Nikkole Salter

“When it became evident that we wouldn’t fall off the planet at the horizon

that the horizon is perpetual

it also became clear that the line is a lie…”

-Nikkole Salter (2020)

Playwright Biography

Actress Nikkole Salter as LaVinia Shaw Williams standing in a grassy field against a blue sky, holding a kayak paddle, wearing aviator sunglasses & heels, one foot raised and resting on a charcoal grill.

Nikkole Salter in the Huntington Theatre Company's production of Our Daughters, Like Pillars (2020) Photo: Nile Hawver

Salter "broke out" as a playwright with 2005's In The Continuum--a transatlantic tale scoping the HIV/AIDS epidemic through the twinned lenses of recently-diagnosed women in Zimbabwe and Los Angeles--which was co-written & performed by Danai Gurira. The play was first produced at Primary Stages and Perry Street Theatre under the direction of Robert O’ Hara. For this play, Salter and Gurira won an Obie Award and were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Best New American Play.

Los Angeles-born Nikkole Salter is an award-winning playwright, actor and arts activist. She received her BFA in Theater from Howard University and her MFA in Acting from the Tisch School at New York University. She has performed in numerous regional theatre, Broadway, and Off-Broadway productions. Most recently, she originated the role of "LaVinia Shaw Williams" in Our Daughter Like Pillars at the Huntington Theatre in Boston, MA.

A woman in a play sits in the foreground, looking from above glasses out towards the audience. In the background, another woman looks in a different direction.

Salter (foreground) and Danai Gurira in the Goodman Theatre's (Chicago, IL) production of In The Continuum, 2007. Photo: James Leynse

After In The Continuum, Ms. Salter founded The Continuum Project with playwright Glenn Gordon Nsangou. The Project’s mission is to provide “innovative cultural programming for the enchantment and empowerment of the global African Diaspora” (Continuum Project 2018). They began an arts education initiative, The Legacy Program, that fosters self-discovery and "positive ethnic identity development" in the globally dispersed descendants of the Slave Trade through the "specificity of their African ancestry" (Continuum Project 2018). The Legacy Program has been featured on the PBS series Finding Your Roots with Dr. Henry Louis Gates, and has expanded its residency to other NYC public schools (most recently, Harlem High School for the Arts).

Highlighted Play

Graphic by Valerie Sanchez

Lines in the Dust

Newark-born, affluent, Ivy-educated, African-American interim high school principal Dr. Beverly Long must decide whether or not to expel the daughter (Noelle) of Denitra Morgan, a less gaudily-educated African-American nurse living in an economically strangled Newark, after a deadly school shooting raises concerns of “residency fraud” in the wealthy, mostly white town of Millburn, New Jersey. Beverly, under pressure from a hostile school board and a virulent community group, hires retired Newark police lieutenant Mike DiMaggio, who quickly discovers Denitra’s fraud and Beverly’s complicity. The inherent cruelty, racism and double-standards that form the punchline to the education system's "Great American Joke" (Rubin 1976)--set up by the timing of the play's premiere on the sixtieth anniversary of Brown v. Board of Ed (1954)--are on display throughout. The play's title, fittingly, is a quote from the 1963 inaugural address of George Wallace (who may have misunderstood Mark Twain).

Connecting "Lines"

Activities • Performance Ideas • Discussion Questions

For Theater

Recommended Audience: Everyone.

Lines in the Dust is a beautifully written, powerfully affective play that would fit well in almost any season, theme or other theatrical context. Those listed below should be seen as merely a sampling.

School Productions: Performance of this play in middle schools, high schools and colleges will keep the light shining on the ongoing systems of inequality that are always-already present in the American Education Trade; and give students, teachers and the community a wide platform to address those problems and possible remedies. Scholastic populations for whom the concept of "district hopping" is foreign will encounter an opportunity to learn through fine art, while those for whom it is an everyday occurrence will have the opportunity to see their reality acknowledged, addressed and challenged. When those systems are dismantled, the play will remain a towering artistic achievement for young writers, actors and humans to strain themselves towards... while performing the eternal work of maintaining a horizontal cultural memory.
Community Theatre: Much the same reasons as above, with two significant differences: community theater enables taking the burden of representing/embodying traumatic experiences away from children; it also increases the likelihood of productions reaching the districts where the play most needs to be produced (i.e., the ones where the residency fraud problem is most severe, where the school boards may not be cooperative).
Collegiate Theatre: At a time when most are learning that their experiences are not universal--as well as verbalized concepts of canonicity and "greatness"--this play could/should absolutely be inserted.

