Premiering in Jersey City Oct. 18, playwright’s ‘Lines in the Dust’ explores unequal education system – NJ.com

Beginning its local 13-show run at Jersey City Theater Center’s (JCTC) Merseles Studios Friday, playwright and actress Nikkole Salter’s “Lines in the Dust,” is about one of the most defining aspects of Jersey City’s “tale of two cities” narrative – the very separate tracks and lack of opportunities to grow as simply defined by having an address in an area that’s been written off.

The play, directed by frequent Salter-collaborator and N.J. resident Cheryl Katz, is about a Newark woman trying to get her daughter into a better school in Millburn, “which seems a risk worth taking, but may end requiring a bigger sacrifice than she ever could have imagined,” as described in the press release.

“Lines of Dust” debuted at Luna Stage in West Orange in 2014 and then went on a national tour. This JCTC iteration, featuring Tasha R. Williams as Dr. Beverly Long, Kerry Vivian Mantle as Denitra Morgan, and Thomas Grube as Michael DiMaggio, P.I., is the first time since its original run that it’s back in Salter’s home-state of N.J., where she resides in Bloomfield.

“One of the unfortunate similarities between Essex County and every other county that this play has been produced, or considered for production, is that the segregated and classist dynamics prevail,” Salter said in an interview by email. “I could say that I feel good that the play resonates beyond N.J., but good wouldn’t be the right adjective. I feel strangely heartbroken with unfortunate satisfaction, I guess, that the play has a timeless resonance for many.”

The premise of the play evokes the word “tragedy,” though as Salter noted, “In the classical sense, a tragedy is an outcome that evades the protagonist’s virtuous desires because of their own character flaws.

“What’s the character flaw of children born in districts with subpar education?” Salter asked. “Being born? What’s the character flaw of parents who can’t counter the sentence of under and/or mis-education issued to their children by their zip codes? Not making more money? Is being impoverished or working poor a flaw of character that justifies being relegated to an exploitable class? I’d say no, but in America, we collectively and continually say, ‘yes,’ with our culture, policies and laws.”

With next to nothing about this dynamic changing, year after year after year, a reasonable/useful or good education being regulated to zip code, along with familial history, continues to undercut the development of the poor as individuals and groups in tandem on a personal and societal level.

Salter wrote “Lines in the Dust,” in part, to transformer her frustration about this into something productive,” she said. “I believe the Western worldview is literally and largely unnatural – it is constructed in opposition to the truth of nature. We – and I say ‘we’ because I’m indoctrinated in the Western world too – look at the way nature is ordered, and we assign the order value. … Our system of education reflects our view that some people are more valuable, and therefore more worthy of investment, dignity, and support, than others.

“That is a fundamentally untrue and unnatural outlook. I hope I can see a worldwide paradigm shift away from this fear-based domination thinking and toward an alignment with the truth of nature in my lifetime. I suppose this play, and others, are my offered contributions to that effect.”

But getting such a message across, to audiences that go beyond what may be typical to the world of theatre, and even atypically in that realm as well, is a challenge — “especially in a culture that views the role of the storyteller as being primarily for diversion and pleasure,” Salter noted.

“It doesn’t help that the storytelling culture is now on-demand,” Salter said. “How do you get people to see things that don’t just reinforce their views, beliefs, preferences, judgments, likes, etc.? I have been wanting to launch a campaign to re-educate audiences about the function of storytellers – the reason to engage a story. There is a reason why theatre is a part of the non-profit legal structure … Theatre, like church, like school, is an enrichment endeavor, a charitable endeavor. You don’t go to school for pleasure – though you hope there is something engaging. You don’t go to church to be entertained – at least most don’t. You go to school and church to be nourished mentally and spiritually.

“Human beings are the only species we know of that have the ability to direct our evolution. … Artists of story, then, are in the business of influencing our understanding of life, and framing our experience of life. Why? To create a space where we can collectively consider who we are and how we want to use our powers to direct our conscious evolution. …

“Because story is so fundamental to human existence, because it determines our evolution in large part, on a societal front, in my view, everyone has a right to participate: to witness, to be included, to make a contribution to our collective conscious evolution,” Salter said. “Systematically preventing – or carelessly disregarding – whole swaths of the population from those rights is criminal, in my view. So when we look at the Renaissance story being constructed in Jersey City now, and we see there are people not included in that narrative, whole communities omitted from the events transpiring, I view it as a denial of their human right to influence the collective evolution of their community.

Salter said that if people viewed interacting with stories in the way that they do working out or eating kale, as things that can be “pleasurable but not need be, I think we’d have less of a challenge in getting people to value and be curious about all narratives. I think we’re far from that, but I commend people like Olga (Levina, JCTC artistic director) for offering the content and encouraging people to step outside their comforts. And I thank people like Cheryl for making sure the experience is worthy of their time and attention.”

Of working with Salter, Katz, who is co-director of The New Jersey Play Lab, said: “On an artistic level, Nikkole writes wonderfully rich, flawed characters. She places these people in really messy situations and challenges them to come out with their moral compass and dignity intact. This makes for great nuanced drama which is really satisfying to explore and to stage.”

“Lines in the Dust” premieres at Merseles Studio, 339 Newark Ave., on Friday, Oct. 18, and has shows Saturday, Sunday in addition to one Thursday show on Oct. 24. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. for 8 p.m. shows, except on Sundays. Regular tickets are $25. Visit https://www.jctcenter.org/ for more information. Beginning Nov. 7, “Lines in the Dust” will be presented at the West Side Threatre, 285 West Side Ave., for a three-day run. Buy tickets for that https://www.njcu.edu/community/center-arts/theatre-dance