Wrong Answer

UMass PhD candidate, Darius Taylor, tackles stakeholders' voices in high stakes testing on stage in his play, Wrong Answer. Wrong Answer is an interactive, multiform theatrical experience that follows two lead characters as they navigate performance testing that's steeped in a tradition of strong anti-black bias, tests that still don't reflect individuals holistically. Its an art-based community intervention that highlights the challenges with testing in the black and brown communities who all too often fall victim to detrimental outcomes for being at the lower end of the educational achievement gap.

Wrong Answer is a plea for equity and justice in a time when there is little. Through spoken word, singing, video, and workshopping, it's a play that challenges audiences to ask who standards are based on and if standardization is the right way to go.

Play writer, Darius Taylor

Audiences enter UMass's Africana House and are led down a dark stair case as the cast sings slave spirituals that once echoed through plantations.

Black man looks down at a lit candle in the closing of a gospel song.

Black man opens his arm out while singing to guide the audience down the stairs into the theater.

Guest looks up at those around him as he passes through the stair case filled with spirituals.

The cast sings black spirituals in the stair case, welcoming guests.

Once down the stairs, viewers have to pass through a metal detector where they are stopped at random. After entering, they take their seats while a teacher tells them to sit down and take a test on implicit bias, before playing a film on the history of testing.

Hands holding a clipboard and pencil

TV playing a video on the history of standardized testing. The screen shows the face of a young black boy

With the loud ring of a school bell, the scene immediately ends, immersing the audience instantly into the start of the play.

Mikey, having just walked out of his exam, reluctantly listens to his principle, Dr. Gray

Main characters, Mikey and Nay, are both high schoolers prepping for the SATs. After walking out on the exam, Mikey confides in his principle that the test questions feel irrelevant and that even the teacher he's been with all year sounds scripted and robotic. He doesn't understand how an exam that's so sterile and standardized can capture all of him.

That look like my 11th grade Teacher Ms. E But somethin don’t seem to line up for me somethin is different Maybe it could be that she hella scripted “What’s that you readin?” “What’s this, whatchu sayin?” Ms. E is this another game we playin?

Meanwhile, Nay has spent her life studying for it, playing a game that was rigged against her in an attempt to beat the system.

Main character, Nay, listens to principle Dr. Gray as he tells her that, even though the tests were normalized off predominately white, suburban groups who were raised to excel at these assessments, that it doesn't matter. She'll always be tested.

We fought to integrate into THEIR systems Because when we tried to thrive on our own they shut it down! But they still want to keep us in chains.

Mikey wakes up and puts on his coat for school

Stage hand adjusts lighting

Cast rearranges chairs before breaking into dance

Teacher pleas against the tests that cause her students so much stress

Student sits shell shocked in a spotlight before his exam

Student outreaches his hand in a plea

Students stand on their chairs, holding hands in unison, each looking out

Students stand on their chairs, holding hands in unison, looking towards each other

Black student holds his hands up and prays on his knees

Black student smiles at his brother and flicks his wrist to imitate shooting a basketball

Teacher looks out nervously

After walking out on his exam, Mikey and Dr. Gray have an emotional