Primatologists Zarin Machanda, Stephanie Poindexter, and Kris Sabbi discuss how primates behave and develop, how and why to study them, and HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL AND HER MOTHER? on March 29

From left, Zarin Machanda, Stephanie Poindexter, and Kris Sabbi

EST/Sloan partners with the Secret Science Club for the March 29 Panel Discussion about HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL AND HER MOTHER?

On Saturday, March 29 following the 2:00 PM matinee performance at the Ensemble Studio Theatre of HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL AND HER MOTHER?, the witty new comedy by Michael Walek, EST/Sloan is partnering with the Secret Science Club to host an expert panel of primatologists who will discuss the life and achievements of Jane Goodall, and the cultural, historical, political, and scientific background of the play.

Primatologists Zarin Machanda (Tufts University), Stephanie Poindexter (University of Buffalo), and Kris Sabbi (Harvard University) will share their thoughts on the play and on how their field research on bonobos, chimpanzees, slow loris, and other primates relates to the pioneering field research of Jane Goodall.

When twenty-six-year-old Jane Goodall began her expedition to study chimpanzees in Tanganyika in 1960, the government insisted she must bring a chaperone. So, she brought her mother. In HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL AND HER MOTHER? playwright Michael Walek mines notes by both Jane and her mother to create a sparkling comedy about the process of scientific discovery: what Jane learned about the behavior of chimpanzees and how the duo ingeniously improvised life in the wild.

The audience will have the opportunity to ask questions and join the discussion.

HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL AND HER MOTHER?, written by Michael Walek and directed by Linsay Firman, is the Spring 2025 mainstage production of the EST/Sloan Project, EST’s partnership with The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to develop new plays “exploring the world of science and technology,” an initiative now in its twenty-fifth year. 

The Secret Science Club is a monthly science lecture, arts, and performance series, based at the Bell House in Brooklyn (and now online), curated by Dorian Devins and Margaret Mittelbach. SSC is a program of Science Live Productions, a 501©3 nonprofit organization.

About the Panelists

Dr. Zarin Machanda

Zarin Machanda is the Usen Family Career Development Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Biology at Tufts University. She received her PhD from Harvard in 2009 and continued post-doctoral research there in the department of Human Evolutionary Biology. She started at Tufts in 2017 and teaches classes in biological anthropology including courses on Primate Social Behavior, Chimpanzee Behavioral Ecology, and Conservation. She is currently the Co-Director of the Kibale Chimpanzee Project, an almost 40-year study of the behavior, physiology, and ecology of wild chimpanzees living in Kibale National Park, Uganda. Her main research questions center around the form, function, and development of social relationships, but she also dabbles in research on communication and cooperation. Her research currently focuses on understanding the social determinants of health aging in wild chimpanzees. Zarin is also on the Board of Directors of the Kasiisi Project, an NGO that tries to improve the lives of school children who live near Kibale National Park.

Dr. Stephanie Poindexter

Stephanie Poindexter is currently an Assistant Professor in the departments of Anthropology and Environment and Sustainability at the University at Buffalo. Her research focuses on nocturnal primate behavior and evolution and takes a whole animal approach to addressing two overarching questions: 1) How do primates engage with their environment and other organisms? 2) How did adaptive behaviors and morphologies evolve to facilitate successful behavioral ecology. Answering these questions has led her to focus on the behavioral socioecology and evolution of slow loris, movement ecology, and sensory morphology and ecology in her work on the Sakaerat Slow Loris Project and on the Sensory Morphology and Anthropological Genomics Lab (SMAGL) with Dr. Eva Garrett. She has studied wild and captive primates in Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, the UK and the US and published widely in peer-reviewed journals.

About the Moderator

Dr. Kris Sabbi

Kris Sabbi is a College Fellow in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University and a member of the Pan Lab. Her work centers on questions of how young apes —especially chimpanzees and bonobos — learn to navigate their social worlds as they develop between infancy and adulthood. She earned her Ph. D. from the University of New Mexico in 2020 studying how early experience and hormonal development shape wild chimpanzee social behavior with the Kibale Chimpanzee Project. Since then, she has continued working closely with Dr. Zarin Machanda, including a recent paper on the importance of play between mother chimpanzees and their offspring. At Harvard, she teaches courses in human life history evolution, hormones and behavior, and research techniques in primate behavior and ecology. 

HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL AND HER MOTHER? began previews on March 5 and runs through March 30. You can purchase tickets here.

Primatologists Shahrina Chowdhury and Marina Cords join Research Scientist Sergio Almécija to discuss how primates behave, how to study them, and HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL AND HER MOTHER?

From left, Shahrina Chowdhury, Marina Cords, Sergio Almécija

Everyone attending the 2:00 PM matinee performance on Saturday, March 22 at the Ensemble Studio Theatre of HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL AND HER MOTHER?, the witty new comedy by Michael Walek, is encouraged to stay afterward for a stimulating discussion about the play with primatologists Shahrina Chowdhury (Brooklyn College) and Marina Cords (Columbia University). Sergio Almécija, Senior Research Scientist at the American Museum of Natural History, will moderate a discussion about the life and achievements of Jane Goodall, and the cultural, historical, political, and scientific background of the play.

When twenty-six-year-old Jane Goodall began her expedition to study chimpanzees in Tanganyika in 1960, the government insisted she must bring a chaperone. So, she brought her mother. In HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL AND HER MOTHER? playwright Michael Walek mines notes by both Jane and her mother to create a sparkling comedy about the process of scientific discovery: what Jane learned about the behavior of chimpanzees and how the duo ingeniously improvised life in the wild.

