Roundabout Theatre Company will open a new 65-seat black box theater space in October within its current off-Broadway home, the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theater on West 46th Street. The so-called "Roundabout Underground" is designed to showcase new plays that will allow an experienced director to go back to his or her creative roots or give a debut production to an emerging writer or director.
The first production in the new space will be Speech & Debate by Stephen Karam co-author of columbinus, directed by Tony Award nominee Jason Moore Avenue Q, Steel Magnolias. Preview performances begin October 5, with an opening night of October 29. The cast and design team will be announced shortly.
In Speech & Debate, three teenage misfits in Salem, Oregon, reluctantly 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 black comedy about what, if anything, it means to be an adult.
Robyn Goodman artistic consultant to the Roundabout, who has significant artistic development experience as a founder of Second Stage Theatre, will curate the "Roundabout Underground" initiative.
