This week, I have found a good play at the Paul D. Schreiber Center of Performing Arts, located on Campus: Hey Little Walter by Carla Debbie Alleyne. This play is about love, hate, drug dealing, and all others. You, the reader, may be wondering what make the play so great that I would recommend here. Before continuing, I would like to give a brief description on the author.

    Alleyne was born on November 4^th, 1971, in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. During her years in high school, many of her friends were dying because of the thirst on money. Why? Many people (in high school?) then earn only about $3 an hour for doing a regular job; therefore, some of them tried another way of earning money: Drug-dealing.

    Although this kind of activities were (and are) dangerous or could be fatal, (!) some still consider this as an activity that worth its risks. The author had her own idea in her mind on these activities. "Yeah, it's better than making $3.35 an hour, but is a few bucks worth your life?" so, when Alleyne was only 16 years old, she wrote this play. This play then went on to win the 1989 Young Playwrights Festival. "Wow! Finally something I'm good at." Says in her introduction to her play.

    In this play, there was a boy named Walter, who had a best friend named Rakim. During the beginning of the play, Rakim was trying to convince Walter to Deal "poisons": "Damn! Crime is exciting." At first, Walter didn't want to deal drugs, as if it was a dishonest act. He even told Rakim, "You call selling poison to people honest?"

    But later, Walter's girlfriend, Nicky, broke up with him because he didn't have enough money, and also, Walter wanted to make more money so he could enjoy higher qualities of materials, and eventually, leads him to the "not honest" way. "Meanwhile, under the table (it's true!) there were someone listening: it was Albert, Walter's younger brother, and he wanted to start the "business" too.

    In contrast, Rakim, who originally interested in his "job", was changed by an incident: Rakim's cousin, who was already into the business, shot, believed was done by his adversary on the market. Thereafter, Rakim cared about his family, and, more affectively, his life; he chose to get out of the stage. And after that: "You just wait and see. Just wait and see."

    Overall, all scenes in this play are good and quite interesting to me. In many cases, the language used in this play really reflects the voice of "a lot of Nickys, Walters, and Rakims." "For generations we were poor. They kept us down and took everything we ever possessed. But now we got something and ain't no way they could stop us, Rakim, we're getting paid in full. You said that, man! Remember!"

    The actors in this play were excellent. Richard Miglietta, who play as Walter, Ariela Wurtzel, who play as Nicky, and others in this play, showed great talents in their performance. The Auditorium in the Paul D. Schreiber Center for Performing Arts is air conditioned year round during performances, and so the suggestion of bringing a jacket should be considered.

    This play is, considerably, a fairy tale for teens, that speaks out for the teens in Brooklyn; it may be well applied to today's teens in not only in Brooklyn, but also in Queens, Bronx, Manhattan, Richmond, and even right here in Nassau. There are still people around here, who sells, who uses, and who profits from these poisons. In a passive or direct relation, somehow this play seems to ties to our minds. At this time, I would like the people mentioned in above, and their parents, to have, even if it is just a glance, on Hey Little Walter.