As New York theater begins to reopen, The Civilians will be returning to in-person presentations with a workshop of its own. Ethan Lipton’s Talent Show is a musical composed of songs inspired by interview with teachers, parents, and administrators on the state of public education in America, each reimagined as a performance in a talent show hosted by children. “I have this powerful memory of singing folks songs with my dad (a high school teacher) at my elementary school talent show,” Lipton said of his inspiration for the show’s framework. “That setting struck me as a fun and open-hearted place for people to speak their truth on a complicated issue, so I decided to explore it as a framework, and the show sort of opened up from there.”
The project originally began in a residency with The Civilians at Duke University, during which Lipton and the company interviewed people on all sides of the charter school issue. However, Lipton’s relationship with the topic began far earlier. “I have a lot of educators in my family, teaching on every level from elementary to graduate school. Education is an issue I grew up thinking about. Charter schools are part of a movement in this country to put public institutions into private hands with the intention of offering better services. I wanted to look at whether they’re delivering on that promise, and at what cost.”
With this subject in mind, they set out into North Carolina, gathering testimony from those administrators and decision-makers who would eventually become the musical talent of Talent Show. For several years, though, the idea of creating such a line-up of songs from that material would not cross Lipton’s mind. “For a long time I tried to stay out of the way, to let the people we interviewed speak entirely for themselves. But I couldn’t make the show theatrical that way, and in our universe, when a show doesn’t find its theatricality, it’s actually harder for audiences to hear it. Then one day during a long walk to the 92nd Street Y, I realized I needed to turn many of the show’s monologues into songs — not to veer away from the voices of the people we spoke to, but to amplify them.”
And hearing every one of those voices is ultimately what Lipton wants from his talent show-goers. “I hope audiences have a good time and learn some things, and find voices to empathize with on all sides of the issue. But more than anything, I hope they interrogate their own ideas about public education, and public institutions more broadly.”
A work-in-progress showing of Talent Show directed by Jade King Carroll will be held on December 13th at A.R.T./New York. To learn more, click here. “This show has a lot of good dumb jokes!” Lipton added. “I mean, like, a lot of them!”
Extended Play is a project of The Civilians. To learn more about The Civilians and to access exclusive discounts to shows, visit us and join our email list at TheCivilians.org.
