Exit Strategy - Primary Stages

234 West 44th Street
New York City, 10036
212-764-7900
FAX 764-0344
www.ksa-pr.com
March 31, 2016
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press contact: Brett Oberman at Keith Sherman & Assoc.,212-764-7900, [email protected]
NOW IN PREVIEWS - OPENING NIGHT, TUESDAY, APRIL 12
AND CATHERINE
ADLER & JAMIE DEROY, IN ASSOCIATION WITH PHILADELPHIA THEATRE COMPANY PRESENT
A NEW YORK PREMIERE BY IKE
DIRECTED BY KIP
HOLTER
FAGAN
FEATURING MICHAEL CULLEN
AIMÉ DONNA KELLY REY LUCAS
DEIRDRE MADIGAN CHRISTINA NIEVES BRANDON J. PIERCE RYAN SPAHN
NOW PLAYING THRU MAY 6 AT PRIMARY STAGES AT THE CHERRY LANE THEATRE
WWW.PRIMARYSTAGES.ORG
Primary Stages (Casey Childs, Founder and Executive Producer; Andrew Leynse, Artistic
Director; Shane D. Hudson, Executive Director) and Catherine Adler & Jamie deRoy present
Exit Strategy, a New York premiere by Ike Holter (Hit the Wall) and directed by Kip Fagan
(Grand Concourse). The limited engagement runs through May 6, 2016 at Primary Stages at
the Cherry Lane Theatre and features Michael Cullen, Aimé Donna Kelly, Rey Lucas,
Deirdre Madigan, Christina Nieves, Brandon J. Pierce, and Ryan Spahn. Opening night is
Tuesday, April 12 at 8PM. Exit Strategy is produced in association with Philadelphia Theater
Company.
A fiery, riveting work about the chaotic final days of an urban public high school, Exit
Strategy is a taut, edge-of-your-seat drama about the future of public education from a vital
new voice in American playwriting. Named "Chicagoan of the Year in Theater" by the Chicago
Tribune, Ike Holter brings his "thrilling, beautiful" new play to Primary Stages for its New York
Premiere after winning rave reviews for a thrice-extended sold-out run last summer.
Exit Strategy features scenic design by Andrew Boyce, costume design by Jessica Pabst,
lighting design by Thom Weaver, sound design by Daniel Perelstein, with casting by
Klapper Casting.
“Exit Strategy is a bold and provocative new play – an intense emotional journey that captures
the grit of inner city life and explores who really gets ‘left behind’ when schools fail,” says
Primary Stages Artistic Director Andrew Leynse. “Ike Holter is a compelling new voice in the
American theater that demands to be heard.”
LISTINGS INFORMATION: Exit Strategy plays a limited engagement through May 6, 2016 at
Primary
Stages
at
the
Cherry
Lane
Theatre
(38
Commerce
Street,
www.cherrylanetheatre.org.) Opening night is Tuesday, April 12 at 8PM. Performances are
Tuesday - Friday at 8PM; Saturday at 2 and 8PM; Sun 3PM. There is an added 2PM
performance on Wednesday, May 4. No performances April 19, 26, and May 3. Tickets are
$70 and can be purchased online at PrimaryStages.org, by phone via OvationTix at
212.352.3101 or toll-free 866.811.4111 (9AM to 9PM Monday to Friday and 10AM to 6PM
Saturday and Sunday), or at the box office. Group Tickets (10+) are $45 each ($35 for student
groups) for all performances and available by calling (212) 840-9705, ext. 204. Primary Stages
subscriptions are also available with packages starting at $35 per show.
For high-res photos, artwork and press materials, visit the Primary Stages online press kit,
www.PrimaryStages.org/presskit
A BOUT THE ARTISTS
MICHAEL CULLEN (Arnold). NY Stage: King Liz (Second Stage); Finks (Ensemble
Studio Theatre); Bug (Barrow Street Theater- Obie Award); Len, Asleep in Vinyl
(Second Stage); Cobb (Lucille Lortel Theater- Drama Desk Award, Best Ensemble);
Dark Matters (Rattlestick); One Shot, One Kill (Primary Stages); The Intelligent
Design of Jenny Chow (Atlantic); Bus Stop (Circle in the Square). Regional: Actors
Theater of Louisville-Humana Festival, Denver Stage, Dallas Theater Center, Penguin Theater,
Buffalo Studio Arena, The English Theater of Frankfurt, Germany. TV: “Law & Order,” “Law &
Order: Criminal Intent,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “Life on Mars,” “A Gifted Man,” “Third Watch,” “NY
Undercover,” “Flesh and Bone,” “The Blacklist.” Film: The Place Beyond the Pines, Margot at the
Wedding, Dead Man Walking, Clockers, Malcolm X.
