"To succeed in life you need three things-
a wishbone, a backbone, and a funny bone."
-Reba McEntire
PIPELINE
Written by Dominique Morisseau
Directed by Sidney Horton
August 22-24 and 29-31 at 8:00pm
Duke Energy Theatre at Spirit Square
345 N. College St, Charlotte, 28202
Tickets available now through Carolina Tix
$22 in advance, $28 at the door
Groups of 10 or more- $18 in advance through the Blumenthal Box Office
Discounted pricing available for students, teachers and ASC Connect with Culture cardholders. Learn More
Other Fees: All tickets are subject to 7.25% NC Sales Tax and a $3 Facility Fee, a 13.5% service charge applies to all internet and phone sales
To redeem 2018-2019 Season Flex Passes,
please call the Blumenthal Box Office at 704-372-1000
Pipeline contains some adult language and content, recommended for ages 16+
Winner of the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award
Nya, an inner-city public high school teacher, is committed to her students but desperate to give her only son Omari opportunities they’ll never have. When a controversial incident at his upstate private school threatens to get him expelled, Nya must confront his rage and her own choices as a parent. But will she be able to reach him before a world beyond her control pulls him away?
With profound compassion and lyricism, Pipeline brings an urgent conversation powerfully to the fore. In her newest work, Morisseau pens a deeply moving story of a mother’s fight to give her son a future — without turning her back on the community that made him who he is.
What People Are Saying
Pipeline is at once an homage to such authors as Lorraine Hansberry, Langston Hughes and Amiri Baraka and yet firmly the product of a unique, deeply resonant sensibility.
Deadline
>
Pipeline confirms Dominique Morisseau's reputation as a playwright of piercing eloquence.
New York Times
>
Pipeline is an emotionally harrowing, ethically ambiguous drama that raises barbed questions about class, race, parental duty, and the state of American education.
Variety
>
Meet the cast of Pipeline
Profound Gentlemen: A community of male educators of color providing a profound impact for boys of color.
Currently, 2 states across the nation have a high school graduation rate of 80% for boys of color. Studies show that when boys of color have male educators of color, they are more likely to graduate from high school, experience increase self-esteem, and have greater chances of pursuing a four-year college degree.
Profound Gentlemen's vision is to retain educators who dismantle the cradle to prison pipeline by establishing a cradle to career pipeline for boys of color.
Unfortunately, only 2% of teachers in public schools are men of color. Although there are efforts to recruit men of color into education, schools and districts struggle more with retaining men of color than recruiting. Currently, male educators of color are five times more likely to leave the education profession than other groups.
Profound Gentlemen is a Charlotte-based non-profit organization. Visit their website to learn more about their programming and to support their mission.
About the Playwright
Dominique Morisseau is the author of The Detroit Project (A 3-Play Cycle) which includes the following plays: Skeleton Crew (Atlantic Theater Company), Paradise Blue (Signature Theatre), and Detroit ’67 (Public Theater, Classical Theatre of Harlem and NBT). Additional plays include: Pipeline (Lincoln Center Theatre), Sunset Baby (LAByrinth Theatre); Blood at the Root (National Black Theatre) and Follow Me To Nellie’s (Premiere Stages). She is also the book writer on the new musical Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of the Temptations (Berkeley Repertory Theatre). Dominique is an alumna of The Public Theater Emerging Writer’s Group, Women’s Project Lab, and Lark Playwrights Workshop and has developed work at Sundance Lab, Williamstown Theatre Festival and Eugene O’Neil Playwrights Conference. Her work has been commissioned by Steppenwolf Theater, Women’s Project, South Coast Rep, People’s Light and Theatre, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival/Penumbra Theatre. She most recently served as Co-Producer on the Showtime series “Shameless”. Awards include: Spirit of Detroit Award, PoNY Fellowship, Sky-Cooper Prize, TEER Trailblazer Award, Steinberg Playwright Award, Audelco Awards, NBFT August Wilson Playwriting Award, Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama, OBIE Award, Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellowship, and being named one of Variety’s Women of Impact for 2017-18.
Learn More
Push and Pull: Dominique Morisseau’s ‘Pipeline’
credit: Kamilah Forbes, American Theatre Magazine
Profile of Dominique Morisseau
credit: 2018 MacArthur Fellows Program
Dominique Morisseau Wants More Diverse Audiences
credit: Token Theatre Friends, American Theatre