The Monkey Jar

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http://www.theatre40.org

The action of The Monkey Jar takes place around a charter elementary school in an upscale, predominantly white neighborhood in California with the focus on a firestorm of parent/teacher/administration reactions that ensue when an Asian-American ten-year-old (adopted son of Jewish parents) brings a gun to class and allegedly uses it to threaten his (Japanese) Fourth Grade teacher. Though the outcome should be obvious -- "bring a gun to school, get expelled"-- the matter is complicated by issues of race and sexual preference, and most significantly, the community's manifest desire to maintain the school's pristine reputation. All of which leaves the first-year African-American principal in a quandary as to how to determine the truth...and then strike a balance between what is expedient and what is right.