AIMÉ DONNA KELLY (Sadie). Off-Broadway: Witch in Macbeth (Epic Theatre
Ensemble). Regional: Jory in Disgraced (Philadelphia Theatre Company); Lady
Macduff/Weird Sister in Macbeth (Arden Theatre Company); Petrushka in Moon
Man Walk (Orbiter 3); Noxolo in The Dangerous House of Pretty Mbane (Barrymore
Award nominee- Best Actress); Black Woman in We Are Proud to Present…
(InterAct Theatre Company); This Is the Week That Is (1812 Productions); Cleopatra in Unsex Me
Here (Theatre 4the People); Sharon in We Are Bandits (Applied Mechanics); Georgia in The
Exonerated (Delaware Theatre Company). BFA: University of the Arts.
REY LUCAS (Luce). Theatre: Roundabout Theatre Company, The Public,
Playwrights Horizons, INTAR Theatre, The Goodman Theatre, Victory Gardens,
Arena Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, Yale Repertory, Williamstown Theatre Festival,
Alliance Theatre and the Denver Center Theatre Company. TV: “The Path”
(upcoming), “Orange is the New Black” (upcoming), “Blue Bloods,” “Believe,”
“American Odyssey,” “The Mysteries of Laura,” “The Blacklist,” “The Following,” “Golden Boy,”
“Elementary,” “Person of Interest,” “Weeds,” “Army Wives,” “Law & Order,” “100 Centre Street.”
Film: Keep in Touch (upcoming), About Alex, Allegiance, On the Job Training, The Doghouse. BA:
Wesleyan University, CT. MFA: Yale School of Drama. reylucas.com
DEIRDRE MADIGAN (Pam). Broadway: A Delicate Balance, Who’s Afraid of
Virginia Woolf?, After the Night and the Music. Off-Broadway: Barbra’s Wedding and
Major Crimes. Regional Theatre: Philadelphia Theatre Company (Vanya and Sonya
and Masha and Spike, Barrymore nominated), Bucks County Playhouse, Westport
Country Playhouse, Two River Theatre, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Denver
Center, Intiman, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, George Street Theatre, Repertory Theatre of St.
Louis, Virginia Stage, Pioneer Theatre. TV: “Elementary,” “The Good Wife,” “Law & Order,” “Law &
Order: Criminal Intent.”
CHRISTINA NIEVES (Jania). Theatrical credits include: The House on Mango
Street (Steppenwolf Theatre); El Nogalar, The Sins of Sor Juana (Goodman
Theatre); West Side Story, Les Misérables (Drury Lane); In the Heights (Paramount
Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre); Dee
Snider’s Rock & Roll Christmas Tale (Broadway Playhouse); Song for the
Disappeared (Passage Theatre); Depraved New World (Second City); Welcome to Arroyo’s
(American Theatre Company); Romeo & Juliet (Apollo Theater); All My Sons (Cardinal Stage);
Lunatic as & S-E-X-OH! (Teatro Luna.) Christina is an ensemble member with Teatro Vista and a
graduate of The Theatre School at DePaul University. christina-nieves.com.
BRANDON J. PIERCE (Donnie). Regional: Metamorphoses, Charlotte’s Web
(Arden Theatre Company); Hands Up (Flashpoint Theatre Company); Dutch
Masters (Azuka Theatre); Mike Like Sugar (Simpatico Theatre Project); iSunjata
Kamalenya (Experimental Theatre Company); Fair Maid of the West (Philadelphia
Artists’ Collective); Romeo & Juliet, Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare Theatre of NJ);
The Winter’s Tale, Henry IV (Shakespeare in Clark Park); Macbeth (Revolution Shakespeare).
BFA: University of the Arts.
RYAN SPAHN (Ricky) recently graduated from the acting program at The Juilliard
School where he wrote, produced and starred in He’s Way More Famous Than You,
Grantham & Rose, and Woven. Ryan co-created and starred in the digital comedy
series What’s Your Emergency (Stage17.tv). Off-Broadway: Gloria (Vineyard
Theatre.) Regional: Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse,
Berkshire Theatre Group. Ryan was an LA Weekly Award winner for his performance in Stupid Kids
(Celebration Theatre.) TV/Film: “Ugly Betty,” “Star Trek: Voyager,” “Tanner on Tanner,” “Late Show
with David Letterman.”