The audience will have the opportunity to ask questions and join the discussion.

HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL AND HER MOTHER?, written by Michael Walek and directed by Linsay Firman, is the Spring 2025 mainstage production of the EST/Sloan Project, EST’s partnership with The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to develop new plays “exploring the world of science and technology,” an initiative now in its twenty-fifth year. 

About the Panelists

Dr. Shahrina Chowdhury

Shahrina Chowdhury is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Brooklyn College, CUNY and Doctoral Faculty in Anthropology at the Graduate Center, CUNY. She is a biological anthropologist whose research focuses on the behavior, ecology and endocrinology of nonhuman primates. Her research employs a comparative perspective to understand the evolution of complex sociality in primates. The main focus of her research is to understand behavioral variation by examining its underlying physiological basis, employing hormones as a tool to examine responses of primates to various challenges. She has studied chacma baboons in South Africa, investigating the effects of social, anthropogenic, and environmental factors on stress physiology and the use of behavioral flexibility as a coping mechanism for stress alleviation. Currently, as Co-Director of the Filoha Hamadryas Project in Ethiopia, she collaborates on a long-term field study of hamadryas baboons with the goal of understanding the evolution of a complex multi-level society. Chowdhury is also on the faculty for the New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology (NYCEP).

Dr. Marina Cords

Marina Cords is a professor in Columbia University’s Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology. Her area of expertise is the behavioral ecology and social behavior of primates, especially monkeys. Trained as a zoologist, her special interest in primates developed because these animals have long lives and good memories, and thus the potential for forming long-lasting social ties. She has led a 45-year field study of wild blue monkeys in the Kakamega Forest, a rain forest in western Kenya. She has published over a hundred scientific works, focusing on social and reproductive behavior, life history and ecology. Her research has been supported by various funding organizations, including the National Science Foundation and multiple private foundations. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She also works with her local field team to promote environmental education and conservation in the area around the research site.

About the Moderator

Dr. Sergio Almécija

Sergio Almécija is a researcher studying the evolution of apes and humans. Currently based at the American Museum of Natural History (NYC), his career started in his home country of Spain, at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and the Catalan Institute of Paleontology (Barcelona), before moving to the US in 2010. Since then, he’s also worked at Stony Brook University and The George Washington University. Sergio’s research combines paleontological and primatological fieldwork (in Africa, Asia, and Europe), as well as morphometric and evolutionary modeling analyses. Over the last decade, his research has focused on investigating the nature of the last common ancestor from which living apes and humans evolved around 7-9 million years ago. He is the editor of Humans: Perspectives on our Evolution from World Experts (2023).

HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL AND HER MOTHER? began previews on March 5 and runs through March 30. You can purchase tickets here.

Primate Field Researcher Kirsty Graham and Historian of Africa Jill Rosenthal join Radiolab co-host Robert Krulwich to discuss chimpanzees, chaperones, and HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL AND HER MOTHER?

From left, Kirsty Graham, Jill Rosenthal, Robert Krulwich

On Saturday, March 15, following the 2:00 PM matinee performance at the Ensemble Studio Theatre of HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL AND HER MOTHER?, the witty new comedy by Michael Walek, everyone is encouraged to stay for a lively discussion about the play with primate field researcher Kirsty Graham and historian of Africa Jill Rosenthal. Former co-host of Radiolab Robert Krulwich will moderate the discussion about the life and achievements of Jane Goodall, and the cultural, historical, political, and scientific background of the play.

When twenty-six-year-old Jane Goodall began her expedition to study chimpanzees in Tanganyika in 1960, the government insisted she must bring a chaperone. So, she brought her mother. In HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL AND HER MOTHER? playwright Michael Walek mines notes by both Jane and her mother to create a sparkling comedy about the process of scientific discovery: what Jane learned about the behavior of chimpanzees and how the duo ingeniously improvised life in the wild.

The audience will have the opportunity to ask questions and join the discussion.

HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL AND HER MOTHER?, written by Michael Walek and directed by Linsay Firman, is the Spring 2025 mainstage production of the EST/Sloan Project, EST’s partnership with The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to develop new plays “exploring the world of science and technology,” an initiative now in its twenty-fifth year. 

About the Panelists

Dr. Kirsty Graham

Kirsty E. Graham is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Hunter College, particularly focused on the Animal Behavior & Conservation MA program. They are establishing a research group around understanding bodily communication in other species. From 2020-2024, they were a Research Fellow at the University of St Andrews, UK, working for Dr. Cat Hobaiter on an ERC funded project comparing gestural communication across bonobos, chimpanzees, humans, gorillas, and orangutans. Their research there has been published on the Wild Minds Lab. From 2017-2020, they were a Research Associate with Professor Katie Slocombe at the University of York, looking at the development of Joint Attention across humans, chimpanzees, and Sulawesi crested macaques. They examined whether other primate species are able to share attention about objects in the same way that humans can, or whether they have some of the skills that might be required for this ability.

