Pipeline by Dominique Morisseau

Author:Dominique Morisseau [Morisseau, Dominique]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781559365871
Publisher: Theatre Communications Group
Published: 2018-02-15T05:00:00+00:00

(Omari fights the urge to cry.)

I don’t know, Ma. I just came back.

NYA: I see.

(A moment of silence.)

OMARI: You been smokin’.

NYA: You’ve been fighting.

OMARI: I—

…

…

You wanna hear? Or you even care.

NYA: Don’t do that, Omari.

OMARI: Do what?

NYA: Ask if I care. Put this on me. Deflect. That is not going to float right now.

OMARI: I’m not trying to deflect, Ma. I’m askin’ if you care to hear or if you prefer not to hear cuz maybe the details won’t make it better right now.

NYA: I always care.

OMARI: I’m not saying you don’t.

NYA: Then yes. Tell me the gory details. I want to know what devil got into your hands and made you attack your teacher.

OMARI: You don’t understand, Ma.

NYA: Make me.

OMARI: I wanna start by sayin’ I’m not justifying. There is no way to—I’m not justifying. But everything I say now is just the how. You know? The how and why. But not the excuse. I’m not making none of those no more. I’m done.

NYA: So give me the how.

OMARI: I couldn’t see straight. That’s what I know for sure. It’s like I went blind for a second. No insight and no outer. I was just trying to get through the week.

NYA: What blinded you, Omari?

OMARI: He kept questioning me. In class.

NYA: Questioning you how?

OMARI: Didn’t feel like being bothered. I said that to him, Ma. I told him I wasn’t in the mood for being questioned.

NYA: Omari, he’s your teacher. He has the right—

OMARI: Nah … he don’t. Not how he was doin’ it. Been doin’ it a lot and I was sick of it. We get to discussing the reading. Native Son—Richard Wright. And he start asking questions. What made Bigger Thomas kill that woman? What were his social limitations? What made the animal in him explode? And who he lookin’ at when he askin’ all these questions, Ma. Who he lookin’ at?

NYA: Omari.

OMARI: Like I’m the spokesperson. Like I’m Bigger Thomas. Like I’m predisposed or some shit to knowing what it’s like to be an animal.

NYA: Omari, watch your mouth.

OMARI: You hear me though? You hear what he doin’? He start picking me out. Askin’ me to answer. What did I discover when reading the text.

NYA: He’s your teacher. He’s supposed to ask you about the text, Omari!

OMARI: Nah, he ain’t. He ain’t just questionin’ me about Native Son. He ain’t just talkin’ text. He sayin’ somethin’ else. Something beneath the question and it’s like I’m the only one who can hear it.

NYA: That doesn’t give you the right to lose your cool, Omari. That doesn’t give you the right to be the animal.

OMARI: But it’s all he seein’. Won’t leave me alone. I said, Mr. don’t pick on me today. I ain’t got nothin’ to offer. But he won’t leave me alone.

NYA: A teacher is supposed to engage you. Even when you don’t feel like it. That’s the teacher’s job. I’ve told you that repeatedly.

OMARI: We not talking a teacher doin’ their job. We talkin’ provoking. We talkin’ agitating.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.