On March 25th, I went to see a play called EXIT STRATEGY, a play directed by Rachel Sledd Iannantuoni, and written by Ike Holter. The show played at the Loop Player at Harold Washington College and it is DEFINITELY not for kids. On the front of the program, the summary is stated like this: The teachers of Tumbldn High School bring mousetraps from home, they make the toilet paper last, and they show up for the kids nobody else shows up for.SO when the school is slated for closure at the end of the year, and the weight of the inevitable bears down on the community, students and teachers alike discover their breaking points.
The first scene is in Ricky, (Nick Page) the vice principal talking to Pam, (Abigail Bomher) about the school closing. Pam isn't surprised, and they get into an argument about life and school, and Pam says that the school is all she has ever had, and she loves it more than anything. She tries to teach the school anthem, and stops. She then proceeds to shoot herself.
The next scene is based a month later, when the school is about to start, set in the teacher’s lounge. Only one teacher is in there, and that teacher is Arnold, (Marcus Saenez) the nerdy serious one. He is getting his coffee, when in walks Luce, (Alexis A. Tornez Martinez) another teacher. He is pretty funny. He kept trying to get Arnold to do a secret handshake-thing, and Arnold said no, and the second Arnold was like, “ok fine” Luce was like, “ya know what? never mind.” and that was kinda funny. And then in walks ANOTHER teacher, this teacher is Sadie, (Brittany Yvonne Stokes) and she walks in with stuff from ALDI. Yeah, there's a bunch of school stuff but also juice boxes, which is kinda funny because Luce is like, “NO WAY, JUICE BOXES???? WHAT FLAVORS???” And Arnold is practicing telling the students that the school is closing, when IN WALKS ANOTHER TEACHER, and this one is named Jania, (Lexi Acosta) who is kind of intimidating and talkative. She is complaining about a gang, and people make fun of her broken car.
As the play continues, we find out a student named Donnie, (Robert Mosby Jr.) hacked into the school website and posted a link to help get the school to be saved. But Ricky decides not to suspend Donnie after a moving and difficult conversation about Donnie’s life. He then instead, recruits Donnie to the staff.
Fast-Forward to spring, where Ricky and Donnie have hatched a plan. And also this was one of my favorite parts, all the teachers are in the lounge, and Sadie says “Hey, do you guys hear that?” And Donnie walks in with a boom-box playing Gangsta’s Paradise, along with Ricky, to talk about the plan. The plan is to parade north, where rich people are. Then, they will get more money to save the school! And everyone except Arnold thinks this is a good idea, so Ricky says “whoever wants to stay with Arnold go but join me and good stuff will happen!” Then everyone goes with Ricky.
Arnold is alone in the teacher’s lounge about to call the city to tell them about the plan, until PLOT TWIST ghost Pam walks in and reminds him that he did that sort of thing a while ago. Then he decides to let it go.
Fast-Forward, the march happened, and now there’s news channels talking about them and stuff, and Donnie was watching it on FOX, and the teacher’s were like, “WE TAUGHT YOU BETTER THAN THAT! FOX, Donnie, Really FOX?!!!” and that was funny.
But then when Arnold and Ricky are alone, Arnold tells Ricky the bad news. Their plan didn’t work and the school was getting torn down. I think this was a really sad scene, because they did all the stuff for nothing. Then, it is the day of tearing down the school. They sing the tigers song, which goes like this:
Tigers hear us
Tigers fear us
Tigers Tigers We’re true blue
Tigers hear us
Don’t come near us
Tigers- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - BOOOM CRASH SMASH RUMBLE BOOOOOOOM and the school is destroyed the end. Boom the end. :(
I really liked the play because it was very dramatic and it had many mixed emotions in my head, like sad, funny, excited, and WHOA THERE LITTLE TIMMY! Which, by the way, is when there's inappropriate talk and cuss words.
I recommend this play to mature people at least 13 but I'm very mature so I saw it. I give this play 4 and 99,999/100,0000 coffee mugs out of 5! Because teachers drink a lot of coffee, like whoa.
Wow, Gunnar. I saw this play too and it made me feel all those emotions myself. It's great to hear from a young audience member about this story. Having worked in schools, I feel the tragedy of their heartless destruction. I'm happy that we have young allies like yourself to help us keep up the good fight. It's so great that you're back in the theater!
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