Dr. Jill Rosenthal

Jill Rosenthal is an Assistant Professor of History at Hunter College. Her research examines the history of migration, identity, and international aid in the African Great Lakes region—with a specific focus on the legacy of colonial borders and illicit migration (often termed “refugee” flows). At Hunter College, Jill teaches courses on 19th and 20th century African history, refugees and the nation-state, and violence and healing. Her research and teaching both examine the diverse interconnections between global and local spaces, as well as the ongoing relevance of historical events and memories. Jill’s first book, From Migrants to Refugees: The Politics of Aid Along the Tanzania-Rwanda Border (2023), argues that transnational aid to Rwandan refugees unfolded as part of a global project of nation state formation and regulation--one which deeply affected local narratives of community and belonging. The book also explores the colonial legacies that continue to influence humanitarian aid projects.  From Migrants to Refugees utilizes over one hundred multi-sited interviews and archival research conducted in Geneva and throughout Tanzania.

About the Moderator

Robert Krulwich

Robert Krulwich is an American radio and television journalist who co-hosted the radio show Radiolab from mid-2004 until January 20, 2020 and has also served as a science correspondent for NPR. He has reported for ABC, CBS, and Pacifica, with assignment pieces for ABC's Nightline and World News Tonight, as well as PBS's Frontline, NOVA, and NOW with Bill Moyers. In his Frontline role, he has won an Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award for his coverage of campaign finance in the 1992 U.S. Presidential campaign; a national Emmy Award for his investigation of privacy on the Internet, High Stakes in Cyberspace; and a George Polk Award for an hour on the savings and loan scandal. His ABC special on Barbie also won an Emmy. TV Guide has called him "the most inventive network reporter in television,” and New York Magazine wrote that he's "the man who simplifies without being simple." Since his retirement, Robert has been collaborating on a documentary about Oliver Sacks with Ric Burns and a project about photographer Anand Varma's cultivation of jellyfish.

HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL AND HER MOTHER? began previews on March 5 and runs through March 30. You can purchase tickets here.

Anne Pusey on Jane Goodall for HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL AND HER MOTHER?

The world premiere of the 2025 EST/Sloan Project production, HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL AND HER MOTHER?, written by Michael Walek and directed by Linsay Firman, begins previews on March 5 at the Ensemble Studio Theatre and runs through March 30. You can purchase tickets here.

This 2024/2025 season marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the EST/Sloan Project, the joint initiative between the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Ensemble Studio Theatre “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.” In that spirit, we offer this profile of Jane Goodall by Anne Pusey, the director of the Jane Goodall Institute Research Center at Duke University.

Jane Goodall

By Anne Pusey

Louis Leakey with Jane Goodall Photo: Leakey Foundation Archive

In 1960, the scientific study of animal behavior, ethology, mostly concentrated on the instinctive behavior of birds, fish, and insects in their natural environments. Mammal behavior, as yet, was little studied. Enter Jane Goodall, a 26-year-old English woman of slender means who had saved up to go to Africa and, by good fortune, met the paleontologist Louis Leakey. Although she had no formal degrees, she had from the youngest age an intense interest in animals. She had read all the books on animals she could lay her hands on. Her improbable dream was to live among African animals and write about them. Impressed by her passion, her powers of observation, and her steely determination, Leakey employed her, and eventually he found a grant to send her, chaperoned by her mother, to Gombe Stream Reserve in Tanzania (then Tanganyika), where this play takes place.

Following the six months covered by the play, Goodall continued her intensive daily study of the Gombe chimpanzees, punctuated by breaks at Cambridge University, where she worked towards a Ph.D. She was eventually joined by National Geographic photographer Hugo van Lawick and an increasing number of assistants and students. She named the individual chimpanzees as soon as she could reliably recognize them, described, filmed, and photographed the many extraordinarily human-like gestures they use to assert dominance, submission, beg for food, seek reassurance, hug, kiss, and groom each other. She described their complex social structure, including dominance hierarchies and striving for alpha status among the males; affectionate mother-infant bonds that continued long beyond weaning; close social bonds among adults that persisted for years; and empathetic behavior, including the adoption of orphans by older siblings and even unrelated members of the group. Through careful description of behavior, expressions, and vocalizations, Goodall showed that chimpanzees express human-like emotions of fear, joy, anger, and depression and that individuals had markedly different personalities. Some of these claims were met early on with incredulity and accusations of anthropomorphism, but study of emotions, minds, and personality in animals have since become mainstream fields of research.

“Some of Goodall’s claims were met early on with incredulity . . . but study of emotions, minds, and personality in animals have since become mainstream fields of research.”

While noting many similarities to human behavior, including aggression, Goodall initially believed that chimpanzees were somewhat nicer. However, in the 1970s, she discovered a darker side. What was formerly one big group started to split into two, and the former companions became increasingly hostile to each other. Goodall and her team documented how males from one group cooperated to patrol their territory and systematically attacked and killed males, and even one female, of the other group until the group was annihilated and the victorious group took over their range. Such out-group hostility and in-group cooperation continue to be observed at Gombe and have since been observed at other sites where scientists have set up similar long-term studies of chimpanzees to Goodall’s, raising the likelihood that human warfare has deep evolutionary roots.

The December 1965 issue of National Geographic featured the first cover article by Jane Goodall, “New Discoveries Among Africa’s Chimpanzees”

From the early years of Goodall’s work at Gombe, in addition to scientific papers, she wrote vivid articles for National Geographic and books for a popular audience. The National Geographic films of Jane living among the chimpanzees and their complex behavior captured worldwide attention. Her 1971 book, In the Shadow of Man, became an instant bestseller. Not only did it inspire generations of budding young scientists to follow in her footsteps and set up long-term field studies of other species, such as elephants, lions, and dolphins, but it also had a profound influence on how people in broader fields thought about humans’ place in nature.

