This Friday Madison’s Broom Street Theatre premiere’s a new play by Madison area poet, activist and playwright Charles Payne, “Da Classroom Ain’t Enuf.” Director Matt Reines came in to the WORT studio to talk to Monday Buzz host Brian Standing.

Broom Street’s production features an entirely non-white cast. It is presented as a series of choreopoems, which Reines describes as “slam poetry with movement added.” Much of the play reflects Payne’s reflections on how the American educational system serves, or doesn’t serve, African American students.

Reines talks about the audition process and development of the play. He also performs an excerpt of the play, a short spoken word piece called “Stop and Frisk,” about an unarmed young black man getting stopped at gunpoint by a police officer while walking to his car from a FedEx store.

“Da Classroom Ain’t Enuf,” will premiere at The Broom Street Theatre on April 19 and runs through May 2.

Photo courtesy of The Broom Street Theater

Web production by Nicholas Wootton

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