EST/Sloan Project

Graeme Gillis, Program Director
Linsay Firman, Associate  Director

The Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science & Technology Project is an initiative designed to stimulate artists to create credible and compelling work exploring the worlds of science and technology and to challenge the existing stereotypes of scientists and engineers in the popular imagination.

The partnership between the Ensemble Studio Theatre and The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is the creative engine behind hundreds of new American plays that challenge and broaden the public’s understanding of science and technology and their impact in our lives. Plays from the EST/Sloan Project are produced again and again across the country. This begins at EST’s home base in Hell’s Kitchen, New York, for forty years a crucial platform for new and unheard voices in the American theatre. Over the past twelve years, this reputation has been enhanced by the critically acclaimed productions presented on the theatre’s Mainstage every season under the banner of the EST/Sloan Project.

Beyond New York, the program now has a nationwide reach. It supports development and production of new plays in theatres across the country through a combination of seed grants and production incentives. These initiatives provide an extended life for EST/Sloan plays in subsequent regional productions, and the seed grants provide a broader base of artistic opportunity for communities outside of New York, allowing the program to cast a wider net for new work.

Submissions for the 2011-2012 season are closed.
Please check back for submission guidelines for our 2012-2013 season.

EST/Sloan Rough Cut Presentation
THE UNUSUAL LOVE LIFE OF BED BUGS AND OTHER CREATURES by Cori Thomas*
Maricela, recently out of prison and looking for gainful employment, begins a journey to become a Pest Control Engineer. Little does she know a bed bug epidemic looms…
Thu April 26, Fri April 27, & Sat April 28 @ 7pm
Matinee Performance: Sat April 28 @ 2pm
General Admission: $15

EST/Sloan Mainstage Production
HEADSTRONG by Patrick Link
“When you win, nothing hurts.” – Joe Namath
Ex- NFL linebacker Duncan Troy played with the greats, and tackled them to the ground. When his son-in-law, a Pro Bowler himself, dies under strange circumstances, Troy and his widowed daughter struggle with their own culpability, and whether the brain trauma he suffered in life was the price of football greatness.
April 18 – May 13, Wednesday – Monday @ 7pm, Saturdays @ 2pm & 7pm, Sundays @ 5pm
General Admission: $30     Student/Senior: $20

THE BONE WARS by Jeff Bienstock, Patrick Link and Eric March
Rival paleontologists fight for their legacy in a musical battle for the ages.
Mon March 12 @ 7pm, click here to RSVP

WARMTH by Bekah Brunstetter
After a Thanksgiving dinner debate gets out of hand, Blaine sets out to prove to her father that global warming is real. But the data is slippery, and Blaine struggles to defend her truth when Googling isn’t enough.
Thu March 15 @ 3pm, (invitation only)

ICARUS FALLING by Holli Harms*
1967: a rocket is launched into space bearing one lone cosmonaut, Vladimir Komarov. There are 203 operational flaws with the spacecraft. Everyone is aware of this – including Komarov. As his ship hurtles toward the earth, the lone cosmonaut floats in space, careening between the past, present and future.
Thu March 15 @ 7pm, click here to RSVP

SOLDIER OF THE MIND by Justin Fleming
Against his father’s wishes, Santiago Cajal secretly pursues his dreams of being an artist, while compliantly studying medicine. In the scientific backwater of Barcelona, he discovers that the brain is composed of independent neurons. Armed with his secret talent for art, he embarks on an extraordinary mission to show the world his discovery.
Fri March 16 @ 7pm, click here to RSVP

BEFORE YOU RUIN IT by Laura Jacqmin
Can one Player save the most influential computer game company of the 1980’s from certain doom? Matching wits against feuding founders, a changing adventure game marketplace, and a demonic CEO, one man attempts to rout disaster and score the maximum number of points. A theatrical text adventure based on the fall of Infocom.
Mon March 19 @ 7pm, click here to RSVP

TRISKELION by Ben Rosenthal*
When a reporter stumbles across tangible proof of a previously only-rumored Nazi atrocity, he is forced to engage the dueling aspects of his character, science and religion, to uncover its origin. Along the way he is forced to reexamine not only his vision of humanity, but the ruinous course of his own life.
Tue March 20, 3pm (invitation only)

OUT OF ORBIT by Jennifer Maisel
Sara lives on Mars time, spearheading the Mars Rover Expedition, visiting a planet she cannot touch. Her teenage daughter Lis, on earth time, falls under the spell of the cyber-cypher Edgar2330. An exploring woman and a longing-to-be-explored girl try to find each other in our increasingly disconnected universe.
Fri March 23 @ 7pm, click here to RSVP

KASIMOV by Beau Willimon
1997: A legendary chess master travels to New York
to play the IBM supercomputer created solely to defeat him.
Sun March 25 @ 3pm, click here to RSVP

SOME BRIGHTER DISTANCE by Keith Reddin*
Operation Paperclip was a secret effort by the US government to enlist Nazi scientists in the Cold War and the space race with the Soviets. For decades after he left Germany, Arthur Rudolph played  a crucial role in missile development and getting a man to the moon. But toward the end of his life, America didn’t want him anymore. A story of mixed allegiances and strange bedfellows in 20th century science.
Mon March 26 @ 7pm, click here to RSVP

FAST COMPANY by Carla Ching
Mable Kwan was a famous grifter who taught her sons the long con. One retired and became a magician; another, a sports writer. Blue, the youngest and the only girl, now studies game theory and may become the best con artist of the family. When the estranged trio is called home with a small fortune at stake, who will con who in the end?
Thu March 29 @ 7pm, click here to RSVP

EST/Youngblood presents
THE BIG BRUNCH THEORY
Join the playwrights of EST/Youngblood as they merrily push past their complete ignorance of science to ponder the really big questions, along with a buffet of pancakes, bacon, and (Young)bloody marys. A perennial sellout, get your tickets now!
Sun March 11 @ 1pm