The Debate Society is a Brooklyn, New York-based devised theatre company founded by Hannah Bos, Paul Thureen, and Oliver Butler in 2004.

Hannah Bos of Evanston, Illinois, and Paul Thureen who was raised near East Grand Forks, Minnesota,[1] met at Vassar College and first performed in a play together during their sophomore year.

[3] They studied abroad together (at the National Theater Institute and in Russia) and cowrote their senior thesis, a play called A Thought About Raya before graduating in 2000.

[2] While Butler, a University of Connecticut graduate,[4] was involved at a battle of the bands at the college in 1998,[2] he didn't meet Bos and Thureen until 2003[1] when he attended a reading of A Thought About Raya at the Drama Book Shop in New York City.

[3] During a two-month trial period, Butler challenged Bos and Thureen's established group dynamic by requiring them to articulate to him their ideas which the pair ultimately found to be useful to their process.