STAGE WEST: "Everything You Need To Know About Abortion In One Hour Or Less," presented by TuYo Theatre

Wendy Hovland portrays a health teacher presiding over an important class in "Everything You Need To Know About Abortion In One Hour Or Less."                                        Photo courtesy of TuYo Theatre

            Woe to reside in Oklahoma. Among the 50 states, it’s eighth-lowest in median household income. Its schools are required in social science classes to teach that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. With very, very few exceptions, abortion is banned.
            It’s not alone when it comes to the latter. Currently, Oklahoma is one of 12 U.S. states that enforces strict bans on abortion.
            “Everything You Need To Know About Abortion In One Hour Or Less” is set in an Oklahoma high school. The socially conscious play written by five American playwrights (Justice Hehir, Dena Igusti, Phanesia Pharel, Nia Akilah Robinson and Julia Specht) calling themselves the Wish Collective is being presented in nine locations throughout the county by TuYo Theatre.
            The title’s off just a tad: The production, set on a high school campus in a locked classroom, runs five minutes longer than an hour, and maybe it doesn’t tell us everything we need to know about abortion, but it must come close. Every moment is maximized, as in the play a dauntless health science teacher (Wendy Hovland) and an equally committed athletics coach (Matthew Martinez Hannon) enlighten a group of teen students about women’s productive rights, resources, realities vs. fears and propaganda, and about how to provide presence and emotional support for those having an abortion.
            There’s even a lesson delivered with the help of an overhead projector (remember those?) that demonstrates to the students how deeply into human history abortion has existed and takes them up to where we are today in the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade. That same overhead projector is utilized to teach the teens about medical resources and referrals. On the interpersonal side, students are enlisted to role-play, to learn how to care for each other in abortion scenarios.
            The content is open and frank. The human drama in the play beneath all the teaching and myth-busting emerges in the back stories of the coach and of one of the young students. A little more would add some needed theatricality to the play, though admittedly in an hour there isn’t a lot of time for character expansion.
            The young actors are quite believable. They could be high school teens anywhere in America, not just in Oklahoma. If there’s anything at all that strains credibility it’s that not one cell phone, in any of their hands, is ever seen. But then maybe these fictional kids were asked to stow them before class. The listening was and is too important.
            On the evening I attended a performance, at Bayfront Charter High School in Chula Vista, I was the only male in the audience. It got me to thinking, as I departed afterward in the drizzling rain, that what “Everything You Need To Know About Abortion In One Hour Or Less” has to say isn’t just for females. We all need education and insight, and reminders to care without judgment.
            “Everything You Need To Know About Abortion In One Hour Or Less” will be presented through Jan. 28 at various locations. Go to the TuYo Theatre website for days, sites and times: tuyotheatre.org.