SAU Alumni Star at Playcrafters

On September 28, curtains opened for the Night Owl production of Stephen Karam's Speech and Debate at the Playcrafter's Barn Theatre.

The production was directed by St. Ambrose alum Max Moline ‘17 and starred a cast entirely of SAU Theatre alumni Jordan Webster-Moore ‘17, Jordan McGinnis '17, and Helene Devine ‘17.

Speech and Debate is a comedy about nervous and conflicted student reporter Solomon (Webster-Moore), smart-mouthed homosexual student Howie (McGinnis), who just wants to start a gay-straight alliance, and bombastic, eccentric theatre student Diwata (Devine), who is determined to correct her director's mistake of not giving her a lead.

The three meet each other and hatch a plan to expose their theatre teacher, who has been caught in sexual encounters with several teenagers. Through the pursuit of justice, passion and a lot of blackmail, the young teens find friendship with each other and grow one step closer to accepting themselves.

Moline is already an accomplished director and won first runner-up in the SDC directing competition at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. Still, Speech and Debate marked a milestone as Moline's first professional gig. While the script was a challenge for Moline, it was a rewarding one.

"Speech and Debate is very a character-driven piece and a comedy – two things I haven't done nearly as much as I should have as a director," Moline said. "I felt doing this play would help me grow as a director."

One specific design challenge was the several different locations throughout the play. Moline approached this challenge by utilizing a minimalistic set consisting completely of black, wooden boxes.

"I didn't want a large set because I felt it could distract from the three kids and their journey," Moline said. "I didn't want to litter the stage with a bunch of doors and chalkboards and diner seats. I wanted the audience to see the characters."

The lighting in the show was also very simple with consistent light blues and oranges. The rest of the space was filled by a large projection screen at the back of the stage. These were used to show pictures of the various locations to make each scene's setting clearer. The screen was also used to depict several text conversations that were backed by music to give the play whimsical elements.

Along with this were several short musical numbers sung with drunken vigor by Diwata. In addition, there was a full four-minute dance number to George Michael's "Freedom."

Speech and Debate was a small-scale production absolutely packed with alumni. Also, this was not the end of Moline's directing career. For a change of pace, he is slated to direct James and the Giant Peach at Davenport Junior Theatre in the fall. Moline will surely utilize his training as an SAU theatre major to continue his growth as a director.