In 1986, Goodall completed and published her magnificent and comprehensive scientific book on chimpanzees, The Chimpanzees of Gombe. A conference on chimpanzees was organized in Chicago to celebrate this publication, at which, in addition to field research, the dire challenges facing chimpanzees in captivity and the wild were discussed. As Goodall has put it, she went into the conference a scientist, planning Volume 2 of her book and determined to spend the rest of her life as a researcher at Gombe, and came out an activist. She realized that she must use her fame and influence to improve the plight of chimpanzees everywhere.

“Due to Goodall’s activism, no chimpanzees are now used for research in the U.S. or most other countries”

Under the auspices of the Jane Goodall Institute, founded in 1978 to support Gombe research, she started by working with colleagues to improve the conditions of lab chimpanzees used in medical research, which were often housed for years by themselves in five-foot-square cages. Now, no chimpanzees are used for research in the U.S. or most other countries, and the remaining chimpanzees from the NIH reside in social groups in spacious sanctuaries. She also helped set up sanctuaries for orphaned chimpanzees in Africa that are casualties of logging and the bushmeat trade, and she campaigned against the use of chimpanzees in the entertainment industry. To help staunch further destruction of chimpanzee habitats, her TACARE program of community-centered conservation, initiated in the villages around Gombe in Tanzania but now expanded to other areas and countries, helps empower local people to improve their livelihoods by setting up village land management plans, forest reserves, more sustainable agriculture, and improved health and education for women. Perhaps dearest to her heart is her Roots & Shoots program, started with students in Dar es Salaam to involve young people in projects that care for animals, people, and their local environment. This now has groups in more than 60 countries.

Jane planting trees in 2020 with Roots and Shoots participants Photo: Gant By Morten Bjarnhof

In recognition of her science and her advocacy, Goodall has received honorary degrees from countless universities. She has been awarded every available international conservation prize and medal, she is a Dame of the British Empire, a UN Messenger of Peace, and, most recently, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Biden. At 90, she continues to travel and give talks around the world 300 days a year. Her talks have an extraordinary ability to inspire compassionate action. She begins with the story of her career, describes chimpanzee life, then moves on to the problems facing the planet. Then she emphasizes her reasons for hope: human ingenuity, the resilience of nature, the energy of youth, and the indomitable human spirit. She ends to standing ovations with the message that every individual matters and that the actions of every individual make a difference to the well-being of our world. She goes on, as she says, because she must.

Jane Goodall with Anne Pusey at Duke University (Photo: Megan Morr, Duke University Press Office)

About the Author: Anne Pusey is James B. Duke Distinguished Professor Emerita of Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University and director of the Jane Goodall Institute Research Center at Duke University. Since the 1990s, she has been archiving the data collected from the Gombe chimpanzee project in a computerized database she oversees. She has authored or co-authored 21 books, 114 journal entries, and six conference papers. She was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2022.

© Anne Pusey 2025

What Jane Goodall Has Taught Us About Chimpanzees

The world premiere of the 2025 EST/Sloan Project production, HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL AND HER MOTHER?, written by Michael Walek and directed by Linsay Firman, begins previews on March 5 at the Ensemble Studio Theatre and runs through March 30. You can purchase tickets here.

This 2024/2025 season marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the EST/Sloan Project, the joint initiative between the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Ensemble Studio Theatre “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.” In that spirit, we offer this essay on Jane Goodall’s wide-ranging contributions to science.

What Jane Goodall Has Taught Us About Chimpanzees

By Rich Kelley

The brilliant new comedy, HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL AND HER MOTHER?, recreates the first six months of primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall’s first expedition to Tanganyika in 1960 to observe chimpanzees in the wild. The observations Goodall began then—and continued for thirty years—revolutionized our understanding of nonhuman primates. Primatology, ethology, and the practice of field observation have never been the same since.

The field work of Goodall and the colleagues she assembled in Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania has led to major discoveries about chimpanzee behavior, communication, social structures, and even their darker tendencies. These discoveries not only reshaped scientific perceptions of chimpanzees but also challenged our understanding of the boundaries between humans and animals, calling attention to the profound similarities we share with our closest living relatives.

Consider the range of these findings:

Social Structures and Hierarchies

Chimpanzees live in dynamic communities that can range from fifteen to over one hundred.

Chimpanzee meeting Uganda Wildlife Conservation Centre Entebbe Uganda 2018 Photo Elisha Muwanguzi CC 4.0

As Jane Goodall documented, these communities have distinct hierarchies and are fluid, with members frequently splitting into smaller subgroups (parties) for activities like foraging, traveling, or resting. Unlike many other animals, chimpanzees form long-term bonds and maintain extensive social networks.

Chimpanzee communities are typically led by an alpha male, who gains his position through physical strength, intelligence, and familial and political alliances.

Alpha male chimpanzee walking at Kibale forest National Park, Uganda 2022  Photo: Giles Laurent CCA 4.0

Goodall observed that these dominant males have priority access to resources, mating opportunities, and influence over group decisions. But chimpanzee societies are not static. Power struggles, alliances, and betrayals are common, leading to frequent shifts in the social hierarchy. The alpha male is not necessarily the strongest individual but often the most socially adept, capable of manipulating group dynamics to maintain power. Goodall documented instances where lower-ranking males formed coalitions to overthrow an alpha male, demonstrating a level of strategic thinking and cooperation previously thought to be unique to humans.

