Speech & Debate May 14, 2008

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."

For three decades, L.A. Theatre Works has been the leading radio theater company in the United States, committed to using innovative technologies to preserve and promote significant works of dramatic literature and bringing live theater into the homes of millions. LATW's radio theater series, The Play's The Thing, airs weekly on 89.3 FM KPCC in Southern California; 89.7 WGBH in Boston; 91.5 FM WBEZ in Chicago; 94.9 KUOW in Seattle; 93.5 FM KRTS "Marfa Public Radio" in Texas; 90.5 FM KUT in Austin;88.9 FM KUNM in Albuquerque; 94.1 KPFA in Northern California; 91.1 FM KRCB in Sonoma County; 89.1 KUOR in Redlands; as well as on many other public radio stations nationwide and XM Satellite Radio. Selected programs from LATW are also heard internationally over BBC World Service, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio Telefis Eirann (Ireland), Radio Hong Kong, and Radio New Zealand. The L.A. Theatre Works Audio Theatre Collection is available in bookstores, libraries, through their catalog, digitally on itunes, overdrive.com, audible.com, and on the L.A. Theatre Works website at www.latw.org.

Performances of "Speech & Debate" take place on Wednesday, May 14 at 8 pm; Thursday, May 15, at 8 pm; Friday, May 16 at 8 pm; Saturday, May 17 at 3 pm; and Sunday, May 18 at 4 pm. Tickets range from $20.00 to $47.00. The Skirball Cultural Center is located at 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd, off the San Diego (405) Freeway in the Santa Monica Mountains (exit Skirball Center Drive). For tickets and information, call the L.A. Theatre Works box office at (310) 827-0889 or go to www.latw.org.

Official Website: http://www.latw.org