IKE HOLTER (Playwright) Ike Holter’s work has been produced at The Steppenwolf
Garage, LiveWire Chicago, Theater 7, The Greenhouse Theater, Theater on The
Lake and The Inconvenience, where he is a founding member and resident writer.
He's received fellowships and commissions from The Goodman Theater, The
Kennedy Center, Writers Theater and Teatro Vista. His show Hit The Wall played at
Steppenwolf Garage and Off-Broadway at The Barrow Street Theater in New York.
Jackalope Theater produced his new play Exit Strategy, which played to sold-out houses and
transferred to Michigan. He was recently named Playwright of the Year by the Chicago Reader
and Chicagoan of the Year for Theater by The Chicago Tribune. His monologues have been
published in The New Yorker and several editions of Applause Books.
KIP FAGAN (Director) mostly recently directed Erin Courtney’s I Will Be Gone at the
Humana Festival in Louisville and Heidi Schreck’s Grand Concourse at Playwrights
Horizons in NYC. At Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre: Jesse Eisenberg’s The
Revisionist (starring Eisenberg and Vanessa Redgrave), Halley Feiffer’s How to
Make Friends and Then Kill Them, Eisenberg’s Asuncion, Heidi Schreck’s There Are
No More Big Secrets, and Sheila Callaghan’s That Pretty Pretty; or, The Rape Play. Other NYC
credits include: Carlos Murillo's A Thick Description of Harry Smith and Samuel D. Hunter's Jack’s
Precious Moment (Page 73); Reggie Watts and Tommy Smith's Radio Play (P.S. 122); Ariel Stess's
I'm Pretty Fucked Up, Sheila Callaghan's Roadkill Confidential, and Rachel Hoeffel's Quail
(Clubbed Thumb); Zayd Dohrn's Reborning and Cory Hinkle's Cipher (SPF); Sheila Callaghan's
Recess and Christopher Durang’s Not a Creature Was Stirring (The Flea); Greg Keller's The Young
Left (Cherry Lane); Sam Marks's Nelson (Partial Comfort). Regional credits include: Alliance
Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Humana Festival, George Street
Playhouse, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Portland Center Stage, Marin Theatre Company, and
City Theatre, among others. Taught and/or directed at Juilliard, NYU, SUNY Purchase, Strasberg
Institute. Upcoming: Susan Soon He Stanton’s Today Is My Birthday at Sundance Theatre Lab and
Sheila Callaghan’s Women Laughing Alone With Salad at Woolly Mammoth. Co-founder of
Printer’s Devil in Seattle; affiliated artist at Clubbed Thumb.
is an Off-Broadway not-for-profit theater company dedicated to inspiring,
supporting, and sharing the art of playwriting. We operate on the strongly held belief that the future
of American theater relies on nurturing playwrights and giving them the artistic support needed to
create new work. Since our founding in 1984, we have produced more than 125 new plays,
including Donald Margulies’ The Model Apartment (1995 premiere and 2013 revival); David Ives’
Lives of the Saints and All in the Timing (original 1993 production and 2013 revival); Billy Porter’s
While I Yet Live; Kate Fodor’s Rx; Charles Busch’s The Tribute Artist and Olive and the Bitter
Herbs; A.R. Gurney’s Black Tie; Horton Foote’s Harrison, TX and Dividing the Estate (Two 2009
Tony Award® nominations); Theresa Rebeck’s Poor Behavior; Deborah Zoe Laufer’s Informed
Consent; Terrence McNally’s Dedication or the Stuff of Dreams and The Stendhal Syndrome;
Danai Gurira and Nikkole Salter’s In the Continuum (which went on to tour the U.S., Africa, and
Scotland); and Conor McPherson’s St. Nicholas (which marked the playwright’s U.S. debut). Our
productions and artists have received critical acclaim, including Tony, Obie, Lortel, AUDELCO,
Outer Critics’ Circle, Drama League, and Drama Desk awards and nominations. Primary Stages
supports playwrights and develops new works through commissions, workshops, readings, and our
education and training programs: The Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group, the Marvin
and Anne Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA), the Fordham/Primary Stages MFA in
Playwriting, and the newly launched Primary Stages Off-Broadway Oral History Project. Through
these programs, Primary Stages advocates for our artists, helping them make important—and often
transformative—connections within the theater community.
WWW.PRIMARYSTAGES.ORG
PRESENTS
Photos © 2016 James Leynse
High-res production photos are now available
from the Primary Stages online press kit:
www.PrimaryStages.org/presskit
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/10/theater/exit-strategy-a-theatrical-import-from-chicago.html?_r=1
APRIL 6, 2016
Aimé Donna Kelly and Brandon J. Pierce in “Exit Strategy” at the Cherry Lane Theater.