Grooming is a vital social activity that serves both hygiene and social functions,

A group of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) grooming each other, Gombe Stream National Park 2010 Photo: ikiwaner GNU License 1.2

Grooming reduces tension and reinforces relationships within the group. Chimpanzees experience conflicts, but they also engage in reconciliation behaviors, such as embracing or grooming after a fight, to restore social harmony.

Maternal Bonds and Learning

Mother chimpanzees are highly attentive to their infants, carrying them constantly, nursing them, and protecting them from harm.

Chimpanzee mother climbing a tree with its baby at Kibale forest National Park, Uganda 2022 Photo: Giles Laurent CCA 4.0

Goodall observed that young chimpanzees spend several years heavily dependent on their mothers. This extended period of dependency allows for the transmission of knowledge and traditions across generations, a phenomenon previously thought to be unique to humans. Chimpanzee mothers provide comfort and reassurance to their infants. When a young chimp is frightened or upset, it will often run to its mother for safety and comfort. The bond between a mother and her offspring can last for many years, even after the young chimp reaches adulthood. Goodall observed adult chimpanzees maintaining close relationships with their mothers, often seeking their company and support. Daughters often mirrored the parenting behavior of their mothers.

Mothers teach their young critical skills, such as foraging food, using tools, and navigating social interactions.

Mother and child chimpanzees sharing food 2014 Photo by Blackseablue CCA 3.0

For example, Goodall observed mothers showing their offspring how to use sticks to extract termites from mounds or stones to crack nuts. These behaviors are not instinctual but are learned through observation, imitation, and practice. Mothers also engage in play with their infants, which helps the young chimps develop physical and social skills. This playful interaction strengthens their bond and prepares the infants for life within the group.

Individual Personalities

Goodall treated her chimpanzee subjects as individuals, giving them names, and demonstrated that they possess distinct personalities and temperaments. 

Jane Goodall grooming David Greybeard, the first chimp to lose his fear of her. (Photo: National Geographic Creative/Hugo Van Lawick)

One of the most enduring legacies of Goodall’s work is her recognition of individual personalities among chimpanzees. Giving subjects names rather than numbers was controversial at the time but it allowed Goodall to appreciate their unique traits and behaviors. Flo, for instance, she described as a nurturing and influential matriarch, while Mike was a clever and resourceful alpha male who used empty kerosene cans to intimidate rivals and assert dominance. “Gentle, calm, unafraid” David Graybeard has become famous as the chimpanzee who showed her that chimpanzees use tools.

Emotional Complexity and Empathy

Chimpanzees experience a wide range of emotions similar to those of humans, including grief.

One of the most poignant examples of chimpanzee empathy came from Goodall’s account of Flint, a young chimpanzee who exhibited profound grief after the death of his mother, Flo.

Video excerpt about Flo’s last days and Flint’s grief from The People of the Forest, The Chimps of Gombe (1988), Part 7, by Hugo Van Lawick (9:53)

Flint’s behavior—refusing to eat, becoming lethargic, and eventually dying himself on the same spot where his mother died—suggested that chimpanzees are capable of deep emotional attachments and can experience grief and loss in ways strikingly similar to humans. This discovery influenced scientists to reconsider the emotional capacities of animals and their ability to form meaningful relationships.

Communication and Vocalizations

Chimpanzees use a sophisticated communication system that allows them to coordinate activities, warn others of threats, and maintain social cohesion.

Learn the different sounds and gestures chimpanzees use to communicate. From Primate Models for Evolution Lab (4:09)

Goodall documented a wide array of vocalizations, gestures, and facial expressions that chimpanzees use to convey information and emotions. For example, she identified distinct calls for food, danger, and social interactions, each with specific meanings and contexts.

In addition to vocalizations, Goodall observed that chimpanzees use body language and gestures to communicate. For instance, a submissive chimpanzee might crouch or present its back to a dominant individual, while an aggressive chimpanzee might puff up its fur, stomp, or throw objects to intimidate rivals.

Hunting and Meat-Eating

Chimpanzees are not strictly herbivorous but also engage in hunting and meat eating.

Ugandan chimps hunting from Life of Mammals BBC Earth (3:40)

Before Goodall’s research, chimpanzees were thought to be primarily vegetarian, with occasional insect consumption. However, Goodall observed chimpanzees hunting and eating smaller primates, such as colobus monkeys, in coordinated group efforts. This behavior revealed a level of cooperation and planning previously unrecognized in nonhuman animals.

The hunting parties often involved strategic roles, with some chimpanzees acting as drivers to herd the prey while others ambushed or captured it. The group then shared the meat, though not always equally. Goodall noted that the distribution of meat often followed social lines, with dominant individuals receiving larger shares and using meat as a political tool to strengthen alliances or assert dominance. This discovery challenged the simplistic view of chimpanzees as peaceful vegetarians and demonstrated their capacity for violence and strategic thinking.

Conflict and Warfare

One finding that shocked Goodall was discovering how territorial and violent chimpanzees could become.

Goodall observed that chimpanzee communities will aggressively defend their territory from neighboring groups. In some cases, these conflicts escalated into brutal attacks, with groups of males patrolling their borders, ambushing rivals, and killing individuals from other communities.

