BWW Previews: EXPANDED, AWARD-WINNING PLAY ABOUT BULLYING, MENTAL HEALTH, AND GUN VIOLENCE GETS VIRTUAL DEBUT at Powerstories Theatre

On March 20, 2021, the expanded theatrical production, A Necessary Conversation, featuring two short plays about bullying, mental health, and gun violence in high school, debuts on Powerstories Theatre's virtual stage. It is one of 16 selections for the theatre's online inaugural Voices of Truth Theatre Festival, running through March 28, 2021.

Written by Peter Nason and Deborah Bostock-Kelley, A Necessary Conversation features two powerful stories that originally debuted in 2017 to stellar reviews and positive audience response - Peter's 47 Reasons to Live at the Tampa Fringe Festival and Deborah's 11:11 at Tampa Bay Theatre Festival. After reviewing each other's production, the writers realized their messages were perfect bookends for one another. In 2017, Deborah won a Theatre Tampa Bay Jeff Norton Dream Grant to bring the two-part play to Straz Center for the Performing Art's TECO Theatre on January 20, 2018, with a poignant talkback afterward.

Peter's play describes the disturbing inner workings of a potential school shooter. At the same time, hers explores a grief support group and the survivors left behind after experiencing a traumatic and violent loss.

The two-part production won Broadway World Tampa Bay's 2018 "Best Actor" and "Best Actress" and was nominated in 2020 for "Best Original Script of the Decade."

After another horrific shooting in 2018, this time at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL, Deborah was moved to expand 11:11. She added a teenage voice inspired by the activism of Parkland survivors Emma Gonzalez and David Hogg.

Fast forward exactly three years and two months, and the new expanded A Necessary Conversation has its global debut.

In 47 Reasons to Live, high school junior Christopher Reinhardt takes on the chilling lead role of a budding sociopath, James Caldwell. Samantha Marti Parisi plays his mother, and Layla Kuck is his love interest. Constantine Kyriakou, Thomas Pahl, and Trevor Rockwell Salmon are educators on different sides of what to do with this troubled student.

Kym Welch returns, and Amy C. Ragg resumes her award-winning role in the grief support group in 11:11. They are joined by Suzy Bloc Duic, Naomi Sample, and high school junior Maggie Gamson.

Following A Necessary Conversation, playwrights, cast, Dr. Edelyn Verona and Brianna Jerman - Everytown Moms Demand Action, Natasha A. Pierre - National Alliance of Mental Illness, Freddy Barton - Safe and Sound Hillsborough will be on Zoom for a live talkback with the audience.

Both playwrights and cast hope A Necessary Conversation will cause the reflections, the remembrances of over 290 school shootings since 2013 and start the necessary conversation - what can we do to fix a broken child, prevent bullying, and stop violence before it happens.

A Necessary Conversation will be presented online on March 20 at 8 pm. The show includes a question-and-answer talkback panel. Tickets for the show are $10. Learn more www.anecessaryconversation.website, www.facebook.com/anecessaryconversation. Purchase tickets and see the festival schedule at www.powerstories.com/voices-of-truth-theatre-festival-schedule

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