About the Project
Love is not the battlefield here. Control is. The Pike Maneuver, or Power and the Practice of Teen Institutionalization, is a haunting one-act play about what happens when a young girl’s voice is dismissed, dissected, and ultimately institutionalized.
Inside a youth mental hospital where “breakfast is not an optional activity” and even a missing staple can signal crisis, one teen struggles to hold onto her sense of reality. And herself. Through fragmented memories, dark humor, and uneasy alliances, she reconstructs the worst day of her life: the day her father decided she was dangerous enough to disappear.
Blending sharp dialogue with moments of tenderness and quiet absurdity, The Pike Maneuver exposes the fragile line between care and control, protection and punishment. As the Teen navigates a system built to “help,” she begins to uncover not only why she was committed but who benefits.
A story about power, perception, and the quiet violence of not being believed. For anyone who has ever been told they were the problem.
Production Team