World War Chimp | The Brutal 1974 – 1978 Gombe Chimpanzee War: Documentary (9:22)

 The most infamous example of chimpanzee warfare occurred during the Gombe Chimpanzee War, a four-year conflict between two rival groups, the Kasakela and the Kahama. Goodall and her team witnessed violent raids, kidnappings, killings of males and females, and even cannibalistic feasting on the flesh of newborns. Ultimately, the Kasakela group wiped out the Kahama. This extended conflict revealed a darker side of chimpanzee behavior, challenging the romanticized view of them as peaceful, harmonious creatures.

Michael Walek on Africa in 1960, research surprises, breaking the fourth wall, and HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL AND HER MOTHER?

Michael Walek

The world premiere of HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL AND HER MOTHER? the new comedy written by Michael Walek and directed by Linsay Firman will begin previews at the Ensemble Studio Theatre on Wednesday, March 5 and run through March 30, 2025. This will be the 2025 mainstage production of the EST/Sloan Project, the alliance between EST and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, now in its twenty-fifth year.

The play dramatizes the first months of twenty-six-year-old Jane Goodall’s first expedition to study chimpanzees in Africa, an expedition that changed how we view what makes us human.  But why did she bring her mother? To learn why, we asked the playwright.

 (Interview by Rich Kelley)

What prompted you to write HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL AND HER MOTHER?

When I was growing up, my mom loved Jane Goodall. We had her books in the house, and I thought I knew her story. A few years ago, I learned that when the Tanzanian government allowed Jane Goodall to study chimpanzees, they required she bring a chaperone, so she brought her mother. The idea of a scientist bringing her mother on her first expedition sounded like a play I wanted to write.

Jane Goodall and her mother Margaret “Vanne” Myfanwe Joseph in camp (Photo: Hugo Van Lawick, National Geographic Society)

What research did you do to write your play?

Tons of research. I read everything I could get my hands on from her journals to her family’s letters.

Your play creates vignettes that dramatize the first months Jane Goodall spends with her mother leading her first expedition to study chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) in 1960. How did you figure out what they sounded like? Did you work with her field notes?

Luckily, many of Jane and Vanne’s letters from that time were published, so it was easy to get a sense of their writing style, words they liked, nicknames they used. I found them to be utterly charming.

Is the relationship you dramatize between Jane and her mother your invention or based on something Jane wrote?  They are often quite funny. Is that from your imagination or based on your research?

Before I did my research, I assumed that any child living in a tent with her parent for five months would find it a stressful situation, only to discover that Jane and Vanne adored each other and never really fought. Suddenly, I had to write a play about two funny, kind people who encouraged and supported each other.

HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL AND HER MOTHER? had its first public reading as part of the 2019 First Light Festival. How has the play changed since then?

This is an entirely new play. After a great note session with Linsay and Graeme*, I decided to take the play in a completely different direction. It is a screwball comedy instead of a bio-play. More Noel Coward than Merchant-Ivory.

It’s always seemed a bit preposterous that the famed anthropologist Louis Leakey would choose a secretary with no academic background or field experience to lead an expedition into the thick mountainous terrain the chimpanzees inhabited. And be able to get funding for her. Why do you think he chose Jane?

Well, she wasn’t his first choice. Jane only found this out years later, but Leakey tried to get another scientist to go into the field, but she declined. I think a lot has been made out that she was “just a secretary.” She went on a human fossil dig with Leakey and worked with him at his museum in Kenya. She was a bit more qualified, but it makes a better story if she’s this random typist.

Jane Goodall grooming David Greybeard, the first chimp to lose his fear of her. (Photo: National Geographic Creative/Hugo Van Lawick)

Your play focuses on the first months Jane spent in Tanganyika in 1960 and what she discovered as the first person to study chimpanzees in the wild—but also her frustration at not being able to make the major discovery she had hoped for that would justify Louis Leakey’s faith in her. When did her breakthrough observation about how chimps make tools to collect termites actually occur?

In the play, all the facts about science are true. Jane really did make her discovery in the final weeks of her first stay in Tanganyika after her mother went home.

What would you like the audience to take away from seeing HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL AND HER MOTHER?

This is a hard question. I don’t know. It’s a big play. I want the audience to feel like they’ve gone on a journey with the cast and the characters. 

Will actors or puppets portray the chimpanzees on stage? What’s the plan?

It’s a surprise, but it’s going to be incredible. 

What background about Tanganyika in 1960 would it be useful for people to know?

Change was everywhere in Africa then. 1960 became known as The Year of Africa. Seventeen new African nations had joined the United Nations by December. While it does not cover Tanganyika specifically, The New York Times did an incredible special on The Year of Africa. It’s a fascinating look at a topic of history not covered by most American educational institutions.

Was Jane very savvy about how politically charged the world around her was in Tanganyika in 1960?

It’s so easy to look back and see history, but when you are living day-to-day, I don’t know if we have the same clarity. Jane Goodall was obviously smart. She lived in Nigeria for years before she went to Tangynika, so I am sure she was aware of what was going on. 

Did Jane ever have any dealings with Julius Nyerere, the first president of the new country of Tanzania?

Yes. Jane Goodall has so many remarkable chapters in her life. Her second husband Derek Bryceson was part of the Tanzanian parliament. They were good friends with Julius Nyerere and actually lived next door to him. The Swahili translation of Jane’s book, In the Shadow of Man, includes an introduction written by Nyerere. 

