By SHARON EBERSON
Being made to feel “other” is no way to go through life, no less, to make it through four years of college.
In Ty Greenwood’s powerful new drama, Paradox of Education, a group of Black students discover that scholarships to a PWI — predominantly white institutions — come with student debt, living up to academic expectations and piles of obligations, along with shouldering racially-charged, passive-aggressive encounters and outright hostility.
Produced by Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company, in a dynamic directorial debut by Maurice Redwood, the play comes out of the gate swinging, and doesn’t let up.
Paradox of Education opens with a video touting the virtues of fictional Madison & Taylor College, then shifts into a condemnation by disillusioned students as they prepare to welcome — rather, warn — two newly arrived freshmen about what to expect for the next four years.
Supporting newcomers, along with the outside possibility of affecting change, is what keeps most of the upperclassmen going. We learn quickly that a previous member of their group has recently jumped ship for an HBCU (historically Black colleges and universities).
The cast brings a hard-hitting and heartbreaking authenticity to characters who are experiencing a profound disillusionment, until a pivotal event moves the dial for their small circle.
Krystal Waller as Ebony James emerges as the group’s leader, organizer and ardent activist. She is clear-eyed about attempts to keep African-American students in check, for example: demanding their time as recruiters as a condition of their scholarships.
Despite being grouped together for support, biracial, light-skinned Emmerson (Brenden Peifer) is under constant scrutiny for his attempts to fit in with both his worlds. Amon Jamaal’s Miles is particularly venomous in judging Emmerson, with Tajionna Clinton’s Zara a close second. The upperclassmen go so far as to spread their malice to the two newcomers, Makeda (Marissa Lily) and Xavier (Manny Walker).
Using flashbacks to their previously idealistic days, when they were interviewed after applying to become Black Excellence Scholars, we see each of the students gaining quick insights into what they will be up against.
The often condescending administrator (Melissa Edmond) conducting interviews suggests to Miles that he might prefer Communications to an English major, because the former is easier, and she tries to veer Xavier away from Philosophy, asking, “Do you play basketball?”
A memorable moment is when Lily’s Makeda is asked about her poem, “Don’t Touch My Hair,” and she replies, “I’m tired of white people touching my hair like I’m some sort of animal in a petting zoo.”
Lily then delivers a transcendent slam to anyone who thinks they have the right to touch her hair without permission.
Linking generations of inequity in education, the play includes transitional voiceovers, with Charles E. Timbers Jr. delivering the words of the late author-activist James Baldwin, who declared in 1963 that the “paradox of education” was about questioning, exploring and examining society, while the educational system was designed to create compliance.
When we learn that the school employs a single African-American professor, and that Black Studies classes are taught by white faculty members, Baldwin’s words resonate across more than a half-century.
At a time when support for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are under attack or has been rescinded as “discriminatory,” a play written just six years ago, Greenwood’s lyrical ode to injustices on college campuses speaks truth to those with the power to make change, but remain unmoved.
Along with voiceovers and flashbacks, intermittent videos by Redwood — a writer and filmmaker when he is not acting and now, directing — reveal the messaging of the college as well as campus protests.
The genre switches make for an energized two-hour-plus show, including intermission, with a long first act giving way to a quick and gut-wrenching conclusion.
The design of the space where the students gather is cushy, like an old-world men’s club, adorned with presidential portraits. The snacks for the meet-and-greet, however, are seen as a chintzy upgrade from previous years.
The language of Paradox of Education is not for the faint of heart, yet it rings with a truth of the characters’ youth, while out of earshot of disapproving adults.
Very early on, Ebony lets us know, “The food ain’t shit. The dorms are trash. The surrounding community is racist as fuck.”
There is racism at work within their sanctuary, too, where Emmerson is perceived as enjoying white privilege while staking a claim to the Black community.
In an eloquent monologue, gut-wrenchingly conveyed by Peifer, his character illustrates how perception and reality aren’t necessarily one and the same.
No one is spared the painfully hard lesson that is coming, redefining their purpose moving forward.
The message that rings out loud and clear is that on college campuses, as well as in all walks of life, we are still waiting for that “change is gonna come” that Sam Cooke sang about, not long after Baldwin’s speech about the paradox of education. Many have spent lifetimes fighting to make that change happen, and in each generation, new heroes emerge to pick up the ball, and run with it.
TICKETS AND DETAILS
The Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company premiere of The Paradox of Education is in the Carter Woodson Redwood Theater, Madison Arts & Entertainment Center, April 4 – 20, 2026. Tickets: https://www.pghplaywrights.org/season-info/paradox/.
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