This is a Test (Stephen Gregg)

Unlike many of my fellow theater lovers I was not a “theater kid” growing up. My community didn’t have local theater and none of my schools did until I got to college, so there are many common touchstones or archetypes that crop up in culture that I have no personal reference for.

So one type of play which I am familiar with, but have rarely, if ever, done is the “written for schools” variety. A form of theater for young audiences, it’s written to be digestible for school aged students, often with large casts that would be impractical outside of a student body, and frequently short to allow for easy rehearsal and performance within tough public school schedules.

This is a Test is one of those shows. It isn’t particularly challenging, it is particularly interesting, but it is clearly written, acceptably funny, and has just the barest amount of risque humor to get tittles out of the audience, but not cross any actual lines.

The show is essentially a half-hour “I didn’t study for the test dream”, Alan is taking a test which gains more control over his future as it continues, and his inability to answer any question grows more absurd as well. It’s cute, it works, it was published in 1988 which hurts some of the popular culture references, but not as many as you might think.

I don’t need this sort of show in my life, but it does its job well and if I accidentally find myself in a high school again I could do a lot worse for an evening than sink into This is a Test.