Distortion tells the story of Alex Dysart, a gifted musician at a performing arts academy who suffers from dyslexia. The show moves backwards from Dysart’s attempted suicide to the two weeks leading up to his crisis and his interactions with his family, fellow students and teachers.
The characters are all talented musicians and they move back and forth from Debussy and Beethoven to a range of contemporary songs that are interwoven into the themes and characters. The play is a contemporary look at an education system that struggles to accommodate learning exceptionalities, while at the same time, explores the concerns of twenty-first century adolescents. The play ranges from the distortion one seeks on an electric guitar to the distortion that makes us believe kids with learning disabilities are “dumb.”
Keywords: Teenagers, Learning Disability, Teacher Abuse, Suicide, Music, School, Education, Stress, Pain
Running Time: 120 minutes
Male Cast: 10
Female Cast: 9
Doubled Cast: 10
Musicians: 7
Suitable for School Productions: Students Age 14+
Maximum Number of Roles: 19
Minimum Number of Roles 10