Charles Sullivan Fund for the Arts and Humanities to Present Former Teacher's Solo Show RIPPLE OF HOPE This March

After a sold out run at this summer's New York International Fringe Festival, and recently named Best of the Festival and Audience Favorite at the Flying Solo Festival, former South Bronx public school drama teacher Karen Sklaire's RIPPLE OF HOPE: One Teacher's Journey to Make an Impact will have an encore performance in the Bobby Hackett Theatre at the Community College of Rhode Island Knight Campus in Warwick on Friday, March 11, 2016, at 7:30 PM. This exclusive local presentation is sponsored by the Charles Sullivan Fund for the Arts and Humanities, in association with the CCRI Players, and is free of charge.

Sklaire is currently a drama teacher at PS2 in Manhattan, and the show chronicles her trials and tribulations as an advocate of the arts in New York City's public school system.

Directed by Padraic Lillis (2013 Fringe NYC Overall Excellence Award-winner for Best Director for Bully, and 2013 Indie Theater Now Person of the Year), RIPPLE OF HOPE was named the "Best of Washington DC's Capital Fringe Festival" and voted "Best Performance" by DC Metro this past July.

In RIPPLE OF HOPE, a young idealist from Connecticut, inspired by "teacher-as-hero" movies, begins her career teaching drama in the South Bronx. In this autobiographical solo show, Karen navigates her way through the troubled NYC school system as she struggles to engage her challenging students with everything from "gangsta" improvisations to a rap version of Annie. Her dedication to her students and her desire to make a difference impels her to find a way to please an ever-changing administration in order to keep her job. She will soon realize that in a world of budget cuts, rubber rooms, and the common core, the question is not "What's wrong with me?" but, rather, "What's wrong with this system?"

Karen Sklaire is an actress, singer and comedienne who has toured the country with Theatreworks/USA and has been featured Off-Broadway at The Promenade Theatre, Town Hall, and The Soho Playhouse. She has performed standup comedy in clubs throughout New York City and has hosted such comedians as Judah Friedlander ("30 Rock") and Colin Quinn, as well as touring with comedian Rob Bartlett and the Bartlettes. She has appeared on "Saturday Night Live," "In the Mix," and on "The Imus in the Morning Show."

The Charles Sullivan Fund for the Arts and Humanities, created in honor of longtime CCRI professor and arts advocate Charles Sullivan, supports a variety of cultural, arts and humanities opportunities that benefit students, faculty and staff at the community college's four campuses. Past events sponsored by the Sullivan Fund have included performances at CCRI by Colleen Ballinger Evans (aka, Miranda Sings), Natalie Weiss, and Valerie Hager.

Click here to see a sneak peek of the performance!