The Geography Club is a play by American playwright and author Brent Hartinger

Brent Hartinger

Brent Hartinger is an American author and playwright, best known for his novels about gay teenagers.-Early life:Hartinger was born in Washington State. His family moved to Fircrest, Washington when he was an infant. He attended a Catholic grade school and middle school, and a Catholic high...

, based on his novel Geography Club

Geography Club

Geography Club is a novel about a group of high school students who feel like outsiders because of their sexual orientations; the narrator, Russel Middlebrook, then finds himself helping to form an after school club for the students, so that they can hang out together without anyone suspecting...

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Production history

The Geography Club first premiered in Seattle, WA at the third annual Seattle FringeACT Festival of New Plays in 2004, directed by Ilene Fins. The Geography Club starred Brendan Callahan as Russel Middlebrook.

The play was later reworked and premiered again as the opening show at the first annual Northwest Playwright's Alliance Festival of New Plays in 2008. It was directed by David Domkoski (who applauded the play for being both "good and relevant to what’s happening to kids right now") and starred Galen Wicks, then a senior at Tacoma School of the Arts, as Russel. One review said that "Geography Club stands confidently on a cliff-edge of new theater: theater for young people, dealing with hot topics seldom dramatized. Weaving through the ultra-delicate intricacies of teenage identity, the play builds strong themes of friendship and belonging, just as well (or better) as its original form."