cells, and the systematic racism threatening children of color as people of color are more likely to be arrested and/or imprisoned than their white counterparts.
Start Date
15-4-2022 12:00 PM
Sparking Conservation on the School to Prison Pipeline through Pipeline by Dominique Morisseau
The public school system is broken. The faults therein have created a school to prison pipeline in a seemingly endless cycle. The direction of Pipeline by Dominique Morisseau was a way to spark conversation of these parallels by exploring, through the perspective of a Black mother, how America’s broken education system strips away the innocence of Black children. The incorporation of sound design and projection provided the audience with visual and auditory perceptions of Black children in schools and various sounds of a school day. The set was designed in a minimalistic style to further convey the lack of resources available to students who are at higher risk of being a part of this pipeline. In addition, the design was minimal to allow the audience to focus on the text provided by the playwright rather than the pieces on stage. The costume design was specific to the color palette of red, white, and blue to symbolize the stories intent to comment on the American school system. The parallels between school and prison are too overwhelming to ignore. They begin with students walking in the hallways in single file lines as inmates would travel from place to place in a prison, strict schedules are enforced in schools as prison would to instill order and control, bare classrooms with cinderblock walls resemble jail cells, and the systematic racism threatening children of color as people of color are more likely to be arrested and/or imprisoned than their white counterparts.