For Education

Recommended Audience: All Ages (reading level Grade 6+)

Discussion Questions/Sample Activities

First: With little or no preparation--and preferably before reading the play--have students offer initial reactions to the title in an open brainstorm format. What comes to mind? What are the different flavors of lines? Dust? (If there is a relevant cover image to the version you are using, feel free to add this). Second: read the opening to Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, George C. Wallace's 1963 Inaugural Address and Yusef Komunyakaa's "Tu Do Street." Discuss the different "lines in the dust"--how are they distinct? Similar? Interrelated? What are the authors' goals in deploying the image? How do their notions of class, adulthood, and race influence their figurative language? Third: preferably after reading/at the end of the unit, return to the conversation and discuss how the play responds to each source--directly or indirectly--using the categories you've developed in parts 1 & 2 as well as any new structures.
First: Discuss the differing values Aristotle and Brecht hold for tragic catharsis. Have students re-read the final scene, and decide which definition fits the most. Second: As groups or individually, they will then write an epilogue scene that takes place two to three years later, from the perspective of Noelle. The scene must reveal what has become of all three main characters and Noelle, the overall state of the school districts of Newark and Millburn, and it must end with a Brechtian "challenge." Third: the playwright(s) must defend in a group discussion how their choices specifically respond to either a traditional or "epic" tragic development. Finally, students will outline immediate steps to be taken in response to their challenges.
Following Salter’s innovative use of varying grammatical tactics to indicate different relationships between characters, write a 3-character 12 line scene that communicates to an audience a given set of relationships, circumstances and conflicts using different types of interruption between every line. This could be used as a lesson in dramatic structure, a writing drill for a stuck playwright, or a group icebreaker/warmup activity. A variation could be done with live improvised lines as opposed to written.

*see Site Bibliography for source references and Additional Resources for... additional resources.

More by Nikkole Salter:

Graphic by Byron McCray

Carnaval (2010)

Three African-American men from Brooklyn travel to Rio De Janeiro for the eponymous festival. For different reasons, and in different ways, they each engage in the pervasive sex tourism/prostitution industry... changing their lives forever.

A graphic poster for the in-production play "Breakout Session." A hand, appearing white, is visible in the upper right, seemingly having placed post-it notes that--when combined--show the image of a Cleveland Police badge. Bottom left is a blue hand, a single yellow square resembling a post-it note containing a black question mark, and the play's title and author listed to the right.

Breakout Session* (2018/in development)

In the wake of the Cleveland Consent Decree with the US Dept. of Justice, a group of CPD police officers undergo empathy training, but can they trust the eager White facilitator and her anxious Black supervisor?

Example Academic & Theatrical Applications:

CARNAVAL

- Including Carnaval in a broader unit, course†, or season dedicated to the critical study of Négritude, postcolonialism, the African Diaspora and/or the concept of the “Black Atlantic” (Gilroy 1993, Ian Baucom 1997) would be particularly productive. Among other things, the play raises issues of sexed and gendered power--both in its authorship and its characters/plotting--that would be harmonically challenging to some of the more traditional (or trendy) entries in this field (Nascimento’s Black Orpheus, Césaire’s Une Tempête, Soyinka’s Lion and the Jewel, Dream on Monkey Mountain by Derek Walcott, Workshop ‘71 pieces, QPH/Sistren Theatre Collective etc).
- Raheem’s Act I, Scene 3 & Act II, Scene 4 monologues, Jalani’s in Act I, Scene 6, and Demetrius’ in Act I, Scenes 4, 6, & Act II, Scene 4 could all be used as study tools, discussion prompts or audition monologues.

