Prototype Issue
Speech &Amp; Debate
Stage
Neighborhoods
Skirball Cultural Center
2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd.
Los Angeles
, CA
9004
Wednesday, May 14, 2008 -- 08:00 PM
Sex, secrets and performance art video blogs with a George Michael beat - just another typical day when you're a teenager in Salem, Oregon. L.A. Theatre Works records "Speech & Debate", the fiercely funny and timely new play by Stephen Karam that just completed an extended, sold-out run at New York's Roundabout Underground. Gideon Glick (Broadway's "Spring Awakening") reprises the role he created in the New York production; he is joined by Andrea Bowen (Julie Mayer on "Desperate Housewives", "Les Miserables" on Broadway) and Bobby Steggert (Outer Critics Circle nominee for Broadway's "110 in the Shade"). The final recording will air on LATW's nationally syndicated, weekly radio theater series, The Play's The Thing.
They may go to the same school, but misfits Solomon, Diwata and Howie have never met and their teachers and peers just don’t take them seriously - until a sex scandal involving one of their teachers brings them together. Soon they realize that three voices are stronger than one. And since their school has no speech and debate squad, maybe this is their chance to be heard at last - by the school and even the world.
"Speech & Debate" enjoyed a hugely successful and critically acclaimed run. The New York Times called it "A triumph… hilarious and immensely entertaining," while Variety wrote, "bristling with vitality, wicked humor, terrific dialogue and a direct pipeline into the zeitgeist of contemporary youth." New York's Newsday said, " 'Speech & Debate' beautifully nails the indirection and crossed-wire communication of teenagers bubbling over with contradictory needs and insecurities."
LATW Producing Artistic Director Susan Loewenberg was hooked. "The opportunity to do this play was one we couldn't pass up," she explains. "We scrambled to fit it into our spring schedule. The originality and passion of this young writer impelled me to include Stephen's work in our current season."
$20.00 to $47.00
310-827-0889
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