Joe Dipietro's CONSCIENCE to Make L.A. Premiere at ICT

International City Theatre will present the Los Angeles premiere of Tony Award-winning playwright Joe DiPietro’s fast-paced drama about trailblazing Sen. Margaret Chase Smith, whose “Declaration of Conscience” speech became a defining act of political courage. Directed and produced by caryn desai, Conscience runs August 28 through September 13, with low-priced preview performances on August 26 and 27.

At a time when fear and political intimidation silenced many voices in Washington, Sen. Margaret Chase Smith chose to speak. On June 1, 1950, the Republican senator from Maine became the first to publicly rebuke Sen. Joseph McCarthy on the Senate floor, condemning his tactics in a speech that became known as the “Declaration of Conscience.”

Sharon Gardner stars as Smith opposite Jon Root as McCarthy. The cast also features Dylan Wittrock as Smith’s longtime personal aide, William Lewis, Jr., and Hollis Dohr as Jean Kerr, McCarthy’s devoted young assistant who later became his wife.

Fast-paced and emotionally charged, Conscience explores political courage, personal conviction and the personal cost of speaking truth to power. It also highlights Smith’s groundbreaking role as a woman in American politics. She was the first woman elected from Maine to Congress and later to the U.S. Senate and, in 1950, the only woman serving among the Senate’s 96 members.