†such as this recent class at NYU

BREAKOUT SESSION:

At the heart of the play Breakout Session is the issue of trust. This play can be used as an entry point with high school students to explore the issues of racism, social injustice, tokenism, official vs. unofficial rules and trust as a way to unpack our own unconscious biases. While the play has a realistic structure, the absurdist interludes where the characters take on animals representative of their identities and perceptions points to a need to be seen. A discussion with students on how they can begin to perceive each other is a launch point to building trust and mutual understanding. In addition, the theme of transformation could be a point of discussion as the “Life Coach” slowly transforms into the Mantis Shrimp, an animal that perceives colors that humans cannot.
Please note: this play is still under development, however as part of a playwriting unit, students could analyze the play’s structure and use of interruption in the dialogue. Also, students could be assigned one of the 5 characters and create a beginning, middle and ending freeze frames based on images from the original production. Through “Thought tracking”, students would then explore their character's thoughts, feelings and experiences to develop a monologue for the character, tracking the character’s points of action. Then students would recreate their tableau, each stepping out as their character and perform their monologue.

*Breakout Session- Please note-the playwright has urged us to note that the current version of the script that was produced in February 2020 is currently being overhauled and has the potential to change drastically.

Comprehensive Play List
(as of 6/2020)

Nolan Williams Project (NEWorks Productions Commission - libretto only)
Top of the Pyramid, 2016 (A.C.T. Young Conservatory Commission)
Indian Head, 2016 (NJPAC's NJ Stage ExChange Commission with Luna Stage)
Mahogany Corpo - 10 minute, 2015 (New Black Fest UNTAMED Commission)
Peace Officer Privilege - 10 minute, 2015 (New Black Fest UNTAMED Commission)
Torn Asunder, 2015 (Kathy A. Perkins & Prof. Heather Andrea Williams commission)
Freedom Rider, 2014 (University of Missouri, Kansas City Commission)
Lines in the Dust, 2014 (Luna Stage Commission)
The Princess and the Paparazzi, 2013 - one act (Strange Dog Theatre Commission)
Repairing a Nation, 2012
Of Great Merit, 2012 (Taft Museum of Art Commission)
Carnaval, 2010
In the Continuum (co-author), 2005

Site Bibliography

Aristotle, Tarán, L., & Gutas, D. (2012). Aristotles poetics: Editio maior of the Greek text with historical introductions and philological commentaries. Leiden: Brill.

Baucom, I. (1997). Charting the "Black Atlantic". Postmodern Culture, 8(1).

Camus, M. (Director). (1959). Black Orpheus [Motion picture]. Brazil, France: Lopert Pictures

Curran, A. (2001). Brecht's Criticisms of Aristotle's Aesthetics of Tragedy. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 59(2), 167-184. Retrieved June 20, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/432222

Diaries, R. (2013, January 10). 'Segregation Forever': A Fiery Pledge Forgiven, But Not Forgotten. Retrieved June 20, 2020, from https://www.npr.org/2013/01/14/169080969/segregation-forever-a-fiery-pledge-forgiven-but-not-forgotten

Gilroy, P. (1993). The black Atlantic: Modernity and double consciousness. Cambridge (Massachusetts): Harvard University Press.

Hamilton, H., & Salter, N. (2013, March 3). WBAI's Hugh Hamilton interviews Nikkole Salter about CARNAVAL on his show 'Talkback'. Retrieved June 20, 2020, from https://soundcloud.com/nikkolesalter/nikkole-salters-carnaval

Komunyakaa, Y., & Datta, G. (2005). [Bengali Characters] / Tu Do Street. Callaloo, 28(3), 748-749. Retrieved June 18, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/3805776

Nussbaum, M. (1992). Human functioning and social justice: In defense of Aristotelian essentialism. Political Theory, 20(3), 202-246.

Quentin, G. (2017, April 29). Obie-winning Nikkole Salter on Sex Tourism and "Carnaval". Retrieved June 20, 2020, from https://stagebuddy.com/theater/theater-feature/obie-winning-nikkole-salter-sex-tourism-carnaval

Ross, R. (2014, October 18). REVIEW: ILLUMINATING "LINES IN THE DUST" LIGHTS UP LUNA STAGE IN WEST ORANGE. Retrieved June 20, 2020, from http://www.njartsmaven.com/2014/10/review-illuminating-lines-in-dust.html

Rubin, Louis D., Jr. (1976). The Great American Joke. Humor in America. Ed. Enid Veron. New York: Harcourt. 255-65.

Salter, N. (2020, June 04). A Time Such As This. Retrieved June 20, 2020, from https://www.nikkolesalter.com/post/a-time-such-as-this

*Header quote is from this virtual address to the Theater Communications Group on June 4th.

Twain, M., & Cooley, T. (1999). Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: An authoritative text, contexts and sources, criticism. New York: Norton.