←Recommendations of Color ED (10-minute)

While reading this unsettling play, I was reminded of the Frank Loesser song “Inchworm,” from the movie “Hans Christian Andersen.” In the song, Andersen sings a haunting refrain encouraging an inchworm to stop and think how beautiful marigolds are while in the background we hear students monotonously intoning an arithmetic lesson. Both Loesser’s song and Omorotionmwan’s play are lyrical pleas for the acceptance and beauty of non-conformity, with Omorotionmwan adding layers of fear and loss that make this play a devastating cautionary tale for our times.

Omorotionmwan's unsettling drama is impossible to forget, makes it impossible for audiences not to feel sympathy for all the characters as an education system breaks down individuals into automatons. It also is a very personal tale of a girl who faces bias in the form of an older person attempting to provide a life lesson.

Produce "Color ED."

The symbolism and choreopoetic language functions to express the oppressive, racist reality of American education that encourages complicity and de-values diversity and difference. Haunting. Heartbreaking. This play would appeal to highschool and college students. And if performed by kickass students, it's brutal criticism, it's a wake-up call to teachers and administrators. I recommend that it's performed in cafeterias.

This play tunes into the spaces where unconscious bias flourishes — It's powerfully imagistic with an internal rhythm that feels dynamic and physical. There's a poetry to Omorotionmwan's language that is so inspiring! She brings chilling detail, on balance with big, clear action. This would be a tremendous scene for a small ensemble. Perfect for colleges or high school programs, especially.

All students college-ready. All students engaged from bell-to-bell. All students treated equally. Sounds good on paper... until you see Omorotionmwan’s frightening imagining of the climate of a classroom where these principles drive the instruction... or else.

HeartBreaking! In 10 pages, with great economy, this play gets to the core of oppression. Omorotionmwan uses rhythm, repetition and metaphor with great skill.