Studio Theatre is delighted to welcome Awoye Timpo, who will be directing Pipeline, the third show in our main series. In this interview with Assistant Director Marielle Burt, Awoye discusses the power of Dominique Morriseau’s plays, the artists that inform her directing approach, and the resonance of this story in an election year.
I’m excited by plays that ask big questions, but don't give you answers—plays that make us wrestle with who we are, how we got here, and who we want to be. Pipeline does exactly that. It asks us to reckon with the promise of America and also recognizes the illusion of America. The characters are caught in a tug of war between the idea of how our country and our educational system should work to serve all students equally versus the reality. They are trying to make space for themselves or for their children to thrive in an educational system that is not always set up for that to happen.
I love the questions that came up in rehearsal yesterday: What happens if everyone in this play is absolutely right in their perspective? How do we move forward when our different understandings of what is right are at odds? Can love be a tool to move through these impasses? These questions are not necessarily answered in the play, but the pursuit propels every character.
Dominique has an incredible ability to harness big ideas into personal, everyday stories. In particular, I love her workplace plays. She creates situations where people who wouldn't ordinarily be in the same room come together. The collision of different histories and experiences challenges people to reckon with their perspectives and what they understand their place in the world to be. This dynamic is most evident in Skeleton Crew, which all takes place in one break room, but it’s also reflected in the club of Paradise Blue and the teachers’ lounge scenes in Pipeline. Dominique is also so attuned to how racism in America shapes our everyday lives and pursuits, and she expresses this with impeccable craft, humor, and love for her characters. It’s really beautiful. The canon of her work—The Detroit Cycle and her other plays that are brewing—together offer a stunning portrait of America.
Pipeline stands on the shoulders of a lot of artists. I feel the spirit of Dominique's writing predecessors lingering in the rehearsal room: August Wilson, Lorraine Hansberry, Ron Milner. These playwrights had such precision in their storytelling and a deep talent for capturing the voices of their communities. I’m using their work as reference points for understanding how Pipeline moves and how the character dynamics operate.
Dominique is also exploring the line between what is real and what is not real in Pipeline, following the legacy of writers like Adrienne Kennedy, Nikki Giovanni, and even Samuel Beckett. She’s interested in breaking familiar theatrical forms to invite us to see differently. As I’m curating what the production is going to look like and how it's going to feel, I’m drawing on all these theatrical and artistic ancestors.
The beauty of Pipeline is that doesn't take sides. I hope that many different people see themselves inside of the characters. It’s powerful to see your life on stage. I'm not a teacher, but I feel like Dominique renders this experience very truthfully—she doesn't paint pretty roses over it. I also hope the unanswered questions in the play will feel like an invitation into conversation. There is possibility in conversation, even if we don’t know exactly where it will lead us.
It's really interesting that we are doing Pipeline in an election season. The primary election is a battle between incremental change and completely transforming a system. The play is resonating on the same frequency as this conversation. Again, there are no answers in the play, but its questions are essential in this moment: Who are we? Who do we want to be? And how on God's green earth are we going to get there? What are the problems and injustices that we are willing to accept? What is our responsibility as citizens to make change? Of course, people have very different opinions about the best way forward for our country. It's all up for debate. But that's the territory that we're stepping into this year and this election season. There are painful and hard questions we have to face, but very necessary ones, and I hope Pipeline can help illuminate them.