School of Pike St.
In previous posts, we’ve offered a quick look at Nilaja Sun’s background on stage and on screen. But in addition to being an acclaimed performer, Nilaja is an accomplished teaching artist, who uses the skills of her craft to instill knowledge and build community.
In partnership with city arts education programs and the work of great companies like Epic Theatre Ensemble, Nilaja has developed and taught classes and workshops in arts-poor urban environments. She frames her own plays (No Child…, Pike St.) as pedagogical opportunities, too. After all, they model a form of theatre that doesn’t require a big budget or special effects to harness the power of storytelling, a form of theatre that can be replicated anywhere — from the multi-purpose rooms of schools across America to the Rikers Island prison complex, where Nilaja has also taught class.
If you’re not familiar with No Child…, its protagonist is named Ms. Sun. Ms. Sun is a visiting teacher in a 10th grade classroom at Malcolm X High School in the Bronx. Like Pike St., it’s a one-person show with multiple characters — and from a performance standpoint, it is a wonderful tightrope act to behold.
The play is inspired by Nilaja’s years of experience with arts education initiatives in New York City schools. It’s deeply funny and heartfelt, but holds no punches in its account of the harrowing experiences students and teachers face in under-resourced public schools across the country.
Arts education plays a role in Pike St., as well: it was developed at the Abrons Arts Center at the Henry Street Settlement, where Nilaja herself took art, dance, and music classes as a child.
“Again,” I can still hear my Russian piano teacher echoing, the smell of her cigarette-scented hands directing my fingers. “Again! Until it is right.” With tears in my eyes, I practiced religiously until I got it. 30 years later, I can still hear her words in my mind as I rehearse Pike St. a floor above that piano room. I’ll rehearse until it is right. — Nilaja, developing Pike St.
To learn more about Nilaja’s work, check out her interview with the Teaching Artists Guild below. Speaking for Woolly, we are so immensely proud to be hosting an artist like Nilaja Sun, whose work means so much more than just entertainment (although, truthfully, it’s pretty entertaining too).
