Actors Theatre Presents Nilaja Sun's NO CHILD 4/23-5/9

Nilaja Sun spent eight years as a teaching artist in some of New York City's toughest schools. She brings those diverse, often startling experiences to The Herberger Theater's Stage West in "No Child," described by The New York Times as a "lightning-paced, multi-character solo play."

Directed by Hal Brooks, "No Child," which runs from April 23 through May 9, offers a glimpse of life in the New York City Public School System and its powerful lessons of struggle, hope and laughter.

The critically acclaimed play puts Sun, a half Puerto Rican, half African-American Lower East Side native, in a classroom leading tough, sassy, troubled students at the fictional Malcolm X High School through a performance of Timberlake Wertenbaker's 1988 play, "Our Country's Good." That play is about a real-life lieutenant who led a group of 18th-century Australian convicts in their own production of George Farquhar's 1706 comedy, "The Recruiting Officer."

After an interview with Sun for The New York Times, reporter Nina Shen Rastogi wrote that "the concept may seem a bit dizzying - a Restoration comedy within a contemporary drama within a school play within a one-woman show - but the thematic resonances are clear, as both "Our Country's Good" and "No Child" argue for the exalting benefits of theater on troubled individuals and communities. Such complexities are most lost on the students....though they clearly excite Ms. Sun even as she is troubled by the implicit parallels she has drawn between Wertenbaker's convicts and her fictional students."

For Wiener, "'No Child' will resonate, certainly with teachers, educators and administrators, but with parents as well who may not recognize, or want to recognize, that the problems Nilaja experienced in her New York City classrooms are not very different from what goes on in schools in Arizona," he said. "And yet the teachers know that even some of their most challenging students are often the most inspired and inspiring."

Tickets, on sale now at www.actorstheatrephx.org, range from $10 for balcony seats to $41 for those in the orchestra. Group discounts also are available.

For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.actorstheatrephx.org or call the Herberger Box Office at (602) 252-8497, Monday - Friday, 10am - 5pm.