Caitlin Ochs for The New York Times
‘Exit Strategy,’
a Theatrical Import From Chicago
By STEVEN McELROY
Chicago has sent many theatrical gifts to New York over the years,
including Tracy Letts’s “August: Osage County” and some great
plays by the Chicago native David Mamet (in general, if not
lately). A notable import of the moment is Ike Holter’s “Exit
Strategy,” in previews in a Primary Stages production. Mr. Holter,
named “Chicagoan of the Year in Theater” by The Chicago
Tribune in 2014, received a rave from Chris Jones of The Tribune
when “Exit Strategy” ran there. Mr. Jones described the play,
about the final days of a failing urban high school, as “at once
poetic, political, sad, funny, timely, complex and compassionate”
and went on to compare the “linguistic excitement” with Mr.
Mamet’s feisty early work. (Opens Tuesday, April 12, Cherry Lane
Theater; primarystages.org.)
© 2016 The New York Times Company
http://nypost.com/2016/04/14/exit-strategy-tackles-school-closings-with-a-big-heart/
“Exit Strategy”
SEE IT. “Exit Strategy,” a smallscaled, big-hearted and often wickedly
funny play, looks at the last-ditch
efforts to save a failing Chicago public
school from being closed down by the
city.
From the brassy special-ed teacher to
the grumpy union rep, every character
rings true, thanks to Ike Holter’s spoton, affectionate writing and an
ensemble cast that’s terrifically in tune
with their characters and each other.
The fantastic opening scene sets the
stage, a battle of words and
personalities between Ryan Spahn’s
milquetoast assistant principal and
Deirdre
Madigan’s
tart-tongued
English teacher.
Best of all, there’s no cheap
sentimentality
or
Hollywood-like
happy ending. Even so, you leave the
theater buoyant. A good show will do
that. (At the Cherry Lane Theatre
through May 6.)
- ELISABETH VINCENTELLI
© 2016 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved
http://www.villagevoice.com/arts/no-way-out-exit-strategy-traces-a-year-in-the-life-of-a-doomed-public-school-8500839
question of whether to fight for Tumbldn or accept its destruction as
a fait accompli. (The lounge itself, in Andrew Boyce's thoughtful
set, is shabby in all the familiar ways: grimy windows, tiles in
institutional shades of green.) Should the teachers walk out in
protest, and risk failure, plus repercussions from their union, or do
nothing, and let the doors close on the last day?
Sadie (Aimé Donna Kelly), sunny and optimistic, anxious to do
right by the students, spars with Jania (Christina Nieves), who's
lived through a previous school closure and advocates personal
survival at all costs. Vice principal Ricky (Ryan Spahn), a shrinking
white dude in skinny ties, paces the linoleum hallways, desperate for
sympathy and trying not to blame himself for staff layoffs. The
darkest response comes from veteran teacher Pam (Deirdre
Madigan), who decides that if her school is condemned to death,
she'll condemn herself too. Her abrupt self-destruction, early in the
play, transforms her from prickly educator to martyr, her specter
returning (sometimes literally) to haunt the others, especially her old
flame, fellow teacher Arnold (Michael Cullen).
A microcosm of social ills: Pierce and Spahn in Exit Strategy. © James Leynse.
Thursday, April 14, 2016
No Way Out: 'Exit Strategy'
Traces a Year in the Life of
a Doomed Public School
By Miriam Felton-Dansky
In the opening scenes of Exit Strategy, the tale of an underserved
Chicago public school slated for closure, playwright Ike Holter lets
us know what kind of drama this will not be. "You're Michelle
Pfeiffering this school," one teacher tells another, accusingly. It's a
reminder that the real world is no Dangerous Minds, no Mr.
Holland's Opus, no paradigmatic hardscrabble community awaiting
an inspiring educator to parachute in with a planeload of selfempowerment.
Yet despite such protestations, Holter's impassioned drama is in
many ways about the inspiration people find in each other when the
world outside offers none. Currently premiering in New York in a
production directed by Kip Fagan for Primary Stages, Exit Strategy
was written for Holter's home city of Chicago, where, in 2013,
Mayor Rahm Emanuel closed approximately fifty "underutilized"
public schools, displacing thousands of students in primarily
African-American and Latino neighborhoods and sending resources
to communities that had more of them in the first place.
