Spinning Into Butter

In struggling with the problems of minority students, including harassment, college administrator Sarah Daniels confronts her own intractable prejudices in this fundamentally serious play, which includes elements of satire and farce. The actors do well by their sometimes broadly painted characters, with Jordan Baker a convincing, sympathetic Sarah (though minorities may find her struggles to tolerate them unsympathetic). Musical cues make scene and act divisions clear; the live audience's reactions are welcome, except for laughter at purely visual cues. Some scenes, at their start, sound hollow, as if recorded in a barrel, but that passes. A partially hopeful ending does not convince, but the play remains entertaining and thought-provoking--fun with a spine. W.M. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine