laywright Arden Kass doesn’t just want you to know the statistics regarding school funding disparities in Pennsylvania — that the state’s poorest schools receive 33 percent less in state and local funding per pupil than the richest schools. She wants you to feel them.

“When you are presented with news reporting and statistics and graphics, it’s very easy to distance yourself from the problems in the public schools if you happen to be a Pennsylvania resident who doesn’t have kids exactly in a public school,” said Kass, who currently has one child in the Philadelphia public school system and another who recently graduated. “But what theater can do is humanize things and intellectualize things and get to people’s hearts.”

Kass is the co-creator of “School Play,” which showcases a series of monologues from characters who have been hurt by the slashing of school budgets. Their stories are based on interviews with more than 100 individuals, including teachers, students and parents

The production — which Kass developed with fellow playwright Seth Bauer and director Edward Sobel — made its debut in a Philadelphia theater in early April. “School Play” ran for only a few nights in Philly, but it is the hope of Kass and her collaborators that people around the country will use the script to promote school funding in their own communities. The goal is 20 performances of the play between now and June.

Scroll down to listen to audio from “School Play.”

The idea for the play grew out of Kass’ volunteer work in 2013 with Public Citizens for Children and Youth, an advocacy group that ultimately funded the development of the show. Kass was helping PCCY in its effort to deliver letters from schoolchildren to state lawmakers. The letters contained pleas to increase school funding.

“I found the kids’ voices so powerful. I really couldn’t stop thinking about them,” said Kass.

When she mentioned her idea for the play, PCCY jumped at the opportunity to get involved.

“We were looking for a way to bring the school funding crisis happening in Pennsylvania and also across the country into the homes and communities in every part of this state,” said Donna Cooper, executive director of PCCY. “We expose problems, but I was looking for a vehicle that would get out of people’s heads and get into their hearts.”

Below are “School Play” monologues recorded by two of the actresses for The Huffington Post. In the first, actress Jaylene Clark Owens speaks as character Marlene Goebich, a drama teacher.

Huff Post – April 18, 2015 – Read article online