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PRESS
Photo by Joyce Bedard
"This was the way to spend the nervous hours before voting began on Tuesday... Forthright, in-your-face, up-to-the-minute... Let's hope we don't have to wait four years and another embattled primary for a troupe like Theater in Asylum to visit Hartford again." - The Hartford Courant
"Whether you’re a political junkie, a theater freak, or just kind of curious what all the fuss is about, the show is the perfect capsule of our surreal political culture... The actors seem to transform before your eyes, from a spot-on hunched-over Bernie impersonation to a frozen-lipped Hillary, swaying like a tipsy sailor."
- New York Magazine's Bedford and Bowery
"Not only was The Debates—a play that amused and educated a full house at the Kraine Theater on the eve of the primary elections--about politics. It was politics." - NY City Lens
"Paul Bedard has been at the forefront of efforts to drum up enthusiasm for the election." - The Telegraph
“There is so much information in an election year. I believe it is the artist’s duty to help make sense of it all, not with more information, but with interpretation, narrative, color, sound, story. Art helps us understand the stakes, the context, and the humanity within the chaos." - Paul Bedard interviewed on Howlround
Paul Bedard & Katie Palmer interview with Go See a Show
"Whether you’re a political junkie, a theater freak, or just kind of curious what all the fuss is about, the show is the perfect capsule of our surreal political culture... The actors seem to transform before your eyes, from a spot-on hunched-over Bernie impersonation to a frozen-lipped Hillary, swaying like a tipsy sailor."
- New York Magazine's Bedford and Bowery
"Not only was The Debates—a play that amused and educated a full house at the Kraine Theater on the eve of the primary elections--about politics. It was politics." - NY City Lens
"Paul Bedard has been at the forefront of efforts to drum up enthusiasm for the election." - The Telegraph
“There is so much information in an election year. I believe it is the artist’s duty to help make sense of it all, not with more information, but with interpretation, narrative, color, sound, story. Art helps us understand the stakes, the context, and the humanity within the chaos." - Paul Bedard interviewed on Howlround
Paul Bedard & Katie Palmer interview with Go See a Show
Our Intentions
Presidential campaigns, like theater, initiate a soul-searching. Our understanding of our individual and societal identities, and the possibilities of whom we might become, broaden. Bernie’s call for revolution and Trump’s call for exclusion, while absurd a year ago, are real possibilities being contemplated for the future of our country. Presidential campaigns, like theater, push us to ask, “Is this who we are right now? Is this who we want to be?” As artists and activists, we believe our mission is to engage more people in the process of forging an identity. We hope this debate will help you do just that: make, “unabashedly, an attempt to forge an identity in this particular age.”
Feedback discussion after Debate #1's presentation