Sanaz Toossi’s play “English” was just nominated for a bunch of Tony awards. Specifically: Best New Play, Best Direction, Best Featured Actress (x2) and Best Scenic Design. As most readers know, this play is set entirely in a classroom where students are preparing for the TOEFL Test. I’ve been rather obsessed with it since spotting a review in the New Yorker back in early 2022. It’s gone from success to success since then, winning the Pulitzer Prize for drama, debuting on Broadway and now the aforementioned Tony nominations.
It is worth noting that while this is a play about the TOEFL, the folks behind the Duolingo English Test were very quick to wholeheartedly embrace and support the production. They sponsored the Broadway show, sent free tickets to anyone who asked for them, stuck an insert into PlayBill and had their weird mascot walk the red carpet. How many new registrations for the DET did this lead to? Probably zero,** but it did create enthusiasm, goodwill and community. As I’ve written time and again, these are critically important for test products.
Interestingly, I haven’t heard a peep about the play from New Jersey. This is the best and buzziest depiction of an ETS product since 1988 so I’m legitimately curious why, it seems, no one thought to get involved in some way. It would have been a slam dunk, I think.
**I asked a real live zoomer why he opted for the DET and his response was “that f—- green bird is everywhere.” So maybe the sponsorship did help generate a few test registrations.