←Recommendations of Closing Doors

  • David Beardsley: Closing Doors by John Minigan
    “

    This is the kind of play that makes me lose faith in our species. We make inhuman rules requiring teachers to traumatize or sacrifice students because we don’t have the will to regulate guns. John Minigan has written an important play that makes an important point. That he felt compelled to do so makes me sad beyond words, but maybe enough productions of this play and others like it—along with all the brave students, teachers, parents and others calling for change—will finally bring some sanity to America’s insane gun culture. Maybe. We have to demand change.

    This is the kind of play that makes me lose faith in our species. We make inhuman rules requiring teachers to traumatize or sacrifice students because we don’t have the will to regulate guns. John Minigan has written an important play that makes an important point. That he felt compelled to do so makes me sad beyond words, but maybe enough productions of this play and others like it—along with all the brave students, teachers, parents and others calling for change—will finally bring some sanity to America’s insane gun culture. Maybe. We have to demand change.

    ”
  • Jackie Martin: Closing Doors by John Minigan
    “

    As a teacher, I have run through the exact scenario from this play in my head a thousand times. What would I do in this situation? As a parent, I have run through the same scenario a thousand times: what would the teachers in charge of my children do? There are no easy answers in life, and this unbelievable play won't give you one either. What it will do is make you think and feel more than you thought would be possible in 10 pages. The highest of stakes from beginning to end.

    As a teacher, I have run through the exact scenario from this play in my head a thousand times. What would I do in this situation? As a parent, I have run through the same scenario a thousand times: what would the teachers in charge of my children do? There are no easy answers in life, and this unbelievable play won't give you one either. What it will do is make you think and feel more than you thought would be possible in 10 pages. The highest of stakes from beginning to end.

    ”
  • Donna Hoke: Closing Doors by John Minigan
    “

    So good! The best plays leave you in that spot where you just don't know what you would do, which leads to the self-examination that can lead to questioning that can lead to change. "Closing Doors" is a perfect rock-and-a-hard-place example.

    So good! The best plays leave you in that spot where you just don't know what you would do, which leads to the self-examination that can lead to questioning that can lead to change. "Closing Doors" is a perfect rock-and-a-hard-place example.

    ”
  • Doug DeVita: Closing Doors by John Minigan
    “

    This play. THIS play. I'm still shaking from reading it. John Minigan's "Closing Doors" is topical, political theater at its absolute best. It says everything that needs to be said, and says it with razor sharp economy. A must read for anyone at all concerned with the current state of the world, and how future generations are being affected. THIS! PLAY!

    This play. THIS play. I'm still shaking from reading it. John Minigan's "Closing Doors" is topical, political theater at its absolute best. It says everything that needs to be said, and says it with razor sharp economy. A must read for anyone at all concerned with the current state of the world, and how future generations are being affected. THIS! PLAY!

    ”
  • Laurie Allen: Closing Doors by John Minigan
    “

    This is a powerful play! Equally strong opposing viewpoints that are gut wrenching, honest and painful. I couldn't decide whose viewpoint I favored as I tossed it back and forth. This play will stay with me.

    This is a powerful play! Equally strong opposing viewpoints that are gut wrenching, honest and painful. I couldn't decide whose viewpoint I favored as I tossed it back and forth. This play will stay with me.

    ”
  • Ellen Koivisto: Closing Doors by John Minigan
    “

    The play examines teaching in these days where teachers practice working in a combat zone and children rehearse for life-shattering trauma. This play, about a teacher deciding not to lock out a student during a drill, is honest, thoughtful, and horribly timely as school shootings come every week, if not every day. The decision of the administrator to protect bureaucracy over education, and to value c.y.a. over children, is all too familiar.

    The play examines teaching in these days where teachers practice working in a combat zone and children rehearse for life-shattering trauma. This play, about a teacher deciding not to lock out a student during a drill, is honest, thoughtful, and horribly timely as school shootings come every week, if not every day. The decision of the administrator to protect bureaucracy over education, and to value c.y.a. over children, is all too familiar.

    ”