THE DEBATE (completed in 2021) by
3 Characters
2 White Older Men
1 Woman (African American)
All 3 play multiple roles
Simple Set
101 pages
Two Characters, fighting for the Presidency, square off in a nerve-wracking, ear-splitting, mind-bending comic-tragic motif of American Politics. In this Story Theater format all 3 characters break out playing other characters throughout history relating to...
2 White Older Men
1 Woman (African American)
All 3 play multiple roles
Simple Set
101 pages
Two Characters, fighting for the Presidency, square off in a nerve-wracking, ear-splitting, mind-bending comic-tragic motif of American Politics. In this Story Theater format all 3 characters break out playing other characters throughout history relating to...
3 Characters
2 White Older Men
1 Woman (African American)
All 3 play multiple roles
Simple Set
101 pages
Two Characters, fighting for the Presidency, square off in a nerve-wracking, ear-splitting, mind-bending comic-tragic motif of American Politics. In this Story Theater format all 3 characters break out playing other characters throughout history relating to the general theme (a Brutal Slave Owner, a Teen Slave Girl, an American Indian Killer, American Indians from different centuries doing ritual dances and being murdered, a Football Team, Sumi Wrestlers, Street Fighters, Lynching Victims, Immigrants in the Industrial Revolution, and serve as a mirror to the chaos, underlying threat, and lack of center still present in our modern culture. Important historical figures of American History come to full life, and speak to us, revealing the true struggles they suffered, and the indecencies our leaders put into law that still define our cultural identity today.
Through the Debate Platform, we are taken on an imaginative exploration of the American Class Struggle, and its brutal historical roots clashing against modern ideologies that stem directly from them – has the quest for power changed? Have we become a more sophisticated culture, a kinder nation – or are we just the result of a heinous foundation still staining the social, psychological and political landscapes, maintaining division while we call ourselves United?
The Debate is not only about obvious political platform differences, but the great debate between truth and propaganda, false history and the weakening American Dream, and the myriad of issues that reveal a culture in a war with itself, as words dive head-first into one another seeking Presidential Power and a new American Identity for our future.
But most of all, the play exposes how a Democracy can slowly leak into Autocracy and Fascism.
The end of the play exposes the psychological and emotional dystopia of the autocratic mind, nihilistic and sociopathic, exposing the desperate, lost child hiding under a veil of strength and leadership; a statement about America where Fascism was starting to take root.
We The People came too close – “The Debate” serves as warning for the future.
2 White Older Men
1 Woman (African American)
All 3 play multiple roles
Simple Set
101 pages
Two Characters, fighting for the Presidency, square off in a nerve-wracking, ear-splitting, mind-bending comic-tragic motif of American Politics. In this Story Theater format all 3 characters break out playing other characters throughout history relating to the general theme (a Brutal Slave Owner, a Teen Slave Girl, an American Indian Killer, American Indians from different centuries doing ritual dances and being murdered, a Football Team, Sumi Wrestlers, Street Fighters, Lynching Victims, Immigrants in the Industrial Revolution, and serve as a mirror to the chaos, underlying threat, and lack of center still present in our modern culture. Important historical figures of American History come to full life, and speak to us, revealing the true struggles they suffered, and the indecencies our leaders put into law that still define our cultural identity today.
Through the Debate Platform, we are taken on an imaginative exploration of the American Class Struggle, and its brutal historical roots clashing against modern ideologies that stem directly from them – has the quest for power changed? Have we become a more sophisticated culture, a kinder nation – or are we just the result of a heinous foundation still staining the social, psychological and political landscapes, maintaining division while we call ourselves United?
The Debate is not only about obvious political platform differences, but the great debate between truth and propaganda, false history and the weakening American Dream, and the myriad of issues that reveal a culture in a war with itself, as words dive head-first into one another seeking Presidential Power and a new American Identity for our future.
But most of all, the play exposes how a Democracy can slowly leak into Autocracy and Fascism.
The end of the play exposes the psychological and emotional dystopia of the autocratic mind, nihilistic and sociopathic, exposing the desperate, lost child hiding under a veil of strength and leadership; a statement about America where Fascism was starting to take root.
We The People came too close – “The Debate” serves as warning for the future.