Speech and Debate

Senior Company (Fall 2025)

Social image for Speech and Debate at Swarthmore Theater Department. A purple filter is over a

Poster design by Daniel Kontz

 

by Stephen Karam

Directed by Sophia Pereda-Echeverry '25

Teenagers today are holding lots of things inside. Our Senior Company ensemble takes on Stephen Karam’s play Speech and Debate. As a sex abuse scandal boils under the surface at their school, three lonely teens find each other and themselves through their school’s Speech and Debate team. Censorship bumps up against authenticity in this satire exploring the perspective and voices of young people. lol. rofl. 

 

 

Three performers sit at a folding table. They are dressed like high school teenagers, the student on the left wears a tan and maroon shirt and wears glasses. The student in the middle wears a white cardigan, and is taking off dark sunglasses. The final student on the right looks down and is dressed in a camel toned collared shirt.

Speech and Debate, Featuring (L to R) Panhavoan Reth '25, Selma Wu '25, and Martín Villagra-Riquelme '25. Photos by Howard Wang

Photo from Speech and Debate. Three students are in their own bedrooms. The far one is dark and illuminated in the blue light of a laptop. A figure can be barely made out. The middle one is awash in pink with a student in a beret. The last room is an office where a student is typing away at their laptop.

Photo from Speech and Debate. From L to R, Martín Villagra-Riquelme '25, Selma Wu '25, and Panhavoan Reth '25. Photo by Howard Wang

Speech and Debate, Featuring (L to R) Panhavoan Reth '25, Selma Wu '25, and Martín Villagra-Riquelme '25. Photos by Howard Wang

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