Did You Do Your Homework?
Good morning, gentle readers,

Last Saturday, I attended the opening of a new one-man play called Did You Do Your Homework, part of Camelot Artists New Voices series.

Written by and starring Aaron Braxton, and directed by one of my favorite artists, Kathleen Rubin, Did You Do Your Homework, is the journey of one substitute teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Mr. Braxton plays multiple characters flawlessly and fully, regardless of gender or age or racial background. My favorite character was Loquita, an outspoken, attitude-ridden and emotional teenager. Without giving away the plot, Mr. Braxton’s all-out emotional portrayal of her reaction to an event in the play without the use of one single prop or costume change left me breathless with admiration and empathy for her. Even more admirable was Mr. Braxton’s back and forth switch to and from his own character trying to comfort her in the midst of an outpouring of emotion.

Ms. Rubin’s direction of Mr. Braxton as well as her use of the sparse stage, along with minimal but extremely effective use of minimal props, and costume changes were something of a marvel.

The thought that occurred to me as I was watching this show is that governor and the entire legislature of the State of California, which seems hell bent on cutting more and more much needed funding to our education system, need to take an evening off their busy schedules of budget cutting and educational short-changing, come see this show, see what the experiences of a real teacher are, and get an idea about what the reality of today’s public school system is. Maybe they’ll understand that cutting educational funding is NOT the way to guarantee California’s future generational contributions, because if the reactions of the teachers in the audience are any indication, Mr. Braxton has it right, and attention needs to be paid immediately.

Did You Do Your Homework is running Friday and Saturday evenings at 8:00 through March 28, 2009. The address is The Beverly Hills Playhouse Research Space, 254 S. Robertson Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 90211. To make reservations, call (310) 358-9936 or visit www.plays411.com. Running time is 75 minutes.

Travis