Below the Fold, or Whisper at the Top of Your Lungs, is a play about sexual assault on a Midwest liberal arts campus. (View this play on the New Play Exchange.)

Runtime: 120 minutes. 3 Female, 4 Male characters.

Synopsis: When Dana Schmidt accuses her up-until-then boyfriend Tim Evans of taking a drunken night too far, their small college campus is divided on who to believe and what qualifies as rape. Just as Dana is resolving to give up on trying to get the administration to take action, a zealous journalism major convinces the editor of the school’s newspaper to let him run a piece on the alleged assault, thrusting the campus rumors into the open and forcing Dana and Tim to defend their reputations and their versions of what happened that night.

Production History: An early draft of Below the Fold was staged by the Augustana Collaborative Theatre Society in 2014. ACTS is an entirely student-run organization at Augustana University.

In 2016, the script received two staged readings. The first was with the Black Hills Playhouse, as the inaugural play in their Fringe Series. The second was with Monstrous Little Theatre Company in Sioux Falls.

Press Coverage:
Augustana, 2014 – Augustana Mirror
KELO
KSFY
Black Hills Playhouse, 2016 – Dakota Midday, South Dakota Public Broadcasting
Rapid City Journal

To request a perusal or inquire about producing Below the Fold, please contact me at MatthewT.Stoffel@gmail.com and include your theatre company or educational institution’s name. Thank you!