Review: Stirring RIPPLE OF HOPE Traces Teacher's Journey with Heart and Humor

Staging a solo show requires an extra measure of bravery from an actor. After all, every eye is riveted to you - and you alone - for the duration of the performance. Each laugh and each tear depend on your ability to convincingly convey emotion, and you must successfully transform yourself into any number of other characters while seamlessly maintaining the momentum of your storyline.

Standing at the head of a classroom takes even more fortitude. All eyes are again on you, a solo performer, but here your purpose is to educate, not merely entertain. You must transform yourself to engage with any number of personalities while attempting to maintain the momentum of your lesson plan. And while most audiences will considerately observe an hour-long stage performance, it is a rare skill to effectively capture students' attention and to genuinely spark their interest for the duration of a school term.

Undoubtedly then, Karen Sklaire is a courageous lady. For more than a decade, Sklaire has worked with inner-city students as an educator in the New York school department, and now she compellingly relates stories of her time in the classroom through the one-woman show Ripple of Hope: One Teacher's Journey to Make an Impact.

After the events of September 11, 2001, Sklaire made an about-face in her plans to pursue a full-time theatrical career. She drew inspiration from educators depicted in films by Hilary Swank and Michelle Pfeiffer and left the audition room for the classroom. While her pupils presented their own sets of challenges - from foul-mouthed, undisciplined youngsters to at-risk teens involved with gangs and drugs - Sklaire overcame her initial naïveté and found meaningful ways to connect with her students. The most daunting odds she faced stemmed instead from her peaks-and-valleys encounters with school administrators and an ever-increasing mandate for educators to "teach to the test."

Sklaire is a gifted comedienne and the humor of this piece shines through brilliantly. She recounts her harrowing first day as a drama teacher in the South Bronx with great animation and her hilarious impressions of students, teachers, and parents bring a myriad of characters vibrantly and - ultimately - respectfully to life.

Ripple of Hope spotlights Sklaire's impassioned advocacy for retaining arts education in public schools. Home videos show clips of Sklaire's real-life students beaming with confidence on stage, complete with testimonials of their learning self-expression through dramatic performance. But each success is paired with matching frustration. Sklaire delves into a deeply painful experience at a Bronx-area high school where the principal contrived an untenable position in order to reclaim the drama class for testing purposes. Elementary school principals who guided their institutions with creative vision (the guitar-playing rocker at Hunts Point, for example, or the Richie Cunningham doppelgänger/musical theater devotee in Chinatown) were too often replaced by men and women consumed by a focus on standardized test scores. In spite of their proven benefits in all aspects of academic learning, Sklaire laments, arts programs are increasingly cut to make test preparation schools' main emphasis.

Director Padraic Lillis worked alongside Sklaire to craft a theatrical piece that is deliciously funny without losing its focus in comedy. Ripple of Hope is impactful and enlightening, engaging audiences as it provides an eye-opening look behind classroom doors and into the state of American educational system. Sklaire's performance is bright and energetic, her voice and message clear, and her resonant stories and experiences will linger with you long after she steps off stage.

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Ripple of Hope: One Teacher's Journey to Make an Impact played the Bobby Hackett Theatre at the Community College of Rhode Island Knight Campus for one night only, Friday, March 11, 2016. The production was sponsored by the Charles Sullivan Fund for the Arts and Humanities in association with the CCRI Players. For information about Ripple of Hope and Karen Sklaire's work with the Speak Truth to Power organization, visit www.rippleofhopeshow.com.

Photo Courtesy Karen Sklaire

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