Coming March 20, 2021 at 8pm to Powerstories Theatre’s Voices of Truth Theatre Festival
Written by Peter Nason and Deborah Bostock-Kelley, A Necessary Conversation is a two-part production that takes an unflinching look at mental health, bullying, gun violence and its aftermath. The show features 47 REASONS TO LIVE, a tale of the inner workings of a potential school shooter and 11:11 explores the adult and teen survivors left behind.
Recipient of the 2017 Theatre Tampa Bay Jeff Norton Dream Grant, Deborah reached out to the Straz Center with their concept and the venue graciously helped make their vision a reality in the TECO Theatre in January 2018. Everytown- Moms Demand Action, Tampa Chapter was the community partner and the recipient of ticket sales of the evening show, following an incredible community talk-back.
After the Parkland shooting in 2018, an expanded version of 11:11 was written with Deborah at the helm as director of 11:11 and 47 REASONS TO LIVE. The new expanded version will receive its world debut in March 2021.
In November 2020, the show was nominated for Broadway’s World’s Regional Best Original Script of the Decade and for actress, Amy C. Ragg, Best Actress of the Decade. Prior to, in January 2018, the show won 2018 Broadway World’s Regional Best Actor and Best Actress for Caleb Brening and Amy C. Ragg. The show was also nominated for Creative Loafing Best of the Bay 2018.
Peter Nason – Playwright 47 Reasons to Live
Peter Nason is an actor, director, and theatre teacher, who has appeared in dozens of productions around the country, helmed several films, and directed over thirty plays. His love of the theatre, and his passion for the craft of acting and directing, has led him to reach hundreds of Florida teenagers to help make the stage their home. A Pasco County educator for the past fifteen years, he has just started a new theatre program at the Cypress Creek Middle School Conservatory of the Arts in Wesley Chapel. A graduate of the University of Alabama and the Scuola Lorenzo de Medici in Florence, Italy, Peter is an award-winning playwright and has been one of the reviewers for Broadwayworld.com since 2014. Peter resides in Wesley Chapel, Florida with his beloved Boston Terrier, Ike.
Deborah Bostock-Kelley – Playwright 11:11
Deborah Bostock-Kelley is a multi-time playwright whose plays have been seen across stages in Tampa. She received the inaugural 2019 Tampa Bay Theatre Festival Denise Deneen award for her work in theatre and a 2017 recipient of Theatre Tampa Bay’s Jeff Norton Dream Grant. With the grant, she produced her original gun violence production with Peter Nason, A Necessary Conversation at the Straz Center which went on to win Regional Broadway World’s 2018 “Best Actor” and “Best Actress” Awards and is nominated for Regional Broadway World’s “Best Original Script of the Decade.” The new, expanded production, written after the Stoneman Douglas school shooting, is debuting at the festival.