Young Jane Goodall with Jubilee (Photo: Courtesy of Jane Goodall Institute)

Much has been made of how Jubilee, a plush toy chimpanzee Jane was given as a child, may have determined her career. Were you ever given something as a child that shaped your life?

Again, I think this is some hindsight mythologizing. Jane would’ve studied birds if it was the assignment. It just happened to be chimpanzees. 

Your characters sometimes break the fourth wall and speak directly to the audience by commenting on or narrating the story. Why do you do that? How do you think that affects how the audience experiences the story?

I think theatre is best when it embraces the qualities that differentiate it from other art forms. Anything that draws attention to the storytelling quality of theatre—we’re all sitting in a dark room watching people pretend—excites me. I hope it forces the audience to actively use their imagination instead of passively watching. 

Have you ever gone camping for an extended time? Spent any time observing nature? Done field research?

I absolutely hate camping, and the outdoors, which I realize makes it hysterical I wrote this play.

When did you first know you were a playwright?

My high school had a play contest my senior year. I wrote a play, and it won. I wasn’t invited to rehearsals, so I just showed up one night and saw my play. There was a twist ending, and the audience gasped. I was completely hooked.

*Linsay Firman is Director of Play Development at EST and Program Director of the EST/Sloan Project. Graeme Gillis is Co-Artistic Director of EST.

HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL AND HER MOTHER? the new comedy written by Michael Walek and directed by Linsay Firman will begin previews on March 5 and run through March 30, 2025 at the Ensemble Studio Theatre. You can find more information here.  

Michael Walek on research surprises, mythologizing, rewriting, and HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL & HER MOTHER?

Michael Walek

On Thursday, February 13, as part of the 2020 First Light Festival, the EST/Sloan Project is presenting two public readings—at 3 pm and 7 pm— of HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL & HER MOTHER? by Michael Walek. The first public reading of the play occurred as part of the 2019 First Light Festival. The play dramatizes the first months of twenty-six-year-old Jane Goodall’s first expedition to study chimpanzees in Africa. But why did she bring her mother? To learn why let’s ask the playwright:

 (Interview by Rich Kelley)

It was almost exactly a year ago that HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL & HER MOTHER? had its first public reading as part of the 2019 First Light Festival. How has the play changed since then?

This is an entirely new play. After a great note session with Linsay and Graeme*, I decided to take the play in a completely different direction. It is a screwball comedy instead of a bio-play. More Noel Coward than Merchant-Ivory.

What prompted you to write this particular play?

Jane Goodall and her mother Margaret “Vanne” Myfanwe Joseph in camp (Photo: Hugo Van Lawick, National Geographic Society)

Growing up, my mom loved Jane Goodall. We had her books in the house, and I thought I knew her story. A few years ago, I learned that when the Tanzanian government allowed Jane Goodall to study chimpanzees, they required she bring a chaperone, so she brought her mother. The idea of a scientist bringing her mother on her first expedition sounded like a play I wanted to write. 

What research did you do?

Tons of research. I read everything I could get my hands on from her journals to her family’s letters. 

Your play creates vignettes that dramatize the first months Jane Goodall spends with her mother leading her first expedition to study chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) in 1960. How did you figure out what they sounded like? Did you work with her field notes?

Luckily, many of Jane and Vanne’s letters from that time were published, so it was easy to get a sense of their writing style, words they liked, nicknames they used. I found them to be utterly charming. 

Is the relationship you dramatize between Jane and her mother your invention or based on something Jane wrote?  They are often quite funny. Is that from your imagination or based on your research?

Before I did my research, I assumed that any child living in a tent with her parent for five months would find it a stressful situation, only to discover that Jane and Vanne adored each other and never really fought. Suddenly, I had to write a play about two funny, kind people who encouraged and supported each other. 

It’s always seemed a bit preposterous that the famed anthropologist Louis Leakey would choose a secretary with no academic background or field experience to lead an expedition into the thick mountainous terrain the chimpanzees inhabited. And be able to get funding for her. Why do you think he chose Jane?

Well, she wasn’t his first choice. Jane only found this out years later, but Leakey tried to get another scientist to go into the field, but she declined. I think a lot has been made out that she was “just a secretary.” She went on a human fossil dig with Leakey and worked with him at his museum in Kenya. She was a bit more qualified, but it makes a better story if she’s this random typist. 

Jane Goodall grooming David Greybeard, the first chimp to lose his fear of her. (Photo: National Geographic Creative/Hugo Van Lawick)

Your play focuses on the first months Jane spent in Tanganyika in 1960 and what she discovered as the first person to study chimpanzees in the wild—but also her frustration at not being able to make the major discovery she had hoped for that would justify Louis Leakey’s faith in her. When did her breakthrough observation about how chimps make tools to collect termites actually occur?

In the play, all the facts about science are true. Jane really did make her discovery in the final weeks of her first stay in Tanganyika after her mother went home.

Much has been made of how a plush toy chimpanzee Jane was given as a child may have determined her career. What do you make of that?

Young Jane Goodall with Jubilee (Photo: Courtesy of Jane Goodall Institute)

Again, I think this is some hindsight mythologizing. Jane would’ve studied birds if it was the assignment. It just happened to be chimpanzees. 

Rewriting is probably among the most under-appreciated, or under-discussed, aspects of playwriting.  When you begin a rewrite, do you have a particular goal in mind: give the characters more personality, make it funnier, add more science, make the transitions sharper?

