
DeVos play not meant as ‘cartoon or lampoon,’ producer says
WASHINGTON — Guns in schools to protect students from grizzly bears? Betsy DeVos endured yet another rocky confirmation hearing in the Senate to become education secretary — this time on a theatre stage.
In a play performed on Monday at Washington’s Arena Stage theatre, about a dozen student actors from local high schools posed as frustrated Democrats and friendly Republicans to grill DeVos on the merits of public education, the role of the federal government in civil rights, and her family wealth.
“We are living in a time when people think they are looking for truth, but are being told there are alternative facts and, frankly, we are just trying to show facts,” Chris Burney, a co-producer of the show, said in an interview before the performance. “This is what was spoken, these are the words that were spoken, now that you know what the facts are, how do you engage with them?”
The play, titled simply “The Confirmation Hearing for the Secretary of Education,” was part of “American Scorecard,” a series of dramatic readings of congressional transcripts by actors. Other shows in the series have been devoted to banking, the investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the U.S. election, and the confirmation of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, who later resigned.