NPX Weekly Round-Up: Yeah, Art Figures by Kim E. Ruyle

A play that has a much needed discussion about how we view education and students in America, plus three other plays that have captured my interest this week.

This play hasn’t been in my NPX library for long, and I figured when I put it there that it wouldn’t be one I would take long to reach for. As someone who has been actively teaching in some capacity for about ten years, and someone who wants to eventually be a professor, education is extremely important to me. It’s something I’ve discussed for hours with parents and other teachers, with my own parents and even students’ parents— there are many failings in the education system in America, and many things are happening outside of school that are affecting children’s ability to learn.

While I could write a whole post solely on the above topic, that’s not what we’re here to talk about. We’re here to talk about Yeah, Art Figures by Kim E. Ruyle, which discusses multiple sides of the broad topic of education, how teachers view students, and how best to encourage learning in a world which seems to push back on it.

Here is the summary of Yeah, Art Figures from NPX:

Frank, a math teacher distraught over the ignorance of his students, encounters and unloads on Joni, a substitute teacher, in the teachers’ lounge. In conversation with Joni and other teachers, Frank discovers that his ignorance, in some ways, surpasses that of his students.

This summary is vague but accurate, and more than enough to peak my interest. I’ve had many a discussion with other teachers regarding things like declining reading levels, kids being unable to put their phones down, and behavior problems we’ve noticed, and I expected this play to tackle some of that. It does, on a surface level, which I think is enough to get non-teachers talking.

In a typical teachers lounge that could be found in any public school, Frank and Joni connect. Joni is a sort of Renaissance woman who knows about and enjoys multiple subjects and activities from English to math to theater, while Frank is a bit crotchety and feels a little stuck in his ways (at least at first). The inherent opposition that exists within the characters creates great tension that leads to discussions that challenge Frank’s views on the ignorance of his students.

Frank is very much of the belief that phones and the internet have rotted kids’ brains beyond all hope, and that there is no way to get them to listen to him and learn what he is trying to teach them. Joni, however, just subbed for Frank’s class last week— and got every student up and learning about the distributive property using the premise of a Taylor Swift concert. Frank is floored that students who usually would sleep in his class were actively participating for Joni, and in my opinion he also seems a little bit jealous. Why will these students listen to Joni and not Frank? It becomes evident as the play goes on: Joni isn’t teaching for any reason other than to help students succeed and feel good about themselves. Frank, however, has a bit of his ego inside his reason for teaching. In my opinion, his character suffers from something a lot of us teachers sometimes fall into— the Ego Trip. Frank is teaching because he feels he specifically has knowledge to bestow upon these kids like he is some sort of fairy godmother. But that’s not what teaching is about— which Frank begins to see through his discussions with Joni as well as the other teachers that pop in and out of the teacher’s lounge.

I liked that this play didn’t take a stance I often see on the internet and in my every day life: that students are simply lazy and dumb and obsessed with their phones. As a teacher I know that technology has definitely changed things, but that is only one small part of a much bigger picture. Students are best engaged when teachers truly care about them, and when they make the effort to apply their subject to the students’ actual lives. Joni and the other teachers show multiple examples of this through their discussions of the off-stage character of Jason, a student who’s incredibly intelligent but who is currently unhoused. Frank is at first dumbfounded to learn that Jason, who normally sleeps in his class, is considered by the other teachers to be a quite intelligent and talented young man. The theater teacher speaks of his beautiful singing voice, and the art teacher of his fractal based art projects. Even the gym teacher, who is definitely a huge jerk, says how Jason can climb a rope “like a monkey”. Through this example of Jason, Frank is forced to analyze his judgement of his students and realize that not everything is on his students— as a teacher, it’s his duty to engage the kids and care about them.

This play has shown me a good example of what I would call an “issue play”: a play that debates a specific issue or problem. When we first see Frank he is jaded and mean, someone who doesn’t believe his students could be smart, talented, good kids. Through his in depth discussions with Joni and the other teachers, his opinion is changed by the end of the play. We get to see the issues of both sides of this debate laid out and discussed, and by the end we have reached a sort of “solution”— which is what the playwright believes the “answer” is. Usually I think these types of “issue plays” can come across preachy, but this work definitely doesn’t. I believe this is because the characters are incredibly well fleshed out, with backstories we can empathize with and understand deeply. These aren’t just caricatures spitting out the different points of this complex issue, they’re real people who live this issue every day talking about how they can do and be better.

So I’ve learned— when writing about a specific issue, especially one that people might have strong opinions about, discuss it through fleshed out and complex characters that truly have stake in the game.

Here is my official recommendation from NPX:

As a teacher, this play felt like everything I've been saying to people for years. It shows both sides of an issue that a lot of people have strong feelings about, and displays how care, kindness, and empathy can truly be what gets a student to participate and do better in class. I loved how fleshed out and complex the two main characters felt-- honestly, I connected to Joni very deeply. It made the issue very real to see it discussed between two people whom it affects every day. Brilliant. Non-teachers should definitely read!

If you read this play, let me know what you think about it by messaging me here on SubStack or replying to this email!

Three other plays that caught my eye this week:

• MELT by Stephanie Alison Walker

• PSYCHOPSYCHOTIC, or, everyone at yale is a goddamn sociopath !!! by Alexa Derman

• The Gravediggers Union by Brain James Polak

If you would like me to write about any of these plays, message me on SubStack or reply to this email! If there are any plays I haven’t mentioned yet that you think I should read, or you’d like me to read YOUR play, you should also contact me :)

Have a great week!

~Brynn