Review: SCHOOL PICTURES at Theater Latté Da

In Milo Cramer’s searing one person show, School Pictures, they carefully and masterfully bring to life the stories of ten different students that they had the pleasure of tutoring for many years in New York City. Cramer ditches the standard monologue style that most one person shows take on and instead opts to share the stories through a series of songs, while accompanying themsleves on a variety of instruments.

Through each song, the audience is given a glimpse behind the closed doors of the New York students seeking an upper hand and how, even though their families can afford a private tutor, they may not be able to afford their parents’ version of happiness or success.

While each student has their own struggles and fears of the world, they all have one thing in common: a steady friend, mentor, and confidant who is just trying to help them make sense of a world that we are all still trying to figure out.

While Cramer never paints themselves as a savior to the students, they certainly demonstrate how tutors and educators alike can provide comfort and understanding that sometimes is neglected to be offered by a parent.

Throughout their 75 minutes on stage, Cramer exudes charisma and charm that permeates the entire piece. This was especially evident when they suffered a minor technical error on stage and they instantly improvised with a chuckle and a nod to the audience adding cheekily, “well this has never happened before”. It is no difficult task to see why Cramer just recently took home an Obie Award, the annual awards given by The Village Voice newspaper to theater artists and groups involved in off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway productions in New York City, for his masterful piece. Also, their director, Morgan Green, was awarded for their work on the show.

Although the show is mainly stories about the students that Cramer tutored, they allowed the piece to also speak to their incredible knowledge on poetry and literature. In one of their pieces, they take a break from their wonderful songs to offer a strikingly poignant monologue regarding a question that was posed to one of the students, “Is Othello racist?”. In the next few minutes, the audience is provided a mesmerizing thesis that is split into three short answers to this question. Note: This section alone was worth the price of admission.

The piece, though hilarious for the majority of it, all comes to a head when the audience is finally shown a segment simply titled, “Big Reveal”. What follows is a heart wrenching explanation of why all of these students need a tutor and what that means for their futures and the futures of all of their schoolmates. It is the most explosive portion of the piece and should be experienced and not explained here. Needless to say, it certainly is a dynamic conversation starter and one that should/will be discussed for days afterwards.

To post a comment, you must register and login.