All-Star Lineup Takes Part in 'AMERICAN SCOREBOARD' Reading of Betsy DeVos Hearing at Pace

An all-star line-up of actors presented a live dramatic political reading last week through American Scoreboard's most recent installment at Pace University. The event was a reenactment of the confirmation hearing of U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

"It was an honor and privilege to be at Pace University," said conceiver and producer Fran Kirmser of American Scoreboard. "As a leading educational and cultural institution, Pace provides the perfect platform for American Scoreboard to present, as conceived, verbatim readings of US Senate hearings welcoming Republicans and Democrats to come together in the theater and simply listen to the language of our government leaders in the spirit of education."

"The Office of Government and Community Relations routinely encourages faculty, students and staff to engage in the political process in whatever way they feel most comfortable, especially when issues taking place at the National level directly impact their daily lives here at Pace," said Pace's Associate Vice President of Government and Community Relations. "When the opportunity presented itself we were delighted to work with the American Scoreboard team to provide an experiential learning opportunity for our Performing Arts students that went hand-in-hand with a comprehensive look at the inner-workings of a Congressional hearing that is so relevant to higher education."

The production featured Lilla Crawford (Annie) as Senator Patricia Murray, Sydney Lucas (Fun Home) as Senator Elizabeth Warren, Sam Poon (The King and I) as Senator Bernie Sanders, Nicholas Barasch (Big River, 2017 Encores!) as Senator Al Franken, Edward O'Blenis as Senator Lamar Alexander (Law & Order SVU), and Tracy Shayne (Bronx Bombers, Chicago) as Betsy DeVos. Also appearing in the production were current students and recent graduates of Pace University and the New York City Public School System. *All actors appeared courtesy of Actors Equity Association.

Directly from the U.S. Senate Chamber in Washington, DC, "AMERICAN SCOREBOARD: The Trump Administration" series explores, from an all new perspective, the serious issues facing President Donald Trump and the American public today. Conceived and created by Fran Kirmser and Christopher Burney, "AMERICAN SCOREBOARD" presents one hour verbatim readings of Congressional hearing transcripts in a format that can't be found on C-SPAN or CNN. The readings are free and open to the public.

Pictured: Pace student Angelica Gorga (left) joins Conceiver Producer Fran Kirmser and two assistant producers in mounting American Scoreboard at Pace University's Schimmel Center. Photo courtesy of American Scoreboard.