Holter charts the social consequences of this trauma by following a
school through a single year: Tumbldn High, a crumbling institution
whose low test scores and graduation rates have landed it on a list of
schools to be shuttered in June. Through a series of confrontations in
the teachers' lounge — motivated by principle, but made messier by
years of personal resentments, irritations, and pride — we watch the
educators, administrators, and students confront the pressing
The simmering anxiety at Tumbldn explodes when a brave student,
Donnie (Brandon J. Pierce), decides to take his school's plight
public, forcing the adults around him to choose sides.
By all accounts, Exit Strategy spoke particularly poignantly to
Chicago audiences. But the moving ode to education will feel
familiar to New Yorkers as well. So will the form, a panoramic
social drama in which an institution serves as a microcosm of social
ills. The play's closest local counterpart, perhaps, is writer-performer
Nilaja Sun's 2006 No Child... — an award-winning solo piece about
Sun's experience as a teaching artist in Bronx public schools —
which used the tale of one classroom to examine broken educational
policies and the students these systems betray. But Holter instead
explores the community's sticky, conflicted attachment to the school
itself. (In probing the ways that even flawed institutions hold people
together, Exit Strategy also brings to mind Heidi Schreck's 2014
Grand Concourse, the story of a Bronx soup kitchen, which Fagan
also directed.)
Such emotional force is also where, theatrically, Exit Strategy
occasionally falters. Holter works hard to soften this disquieting tale
with humor, sometimes to a fault: The characters tease one another
relentlessly and find irony in the disaster at every turn. When they're
not needling each other, they're screaming; the concatenation of
outbursts captures the panic of a community near collapse but starts
to feel like a broken record. And the cast of characters Holter
imagines feels, even at its ugliest, a little too tidied-up (Donnie,
especially, is ceaselessly heroic).
But it's to Holter's credit that he doesn't try to find redemption for
Tumbldn itself. He withholds a happy ending, reminding us that
systemic failures are rarely reversible — and that the parachute
rarely opens in the end.
Exit Strategy
Directed by Kip Fagan
Cherry Lane Theatre, 38 Commerce Street
866-811-4111
primarystages.org
http://www.theatermania.com/off-broadway/reviews/exit-strategy_76695.html
Aimé Donna Kelly, Rey Lucas, and Brandon J. Pierce star in Ike Holter's Exit Strategy, directed by Kip Fagan, for Primary Stages at the Cherry Lane Theatre. (© James
Leynse)
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REVIEW:
Exit Strategy
Primary Stages presents
the twilight of an innercity public high school.
Zachary Stewart
Off-Broadway • Apr 12, 2016
In May 2013, the Chicago
Board of Education voted to
close 49 public schools, an
unprecedented and sweeping cut
that disproportionately hit poor
and
minority
communities
(according to the Chicago
Tribune, 87 percent of Chicago
Public School students come
from low-income families, 91
percent
from
minority
households).
Rather
than
dwelling in statistics and policy
specifics,
Chicago-based
playwright Ike Holter examines
the human implications of one
school closing in Exit Strategy,
his fierce and (uncomfortably)
funny new play, now making its
New York debut with Primary
Stages at the Cherry Lane
Theatre.
The story takes place at
Tumbldn, a Chicago public high
school slated to permanently
close at the end of the school
year. Assistant principal Ricky
Hubble (Ryan Spahn) is
charged with breaking the news
to the staff. This turn of events
comes as no surprise to battlehardened teachers like Pam (a
very salty Deirdre Madigan)
and Arnold (Michael Cullen,
with crusty authenticity). Even
though she's the youngest
teacher on staff, Jania (Christina
Nieves) has been in this position
before at a former school; she
advises fellow teacher Luce
(Rey Lucas) to start looking for
another job. The militant Sadie
(Aimé Donna Kelly) wants to
organize a protest. Meanwhile,
precocious student Donnie
(Brandon J. Pierce) hacks the
school website and reroutes it to
an Indiegogo campaign for
school supplies. He convinces
Ricky that if he can get the
attention of the wider (and
whiter) Chicago community, he
can save the school. Of course,
going viral only gets you so far
when
Twitter
ravenously
consumes multiple trending
hashtags a day.
With clear eyes, Exit Strategy
tackles the well-worn trope of a
white superhero flying in to
save a disadvantaged minority
community (a cliché Holter
hilariously sends up with a wellplaced reference to the 1995
Michelle
Pfeiffer
film
Dangerous Minds). As the play
progresses, we realize just how
much the deck is stacked
against the kids in this school.