This is an incredibly collaborative process, so the director and the actors and I spend a lot of time talking about the play. They all have incredible observations, so each night I have plenty of things to work on and rewrite.

Have you ever gone camping for an extended time? Spent any time observing nature? Done field research?

I absolutely hate camping, and the outdoors, which I realize makes it hysterical I wrote this play. 

You’ve been a member of EST’s Youngblood collective. How has that influenced your playwriting?

One of the best things about Youngblood is how radically different everyone’s writing is. I think Youngblood pushed me to write more like myself. I am very lucky to have been part of the collective. 

Have you written other plays about science?

 Yes. I wrote numerous plays for the Youngblood Science brunch and they were always rejected. 

When did you first know you were a playwright?

My high school had a play contest my senior year. I wrote a play, and it won. I wasn’t invited to rehearsals, so I just showed up one night and saw my play. There was a twist ending, and the audience gasped. I was completely hooked. 

*Linsay Firman is Associate Director and Graeme Gillis is Program Director of The EST Sloan Project

The 2020  EST/Sloan First Light Festival runs from January 16 through March 12 and features readings and workshop productions of ten new plays. The festival is made possible through the alliance between The Ensemble Studio Theatre and The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, now in its twenty-second year.



Michael Walek on research surprises, mythologizing, camping, and HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL & HER MOTHER

Michael Walek

On Tuesday, February 5, as part of the 2019 First Light Festival, the EST/Sloan Project is presenting the first public reading of HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL & HER MOTHER by Michael Walek. The play dramatizes the first months of twenty-six-year-old Jane Goodall’s first expedition to study chimpanzees in Africa. But why did she bring her mother? To learn why, let’s hear from the playwright: 

(Interview by Rich Kelley)

What prompted you to write HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL & HER MOTHER?

When I was growing up, my mom loved Jane Goodall. We had her books in the house, and I thought I knew her story. A few years ago, I learned that when the Tanzanian government allowed Jane Goodall to study chimpanzees, they required she bring a chaperone, so she brought her mother. The idea of a scientist bringing her mother on her first expedition sounded like a play I wanted to write. 

Jane Goodall and her mother Margaret “Vanne” Myfanwe Joseph in camp (Photo: Hugo Van Lawick, National Geographic Society)

What research did you do to write your play?

Tons of research. I read everything I could get my hands on from her journals to her family’s letters. 

Your play creates vignettes that dramatize the first months Jane Goodall spends with her mother leading her first expedition to study chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) in 1960. How did you figure out what they sounded like? Did you work with her field notes?

Luckily, many of Jane and Vanne’s letters from that time were published, so it was easy to get a sense of their writing style, words they liked, nicknames they used. I found them to be utterly charming. 

Is the relationship you dramatize between Jane and her mother your invention or based on something Jane wrote?  They are often quite funny. Is that from your imagination or based on your research?

Before I did my research, I assumed that any child living in a tent with her parent for five months would find it a stressful situation, only to discover that Jane and Vanne adored each other and never really fought. Suddenly, I had to write a play about two funny, kind people who encouraged and supported each other. 

Jane Goodall grooming David Greybeard, the first chimp to lose his fear of her.

It’s always seemed a bit preposterous that the famed anthropologist Louis Leakey would choose a secretary with no academic background or field experience to lead an expedition into the thick mountainous terrain the chimpanzees inhabited. And be able to get funding for her. Why do you think he chose Jane?

Well, she wasn’t his first choice. Jane only found this out years later, but Leakey tried to get another scientist to go into the field, but she declined. I think a lot has been made out that she was “just a secretary.” She went on a human fossil dig with Leakey and worked with him at his museum in Kenya. She was a bit more qualified, but it makes a better story if she’s this random typist. 

Have you ever gone camping for an extended time? Spent any time observing nature? Done field research?

I absolutely hate camping, and the outdoors, which I realize makes it hysterical I wrote this play. 

Young Jane Goodall with Jubilee

Much has been made of how Jubilee, a plush toy chimpanzee Jane was given as a child, may have determined her career. Were you ever given something as a child that shaped your life?

Again, I think this is some hindsight mythologizing. Jane would’ve studied birds if it was the assignment. It just happened to be chimpanzees.  

You’ve been a member of EST’s Youngblood collective. How has that influenced your playwriting?

One of the best things about Youngblood is how radically different everyone’s writing is. I think Youngblood pushed me to write more like myself. I am very lucky to have been part of the collective. 

Have you written other plays about science?

Yes. I wrote numerous plays for the Youngblood Science brunch and they were always rejected. 

When did you first know you were a playwright?

My high school had a play contest my senior year. I wrote a play, and it won. I wasn’t invited to rehearsals, so I just showed up one night and saw my play. There was a twist ending, and the audience gasped. I was completely hooked. 

The 2019 EST/Sloan First Light Festival runs from January 28 through March 1 and features readings and workshop productions of ten new plays. The climax of every EST/Sloan season is the annual Mainstage Production, which this year was the world premiere of BEHIND THE SHEET by Charly Evon Simpson. Directed by Colette Robert, BEHIND THE SHEET confronts the history of a great medical breakthrough by telling the forgotten story of a community of enslaved black women who involuntarily enabled the discovery. Previews began January 9 and the show runs through March 10. Tickets can be purchased here. The First Light Festival is made possible through the alliance between The Ensemble Studio Theatre and The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, now in its twentieth year.