Review Fix Exclusive: Ronna Levy Talks “This Gonna Be on the Test, Miss?”

Review Fix chats with playwright Ronna Levy about the upcoming performance of her one-woman show, ‘This Gonna Be on the Test, Miss?’ at the Secret Theatre in Queens, New York on Oct. 30. In addition to discussing how the production has helped her grow as a person and performer, Levy discusses how she wants the audience to connect with the material and how important Community Colleges are to the future of America.

Review Fix: What makes this run special?

Ronna Levy: Well, I wouldn’t call this a run; it is just a single performance.  However, what makes it special for me is the chance to get out in front of an audience and tell my story and for the lucky audience members to hear this story.  Additionally, I get to perform a week before I leave for Baltimore for the Charm Fringe Festival. where I will have four performances.

Review Fix: What have you learned about yourself as a performer and writer through this performance?

Levy: I started to write about how I learned that I am a writer and I enjoy being in front of an audience, and I love how I have this outside life as a performer.  But the truth is–I learned that I had an idea to mesh performance with writing and education– and I did it.  If I want to do something, I can.

Review Fix: What are your long-term goals for this production?

Levy: I have a few ideas. One idea is that I’d like to take this show to various education conferences, maybe colleges, and fringe festivals throughout the country. The other idea is to write a book that combines this script, discussions and descriptions of other solo shows about education, a contextual piece about my process interspersed with scholarship on the community college, its population, its problems and successes.

Review Fix: How do you want it to affect people?

Levy: I want people, who think of college as a four-year institution with prepared students who will graduate and get jobs, to become cognizant of this invisible and marginalized population who cannot attend a four year institution right out of high school. I don’t necessarily have a “call to action”  like write your senators or give money to scholarship funds.  Rather I simply want the mainstream society to understand that my students, who are underprepared, socioeconomically disadvantaged,  and underrepresented want what they want and what their children want– an education, a stable future, and to be productive citizens.

Review Fix: Bottom line, why should someone check it out?

Levy: It’s funny, touching, refreshing, a different take on education. It’s certainly not your Hollywood, teacher-as-savior- happy-ending.  This show is reality.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Levy: I will be performing in the Charm City Fringe in Baltimore, November 11-15 and then I am going to Los Angeles in January (where teaching changed my life) for a performance in the Solofest at the Whitefire Theater.  And then who knows.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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