debate: baldwin vs. Buckley

Adapted & DIRECTED BY CHRISTOPHER MCELROEN

October, 2023 | the american vicarious & Cambridge Union | Cambridge, UK

October, 2023 | the american vicarious & The Bristol Old Vic | Bristol, UK

May, 2023 | the american vicarious & Bronx River Arts Center | Bronx, NYC

March - April, 2023 | the american vicarious & Stone Nest | London, UK

March, 2023 | the american vicarious & Harlem Stage | Manhattan, NYC

March, 2023 | the american vicarious & Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art | Staten Island, NYC

November, 2022 | the american vicarious & Queens Theatre | Queens, NYC

October, 2022 | the american vicarious & Old Stone House | Brooklyn, NYC

March - April, 2022 | the american vicarious & ART/NY | Brooklyn, NYC

November, 2021 | the american vicarious & The Montauk Club | Brooklyn, NYC

October, 2021 | the american vicarious & Women’s National Republican Club | Manhattan, NYC

October, 2020 | the american vicarious & BRIC | Brooklyn, NYC

UK Cast: Teagle F. Bougere, Eric T. Miller, Christopher Wareham, Tom Kiteley

NYC Cast: Teagle F. Bougere, Eric T. Miller, Spencer Hamp, Charlie O'Rourke

BRIC Live Broadcast Cast: Teagle F. Bougere, Eric T. Miller, Spencer Hamp, Charlie O'Rourke, Daniel Marconi, Kevin Cristaldi

Costume Design: Elivia Bovenzi, Lighting Design: Zack Weeks, Sound Design: Andy Evan Cohen, Video Design: Adam J. Thompson

“Is the American Dream at the expense of the American Negro?”

This was the topic on February 18, 1965 when an overflow crowd packed the Cambridge Union in Cambridge, England, to bear witness to a historic televised debate between James Baldwin, the leading literary voice of the civil rights movement, and William F. Buckley Jr., a fierce critic of the movement and America’s most influential conservative intellectual.

The stage was set for an epic confrontation that pitted Baldwin’s call for a moral revolution in race relations against Buckley’s unabashed elitism and implicit commitment to white supremacy. This historic clash reveals the deep roots and lasting legacy of racial conflict that continues to haunt America.