D.C. Area Theaters To Present THE THE BETSY DEVOS CONFIRMATION HEARING
By: A.A. Cristi Sep. 11, 2018
As the school year begins across the country, Broadway Producers Fran Kirmser and Chris Burney team up with area D.C. theater organizations to present AMERICAN SCOREBOARD's back-to-school performance of The Betsy DeVos Confirmation Hearing for The Secretary of Education to take place at The Mead Center for American Theater at Arena Stage, 1101 Sixth Street SW, Washington, D.C. on September 17th, 2018 at 6pm. This will mark the first visit of Kirmser and Burney's American Scoreboard educational program to the D.C. area.
AMERICAN SCOREBOARD is an ongoing series that reflects the issues that face the current administration, President Trump and the American people today. Conceived and produced by two-time Tony Award winning Broadway Producer Fran Kirmser and created and produced by Tony Nominee and University Professor Christopher Burney, AMERICAN SCOREBOARD are readings of timely verbatim Senate hearing transcripts presented in the theater performed by stage and screen actors.
"Theater provides the perfect platform for American Scoreboard to present, as conceived, verbatim readings of US Senate hearings. The tech-free, respectful and intimate environment of the theater encourages audiences from both sides of the aisle to simply listen to the language of our government leaders," says producer Fran Kirmser.
Casting for the D.C. production will hail from a collaborative process with the education programs at Signature Theater, Imagination Theater and Studio Theater. The young actors being cast to play the US Senators will be announced shortly. Says producer Chris Burney, "Being able to work with students passionate about the political process shows the power of story to engage audience for social change and provides hope for the future."
AMERICAN SCOREBOARD's first readings were presented at HB Studio Players Theater on January 24, 2017. It highlighted the topic of corporate fraud from the hearing of Wells Fargo. The second reading, The Tom Price Confirmation Hearing, was presented on March 1st, 2017, and the third installment on The Investigation of Russian Interference in the 2016 Election with Clint Watts was presented on June 26th, 2017. Gun Violence was read via podcast appearance on January 16th, 2018. The Betsy DeVos Confirmation Hearing was originally co-produced with Pace University in the Fall of 2017 at the 700 seat Schimmel Center in New York, New York.
"Pace University was proud to partner with American Scoreboard for this series that brought education policy in this country into vivid life for our faculty, staff and students. The work being done by American Scoreboard is important and an innovative way to
engage our students and the viewer in today's political process," said Vanessa J. Herman, Government & Community Relations, Pace University.
AMERICAN SCOREBOARD is a non-profit educational endeavor that is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. For more information sign up WWW.AMERICANSCOREBOARD.COM
Fran Kirmser (Conceiver/Producer) holds two Tony Awards for the Broadway revivals of Hair (2008-2009) and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (2013-2014). Additional Broadway credits include Glenngary Glenn Ross starring Al Pacino and the award-winning August Wilson's Radio Golf, the last play and final chapter in the epic ten- play cycle by one of our nation's greatest playwrights. In 2008, off the heels of the financial crisis, Fran conceived and produced a sports series for stage to explore stories of resilience, leadership, competition, and teamwork. The Broadway trilogy includes Lombardi, focusing on leadership, Magic/Bird, about competition and finally, Bronx Bombers which explores what it means to be a team. Lombardi, based on the biography of the iconic leader and Hall of Fame NFL Coach Vince Lombardi is being made into a feature film with Legendary Pictures where Fran serves as Executive Producer. She teaches master classes in producing at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Fordham, The New School and in Universities across the country. Fran currently serves as a Tony Voter.
Christopher Burney (Creator/Producer) is the Tony Nominated Artistic Producer of New York's Second Stage Theatre where he has worked since 1996. Of the over 100 productions he has shepherded at Second Stage: Tony-winning best musical Dear Evan Hansen, Bachelorette; By The Way, Meet Vera Stark by Lynn Nottage; the Pulitzer Prize- winning musical Next to Normal; Metamorphoses; The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee; Notes from the Field by Anna Deavere Smith; and the upcoming musical Superhero. As a champion of emerging artists, he has launched the career of Rajiv Joseph, Leslye Headland, Michael Golamco, Kenneth Lin, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Brooke Berman, Adam Bock, amongst many others. As an educator, he currently teaches at Columbia University in the graduate theater program and has lectured at Kenyon College, Marymount Manhattan College, Barnard College, The Einhorn School for the Performing Arts and the Juilliard School. Previously Chris worked at Lincoln Center Theater. www.christopherburney.com
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