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A DRAMATISTS PLAY SERVICE TITLE
Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 3w, 3m, 1 any gender (adult)
Dave Harris
Five Black high school students are stuck in detention on the Friday before a long weekend. Business is as usual until Erika, the college-bound star of the worst high school in the city, shows up to her very first detention. A dramatic comedy that attacks the issue of surviving in an institution that was not built for you.
How do you make it through detention? In the worst high school in the city, six Black students are stuck in Room 111. They flirt. They fight. They tease. Should they follow the rules and stay put, or find an escape? Are the walls keeping them in, or are stronger forces at play?
Five Black high school students are stuck in detention on the Friday before a long weekend. Business is as usual until Erika, the college-bound star of the worst high school in the city, shows up to her very first detention. As the play progresses, we learn why each of them has been sentenced to seemingly never-ending detention. Exception to the Rule attacks the issue of surviving in an institution that was not built for you. Maybe you smoke some weed in detention. Maybe you find love in detention. Maybe you wait for something to change in detention. But no matter how we survive, maybe we're all stuck here together.
Exception to the Rule premiered off-Broadway with Roundabout Theatre Company as part of Roundabout Underground at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre in 2022. Directed by Miranda Haymon, the production featured MaYaa Boateng, Malik Childs, Mister Fitzgerald, Toney Goins, Amandla Jahava and Claudia Logan.
INTERCOM – An adult voice, any race.
MIKAYLA – she/her, Black, high schooler.TOMMY – he/him, Black, high schooler.DAYRIN – he/him, Black, high schooler.DASANI – she/her, Black, high schooler.ABDUL – he/him, Black, high schooler.ERIKA – she/her, Black, high schooler.
An inner-city classroom. Present day.
“A Breakfast Club for the modern high school – quicker, crasser and funnier.” – The New York Sun
“High-school detention has no business being as entertaining as it is in Exception to the Rule, a terrifically funny and subtly potent play.” – The Wall Street Journal
“Explosive, schadenfreude-inducing and hilarious... Everyone should see this play.” – New York Theatre Guide
Exception to the Rule – About the Show, Roundabout Theatre Company
Exception to the Rule – Virtual Theatre Talk with Roundabout Theatre Company
Dave Harris is a poet and playwright from West Philly. Selected plays include Tambo & Bones (LA Drama Critics Award for Best New Play, TimeOut London’s Best Plays of 2023), Exception to the Rule (Roundabout Theatre Company, 2022) and Tender (Soho Theatre, 2026). His first fea ...
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