Alan Aymie's A Child Left Behind

LA WEEKLY names it “PICK OF THE WEEK!” Joestraw#9 raves, “Run to see
this show!” LA TIMES hails it as “Compelling!…First rate!…” After a
successful tour of the national’s capital, a critically acclaimed
extended run at Beverly Hills Playhouse and an engagement at the Ruskin
Group Theatre in Santa Monica, Santa Monica Playhouse welcome’s Alan
Aymie’s celebrated production to The Other Space.

It was time to speak up. When LAUSD teacher and playwright Alan Aymie
was given his second pink slip from the school district that he had
worked in for a decade, and was later “graded” by the LA Times he
decided that it was time to provide a voice for the teaching
professional. While painting a dynamic and powerful portrait of the
daily challenges teachers face in Los Angeles, Aymie also takes a
poignant look at his own experiences of trying to teach his son who was
recently assessed with Asperger’s Syndrome. A dramatic response to the
LA Times’ Value Added teacher ratings, A Child Left Behind is a
teacher’s personal journey of trying to be an effective educator while
parenting a special needs child, and learning what it takes to be
taught. “Here I was working to be a good teacher,” explains Aymie, “yet
the person (my son) who I really needed to teach I couldn’t reach.”

Writer/performer ALAN AYMIE is an award-winning playwright (Rap –
AAPEX Best New Play). A Child Left Behind was developed through the
Katselas Theatre Company’s Skylight Theatre INKubator New Play
Development Program and marks Aymie’s first solo piece since his
critically acclaimed Child’s Play (“powerful, touching, and funny,” LA
Times). It has been seen at the HBO Workspace, the Aspen Comedy
Festival, PSNBC and various theaters in Los Angeles, Ojai, New York,
Washington DC, Boston, and Colorado.

Director PAUL STEIN has helmed numerous one-person shows in LA, San
Francisco, New York and Toronto including productions at United Solo,
soloNova, Summer Works Festival, U.S. Comedy Arts Festival and Hollywood
Fringe. His latest directed solo show, Antonio Sacre’s The Next Best
Thing, won “Best Storyteller” at United Solo and was nominated for a
2012 LA Weekly Award for Solo Performance. Stein is the Artistic
Producer and Conceiver of The Car Plays with recent presentations at
RADAR LA, Segerstrom Center and The La Jolla Playhouse. He is the
Artistic Director of the Comedy Central Stage in Hollywood.

Santa Monica Playhouse programs are sponsored in part by the City of
Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Arts Commission, by the Los Angeles
County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts
Commission and by US Bank.