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Teachers have never had it easy.

I began writing this play back in 2017 as a personal, pressure-valve exercise, during a particularly challenging year while working in one of America's public schools.

Since its first draft was completed, the Covid pandemic seemed to accelerate many of the challenges facing educators. Today, they are called upon to be mental health first responders, have become political targets of heated curriculum debates and book banning, and are now literally caught in the crossfire of an unsettling surge in gun violence.

It has been encouraging to discover, during the play's many developmental stages, that the story not only resonates with teachers, but with parents, students, school administrators and support staff.

At its core, ACCOMMODATION explores how many American educators continue to feel in this moment: overwhelmed, undervalued, and disrespected. While I've personally enjoyed my three decades of service as a classroom teacher, there are those out there, like Celeste Dawkins, who are finding that the job has now grown untenable, and unsustainable. And many of them are leaving the profession.

Educators have always been people who care deeply about the welfare of children... and there's no question: we need them now more than ever.