Courtesy Charles Payne
Morgan Stewart, left, Laura McMillan and Asiah Doyle rehearse 'Da Classroom Ain't Enuf.'
As a Black child growing up in Lansing, Michigan, Charles Payne endured bullying and numerous other challenges. But that’s also where he became so inspired by an 8th grade teacher that he wanted to become a teacher himself.
Later, as a teacher in Phoenix, Arizona, Payne faced not only bad managers but unstable school funding, which meant he bounced around teaching positions. These experiences didn’t make Payne hate the education system, but he knows its limitations, as the title of his new play, Da Classroom Ain’t Enuf, deftly explains.
Premiering at the Broom Street Theater on April 19, Payne’s play is a choreopoem. “It’s a dramatic expression that combines poetry and dance, music and song,” says Payne (an Isthmus contributor), adding that one of the better-known choreopoems is The Vagina Monologues.
The play “explores the intersection of Black and Brown communities in and around the American educational system,” and is a series of different vignettes played by the same actors.
Payne began his own on-stage experience as a slam poet in Phoenix. “I didn’t really get into writing short stories or essays and monologues until I started performing in Madison at The Moth,” he says, referring to the open-mic storytelling competition.
Payne says Da Classroom Ain’t Enuf is heavily influenced by the 1976 work for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf and its playwright, Ntozake Shange.
Four actors play teachers and students and their families as they encounter and overcome a variety of struggles. The different stories are accompanied by original music created by composer and Madison community organizer Richard Jones.
Expect a range of tales. One tells of an explosive situation between a mother, her son and a police officer that results in the mother completely changing her child’s wardrobe so he’ll be viewed as less threatening by cops. Another depicts a violent encounter between a teacher and someone trying to hurt his student.
Payne didn’t water down the play’s content and says it should carry a warning for depictions of racism, sexism and queerphobia, among other discussions about poverty and systematic oppression. “There may be some things in there that parents would want to talk to their children about,” he explains, adding that on a movie scale, the play would “probably be rated as PG-13 or closer to R.”
When giving the actors direction for Da Classroom Ain’t Enuf, Payne and co-directors Matt Reines and Gina M. Gomez encouraged them to make the roles their own, which included not assigning character names.
“It was essential for me to write something where the actors would play roles that were more than just their complex identities and more than just the story — they are the story,” Payne says. “I want the audience to see the spirit of who [the actors] are. See not only their essence, but their experience. I want them to bring their whole selves to the roles.”
Written during the pandemic, the play has already drawn some accolades. It was named as a semifinalist for the 2021 American Players Theatre’s New Voices competition and as a finalist for Forward Theater’s playwriting competition in 2022. The project has been supported by Dane Arts and other local charitable foundations.
Ultimately, Payne hopes his play will show those who see it that there are many limitations within the American education system and that the whole community needs to support its children, in and outside of school.
“I hope people walk away from the show knowing that a child who’s only educated in school is an uneducated child,” he says. “And that they get involved in education because it's a holistic experience. I'm hoping people see these characters for who they are and see them as whole people and move beyond this idea that there's a single narrative for kids who are in underfunded public schools.”
Da Classroom Ain’t Enuf runs April 19-May 12 at 7 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. on Sundays. Tickets are on a pay-what-you-can basis with a suggested donation of $22. More information about the play can be found at the Broom Street Theater website.
