Separate and Equal

“A stunning portrayal of race relations told through a combination of storytelling, basketball play, and contemporary dance performed to an original jazz soundtrack...Prejudice is one of man's worst inclinations and this unique production brings the issue to light. Come courtside for a thought provoking, excellently performed theatrical experience...Powerful and moving production.” Full Review

"A remarkably tense, brilliantly acted, amazingly well-staged, and socially compelling play about basketball and race…Unusually well-honed production…Most remarkable are the basketball sequences, choreographed in awesome detail by Lawrence M. Jackson, and as gripping as anything on the E. 4th Street court in Greenwich Village…A complexly choreographed feast of dribbling, passing, possession (signaled by clapping one's hands), blocking, leaps, twists, fakes, falls, fouls, and shots." Full Review

"Has there ever been more said with a conjunction than with the title of the play, 'Separate and Equal'? Substituting an 'and' for the more usual 'but,' speaks volumes about the worthwhile venture written and directed by Seth Panitch. Though it's often a mistake for one person to take on both jobs, in this case the director Panitch knows exactly what the playwright wants, and delivers with always interesting results." Full Review

"Playwright Seth Panitch has a master’s command of the form...Lawrence Jackson’s choreography is skillful. It’s hard to believe the shenanigans on the court are practiced and not improvised...Players Will Badgett and Ted Barton are especially notable here, playing multiple roles with skill and professionalism...There’s a brilliant moment when the six players have finally shed their anger and are all in, playing for the sheer love of the game." Full Review

“Occasionally, there are moments when ‘Separate and Equal's’ sleek concept feels overstuffed... Most of the time, it works both as volatile drama and a devastatingly accurate assessment of racial wounds that still fester. The play is founded on a troubling paradox...One watches in nervous anticipation, knowing that something terrible will happen. It's a tribute to Panitch's invention -- and the work of this fine company -- that when it finally does, it is thoroughly unexpected." Full Review

"One might say that stars of the production, in addition to the excellent actors, are choreographer Lawrence M. Jackson and writer-director Seth Panitch...The personal lives of the youths and related or close adults are intertwined with the action, which expands the drama and provides insight into backgrounds and crises. But the genius of the writing and direction is using the court symbolically as a civil rights battleground." Full Review

“Panitch’s hard hitting, sometimes heavy-handed drama takes place in Birmingham in the 1950’s, when separate was a fact of life and equal a non-starter.,,Panitch elicits strong performances all around. ‘Separate and Equal’ is often less than clear...Yet for all its lapses, the play is a potent memento of the legacy of segregation.” Full Review

"The sketchy portrayal of the adult characters is problematic and makes the play feel unfinished. Nevertheless, the playwright is to be commended for the inventive use of a basketball game as a metaphor for the troubled history being depicted and for bringing together the themes of camaraderie, resentment, potentially violent competitiveness...Despite its shortcomings, ‘Separate and Equal’ is a worthy entry in the ongoing examination of race relations in America.” Full Review