Artistic director Daniel Hanning and artistic producer Noah Wyle announced Aug. 1 that three mainstage plays — Speech & Debate, The Jazz Age and Set Up and Punch — and 12 plays penned by teenage playwrights will comprise the new season.
The Blank Theatre Company's 18th season follows:
By Stephen Karam
Directed by Daniel Henning
"Three teenage misfits in Salem, Oregon form their school's first speech and debate team after discovering they are all linked by a sex scandal that's rocked their town. Secrets become currency, blogs are belted and 'bathing suit areas' exposed in this dark comedy with music that explores the complex communications of young people caught in the borderland between late adolescence and adulthood."
By Allan Knee
"F. Scott Fitzgerald. Ernest Hemingway. Zelda Fitzgerald. Literary history's most intriguing characters. This sexy new play goes inside their minds to fantasize on the question of 'inspiration.' Punctuated by the pulsating beat of a live jazz trio, The Jazz Age asks the compelling question 'Why do we do what we do?'"
By Mark Saltzman
Original songs by Berton Averre and Rob Meurer
"She writes the lyrics, he writes the music. A clever songwriting duo's promising relationship is blown to bits when they must collaborate with the sex-god singer-composer of a cutting edge rock band. Love gets sung in the wrong key, proving the old adage: there are two sides to every triangle.
12 World Premieres
"The 12 best plays in the nation are chosen by a panel of theatre professionals from submissions by teenage playwrights. Winning writers are next assigned a mentor and then a professional director who guide their scripts to the stage. We then cast the plays with some of Hollywood's hottest award-winning actors and present the work in a month-long Festival." For more information call (323) 661-9827 or visit TheBlank.com.
