←Recommendations of To the Test

Ricardo Soltero-Brown's intimate dialogue in “To The Test" explores the complexities of personal relationships and the challenges faced by educators. The play looks at memory, identity, and the ethics of responsibility in education making it a compelling and insightful Soltero-Brown’s writing is both passionate and profound, leaving a lasting impact.

The dialog is comfortable and easy to fall in to. The plot line is as frustrating as the real life issues. I loved following a strong female lead throughout the story. Soltero-Brown has done an excellent job writing the dynamic between mother and daughter.

This play exposes the public school system as corrupt and flawed as the corporate world. With a complex woman at the center, this writer articulates and advocates for a better education for our children, for solutions to instruction, standardized testing, grading and evaluation. It's depressing at times, but even with the outcome, there's a bit of hope, a push thst a community of parents and teachers need in order to move in the right direction.

Is this play absurd? Sure. As a former teacher, however, there is so much TRUTH in this play that even the humor stings! Frankly, seeing the absurdity of teacher evaluations depicted this way made me feel seen and even vindicated! The dialogue is both funny and infuriating, the characters heightened but still spitting real-life rhetoric. Having seen first-hand how expectations from the top transform great teachers, I know how much truth there is behind the words in this script. The table metaphor was too real! This is a fast-paced, important work with the power to transform perspectives.

At times I felt as if I were reading an absurdist drama as the teacher evaluation scene played out. Cynthia’s anxiety and frustration were so palpable I could feel my blood pressure rising. And the way her frustration plays out at home with her husband and daughter speaks to how well Ricardo Soltero-Brown has developed these characters and relationships. I have no doubt public school teachers would love this, but it’s the administrators who really need to see it. Well done.

Soltero-Brown takes us into the particularly difficult day of a public school teacher. We witness how her job affects her marriage and her choices as a mother. While this play is more realistic than some of the playwright's other work, his sparse, naturalistic dialogue is spot on and the play ends with a bit of magic.

The connections between each of the characters in the family of the protagonist are so clear and intimate. You feel as though you're watching them through a two way mirror or even a magnifying glass. The play has some hard hitting truths that need to be shared regarding the organization of our education system and if if is really "there for the kids."

Reading this play is like eavesdropping on an intimate conversation. You are immediately drawn in to the intensity. There's no long exposition; it's as if they know you know each of them. It reminded me at times of Samuel Beckett, and when we are confronted with the absurdism of the public school evaluation dynamic, it never loses its place. But the message of the play is not lost on this reader who has seen both sides of the story -- the value of teachers -- and demands that we all hear them.