That becomes glaringly obvious
during a furious monologue in
which Donnie describes asking
his teachers for toilet paper
from first through eighth grade
because the school was too
underfunded to stock any in the
bathrooms. The magnetic Pierce
attacks this speech with the
force of a tornado. Cathartically
hurling razor sharp observations
allowed with a blue streak of
expletives, Pierce gives us a
clear sense of a character that is
hungry, smart, and mostly
screwed. No amount of positive
thinking is going to change this
situation, especially coming
from the nervous-in-the-service
Ricky.
Brandon J. Pierce plays Donnie and Ryan Spahn
plays Ricky in Exit Strategy. (© James Leynse)
Spahn easily embodies the railthin nebbish of a vice principal
whose default emotions are fear
and anxiety. "I just want to lay.
On the couch. In in in a fetal
position eating a big sandwich
until I get sick," he says,
collapsing into a ball. It's a bit
baffling how this hamster of a
man turns into a general by the
end of the scene. One gets the
sense that this drastic character
shift would smell awfully fishy
with
a
less
convincing
performer.
Thankfully, director Kip Fagan
has crafted a highly realistic
production that never has us
questioning if we're really
watching an inner-city public
school. Set designer Andrew
Boyce decorates the teacher's
lounge with grimy tiles and
ancient appliances. Lighting
designer Thom Weaver bathes
the set in an unflattering
fluorescent glow that obscures
whether it is night or day.
Costume designer Jessica Pabst
presents an attractive array of
budget looks (backward cap and
hoodie for Donnie; H&M chic
for Ricky). Sound designer
Daniel Perelstein underscores
scene
transitions
with
a
schizophrenic mélange of hiphop and drumline music. We
know exactly where we are at
all times.
In imagining the complex
ecosystem of Tumbldn, Holter
occasionally bites off more than
he can chew: A subplot about
the clandestine relationship
between Ricky and Luce feels
very real, thanks to the palpable
chemistry between Spahn and
Lucas, but also undercooked,
like
a
perfunctory
gay
afterthought. Details of Arnold's
alcoholism also seem crammed
in as an easy way to deepen his
character and explain his
bitterness. Holter somewhat
undermines the truthfulness of
his vision by relying on some
tropes of his own.
Still, the overall experience is
more illuminating than not and
a must-see for anyone who
cares about the state of public
education in America. And
considering that guaranteed
access to secondary education is
one of the few things every
American shares, we should all
care, especially when the
quality of that education is so
disparate.
Ricky (Ryan Spahn) and Jania (Christina Nieves)
drink champagne in the teachers' lounge in Exit
Strategy. (© James Leynse)
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
©1999-2016 TheaterMania.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/body-of-an-american-new-york_us_56c5da42e4b08ffac127c828?a5cm1jor
A Personal Take On U.S. Schools’
Failures Hits The NYC Stage
Brandon J. Pierce (left) and Ryan Spahn star in “Exit Strategy.”
Ike Holter’s “Exit Strategy”
is a “crazy, entertaining ride.”
Curtis M. Wong, Senior Editor
Posted: 04/05/2016 05:17 pm ET
The new off-Broadway play, “Exit
Strategy,” puts a very personal spin on
the institutional failure of the U.S.
education system, depicting the chaotic
final days of an inner city high school.
Still, playwright Ike Holter insists his
show, which is being produced by
Primary Stages in association with
Philadelphia Theatre Company, is very
true-to-life in that it’s a balance between
a straightforward drama and a comedy.
“That’s kind of what life is like when you
go into extreme moments,” Holter told
(c) 2016 James Leynse.
The Huffington Post in an interview. “It’s
not always incredibly devastating. There
are big moments of levity.”
“Exit Strategy,” which plays New York’s
Cherry Lane Theatre through May 6,
begins with an all-too-familiar scenario: a
long-struggling Chicago high school
receives its closure notice. Over the
course of one final academic year, the
school’s vice principal, five beleaguered
teachers and an ambitious student fight to
save the campus from being shuttered.
But can they?
Director Kip Fagan was quick to clarify
that his production of “Exit Strategy,”
which comes to New York after an
acclaimed run in Philadelphia, is “not
exactly an issue play.”
It was Holter’s work, Fagan said, that
convinced him to helm “Exit Strategy.”
“He’s just a powerhouse of a guy,” he
said. “He’s really, really smart, energetic,
and a little bit crazy. I liked his voice.”
For actors Rey Lucas and Ryan Spahn,
who play a math teacher and the vice
principal, respectively, the show also
resonated on a personal level, and felt
particularly relevant coming ahead of the
2016 U.S. presidential election.
Ryan Spahn (left) and Rey Lucas play the school’s vice principal and
a math teacher, respectively. (c) 2016 James Leynse.
“It’s about an issue, but really, it’s a
personal play,” he said. Without offering
any spoilers, he stressed that the show
does not offer a tidy conclusion for the
issues it portrays by the time the curtain
falls. “It takes you on a crazy,
entertaining ride, and at the end, leaves
you quietly devastated.”
“Regardless of what your politics are, I
think we can all agree that education is so
important,” Lucas, who plays an “ex-frat
boy turned math teacher” Luce, said. “It
really surprised me, really moved me and
really made me laugh out loud. Even
though there are some hard truths
explored, it’s done with so much humor.”
Added Spahn: “We live in a system
where there are schools that, if you win a
lottery, that child gets plucked out of a
shitty circumstance to what is arguably a
better one, and therefore, potentially has a
better life because he won the lottery. It’s
just crazy that education can be left up to
chance like that.”
“Exit Strategy” plays New York’s Cherry
Lane Theatre through May 6.
http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/arts-culture/90664-play-about-disintegrating-school-packs-lesson-in-perseverance-at-suzanne-roberts
Brandon J. Pierce plays Donnie in Exit Strategy.
Packing a lesson in perseverance,
play about disintegrating school
Ever wonder what happens to the
teachers, administrators, the whole
universe of people who work in a large
urban high school when it shuts its doors
for the last time?
A play now being staged explores the
range of emotions that go into trying to
save a school against all circumstances.
Though such stories have unfolded all too
often over the past few years,
unpredictability
dominates
“Exit
Strategy.”
While there is nothing funny about a high
school shutting down, bittersweet humor
does permeate the play, said Michael
Cullen, who portrays a weathered English
teacher.
"The humor comes from the absurdity of
their situation," he said. "It causes a lot of
tension — having a job that you prepare
for and not being allowed to do the job
because you didn't have the books, you
don't have the room, you don't have heat
in the building, there are rats running
round, the food is bad ...
"I mean it's ugly, but it's also very funny,"
Cullen said.
Playwright Ike Holter uses absurdity and
unpredictability as tools for provoking
questions about social conflicts.
"I think the tricky thing about a piece like
this is twisting the audience's idea of what
they think they're going to get, whether it
be characters or plot of theme," he said.
"Yes, you need to keep them guessing.
But you don't want to just play purely
with heroes and villains with a topic like
this, you want the whole spectrum."
Most of the characters inhabiting that
spectrum are teachers, old and new, as
well as a young and inexperienced
assistant principal.
Just one student — a senior, played by
Brandon Pierce — is in the cast. He is
reprimanded for trying to attract attention
to the school's plight by hacking the
school's website. He serves as a reminder
of how difficult students' lives have
become because of cutbacks.
"Every day, I had to go to the teacher's
desk [for] toilet paper ... I find that
horrifying," he says in the play.
The playwright's precise and fast paced
language help bring the stories to life,
said director Kip Fagan.
"It sings, it come off the page, just like
when you are in a crowd of people, and
you are just listening to the sound of the
language and not the content of the
language," he said. "You can hear that
kind of music arrive in a crowded room,
and you can see people participating in it,
and it's almost always true".
"And it's entertaining for me — and it's
scary — because people talk themselves
into corners in this play, talk themselves
into confrontations," he said. "A scene
can start very funny, and two minutes
later, it changes because they don't stop
speaking when they should have."
As the play unfolds, each character
develops an "exit strategy," a way out.
Some are drastic, some resigned. But
they're often hopeful and courageous,
never indifferent.
"It's about figuring out what are you
going to do when you are pushed to the
limit," Holter said. "Some people fight
back, and they fight on, and they fail, and
they feel good about that.
"Some people stay back and let someone
else fight for them, so this play is looking
at when people chose to fight or let
something go."
Christina Nieves, who plays a teacher,
has a favorite line about that. "Towards
the end of the play, my character says.
'You fight, and you fight. We don't beg.'
"That encapsulates the complicated
nature of when you are going up against
the system or an injustice, that you fight
as hard as you can," she said. "But you
have to find a way to maintain your
dignity and your self-respect."
But the quick pace also poses risks,
Holter said.
© 2016 WHYY/NETWORKS
http://broadwayblack.com/ike-holters-exit-strategy-makes-its-new-york-debut
Exit Strategy playwright Ike Holer. © James Leynse for Primary Stages
In Conversation:
Ike Holter’s Exit Strategy Makes New York Debut
Broadway Black’s Creator, Andrew Shade sat
down with Ike Holter to discuss his new play
Exit Strategy presented by Primary Stages. Ike
Holter is a contemporary playwright who’s work
has been developed by The Playwrights Center,
The Eugene O’Neil Theater Center, and The
Kennedy Center’s ACTF. His plays have been
produced by EP Theatre, The Mixed Blood
Theatre, Jackalope Theatre, City Lit, and
Nothing Without a Company, where he is the
Associate Artistic Director. Exit Strategy is
Holter’s second New York show after bringing
his hit play Hit the Wall to the city in 2013. Exit
Strategy is described as “a fiery, riveting work
from the award-winning writer of Hit the Wall,
about the chaotic final days of an urban public
high school, Exit Strategy is a taut, edge-of-
your-seat drama about the future of public
education from a vital new voice in American
playwriting.”
On the surface, one might think the play is just
about another school caught up in the mass
public school closings that occurred in
Chicago. Well, you’d be wrong. While Exit
Strategy tackles this issue, make no mistake,
Holter writes plays about people. This work is
more about the everyday humanity of people
who happen to also be trying to make serious
decisions about keeping the doors of the school
open. “It’s about people doing people things,”
says, Holter. And while Holter says it’s
definitely a Chicago play, one doesn’t have to be
deeply involved in the rich history of Chicago to
understand the play.
It is this peek into the everyday lives of people
that makes his work so powerful and so easy to
connect with. There’s no surprise to this
approach. Holter himself is the epitome of
everyman. He zooms into the interview on
rollerblades and casually tells Shade that he
typically
rollerblades
several
miles
a
day…everywhere… eschewing trains and
driving. In this case nearly 30 blocks to reach the
interview. Not what one would typically expect
from a man who was named ‘Chicagoan of the
Year’. “That’s how I roll,” he says, with a
laugh. “It’s good exercise, it’s cool.”
This sensibility speaks volumes about
Holter. For example, although the play tackles
the heavy scenario of teachers, an administrator,
and students coping with the fact that their urban
school is closing and what, if anything they
should do about it, it is handled in a way that
brings to life each character in all of their witty
and sometimes surprisingly raunchy glory. “It’s
an R-rated comedy drama with people doing
extreme things. But it’s also very human, and I
hope very relatable.”
Holter came up with this play as a result of being
commissioned by Jackalope Theatre. Holter
says, “I had no idea what I was going to write.”
The suggestion was thrown out that he should
tackle the school system and what was
happening there. “That was all I needed.” Holter,
who also teaches regularly (among other things)
was able to write the play fairly quickly. “I have
a lot of friends who are teachers and I have a lot
of friends who aren’t teachers and I wanted to
write a story about people hanging on and letting
go.” Holter’s goal was to approach his
characters in a way that strips the deification that
often goes along with being a teacher or an
administrator. “I’m trying to humanize a lot of
these people.” “Let’s see them at their best and
at their worst and just make them people.”
There’s a definite sense of admiration conveyed
when Holter talks about his appreciation of the
storefront theater community in Chicago. “It’s
my favorite. You’re not going to find a better
place for writers to get their stuff done without a
lot of rigamarole…The storefront scene is
incredible!” All of Holter’s plays began in
Chicago’s storefront community, which is a
more grassroots, community based approach to
theater. In fact, Jackalope has a small house
converted into a theater, where actors are
typically non-union and seasons are generally
shorter. It’s an embracing atmosphere that seems
to fit nicely with Holter’s creativity. When it
comes to diversity Holter says he is seeing more
plays that aren’t from just straight white guys
and it’s exciting. However, Holter wants to
move away from what he calls the tokenization
of minority groups. “You could fill just as many
seasons on plays with minorities as you could
with cisgendered white dudes.” Basically,
according to Holton, it’s time to stop
highlighting any particular group and saying it’s
their season.
Holter circles back to talk about his cast, who
have remained intact since their runs in
Philadelphia. “They are a great cast. They are
really opinionated people and they challenge me
about a lot of things in the script which is always
good. They aren’t there just to punch in and
punch out, they are very passionate people.” And
where Holter credits the cast for their passion, he
also has major kudos for director Kip Fagan.
“He is insanely talented. He is a fast worker, he
is one of the fastest directors I have ever worked
with. He is incredibly specific and
precise.” With such a talented cast and
incredible material it sounds like Exit Strategy is
a play you don’t want to miss. Check out Exit
Strategy during its limited engagement and New
York premiere March 30 through May 6th at the
Cherry Lane Theater presented by Primary
Stages.
© 2016 BroadwayBlack.com
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