Jacob Marx Rice
When you’re seventeen, everything is charged with intensity. Imagine the forces swirling around four science nerds as they study for their AP Physics Exam. Love, sex, money, mental health and the hurricane of being seventeen whirl through BINDING ENERGY, the brilliant new dark comedy by Jacob Marx Rice.
BINDING ENERGY had its first public reading on April 25 at the Ensemble Studio Theater as part of the 2024 EST/Sloan First Light Festival.
Jacob recently shared his thoughts about how the play came to be.
(Interview by Rich Kelley)
Takes us back to the origin of BINDING ENERGY. What inspired you to write it?
This wonderful organization called Fresh Ground Pepper is an incubator of new plays and they have a summer writing retreat they run every year. I had taken a break from writing plays due to some personal stuff and was trying to figure out my way back in, but I was completely at a loss, so I applied to the retreat. I had zero idea what I was going to write, but they took pity on me and invited me to come figure it out in the woods. I spent the mornings chopping wood, the afternoons interviewing the college students who were apprentices at the retreat about their high school experience, and the nights writing snippets of dialogue until a play began to form.
Why this play? Why now?
I think that we are in an incredibly delicate and important moment for teenagers. Mental illness among current teenagers has skyrocketed, with anxiety and depression reaching truly terrifying levels and rates of teen suicide nearly doubling. If we don’t start listening to these teenagers and finding a way to make the world a better place for them, it’s going to get a lot worse. This play provides a lens into that landscape, reminding people of their own experience of high school while pushing them to better understand the specific challenges facing teens today.
All of the characters in BINDING ENERGY are science nerds preparing for an advanced placement physics exam. No teachers. No parents. What appealed to you about focusing on the dynamics of students trying to learn together?
Being a teenager is such an isolating experience. Even when parents and teachers are nearby, it is so hard for them to actually relate that it can feel like you are alone. I had wonderful, caring parents and deeply committed teachers, but I still felt like I had to figure everything out myself. I wanted the world of the play to reflect that feeling.
Taken at the reading of BINDING ENERGY at EST on April 25. From left, Linsay Firman, Program Director of EST/Sloan Project; actor and friend of EST Seth Clayton; Sam Heldt, who read the part of Will in the play; Katie Palmer, Co-Artistic Director of Theater in Asylum; and playwright Jacob Marx Rice.
Were you ever in a study group like the one in your play? Were the interactions in the group as dramatic as in your play?
I was in a study group almost exactly like the one in the play, though it was for chemistry rather than physics. And, unfortunately, a surprising number of the most dramatic parts of the play are based on real experiences. And the ones that aren’t, are based on the experiences of teenagers I interviewed throughout the process. Just about every single story in this play is from someone’s real experience even (or perhaps especially) the stuff that is most horrifying.
You have a degree in astrophysics and you’ve taught high school physics. How did you decide how much science to include in the play?
The hardest thing about writing a play with science in it is not letting the science completely take over. Science is so full of cool ideas and fun facts, especially in physics, and some of the early drafts had these enormous diversions into awesome but irrelevant stuff I wanted people to know more about. In the end, I tried to apply a strict rule: if it doesn’t support the characters and the themes, it doesn’t get to go into the play. It was brutal paring it down, but the end result is that every physics moment either pushes the characters forward in the plot or reveals something true about who they are.
What do you want the audience to take away from BINDING ENERGY?
That it is so damn hard to be a teenager. But also that growth, and grace, are possible.
The Willamette Meteorite at the Museum of Natural History Photo: Mike Peel CC-BY-SA-4.0.
One of the most memorable passages in your play is Will’s description of his encounter with the Willamette meteorite. It’s such a beautiful set piece. When did that passage originate?
I’m pretty sure that monologue was the last thing I wrote. I wanted to give the audience a peak into Will’s head when he’s not consumed by his desires and his mental illness. I wanted them to see the little boy, deeply flawed but also deeply hopeful, at the center of this person who causes so much harm. This play is attempting to examine the ways people hurt each other. The goal is never to justify or dismiss it, but to understand where it comes from and to see the humanity in everyone. That’s not an easy feat, but I believe it’s a vital one.
Would you like to comment on how the behavior of atomic particles is similar to the behavior of teenagers?
About halfway through the play, one of the characters points out that “physics is all just things pulling each other closer or pushing away.” That’s true of physics and it’s even more true of teenagers. In this play, each of the characters is based on a specific subatomic particle and that shapes their interactions with each other. But on a more fundamental level, I think being a teenager (or being a person) is really about trying to navigate the constant push and pull of other people in your life. Those forces can bring you together, or they can rip you apart, but we are all subject to the same constant struggle.
You’ve developed plays with several theater companies. How is the EST/Sloan development process different?
This play was incredibly hard to write and took much longer than I expected. I was blown away by how much EST supported me throughout, always there to talk through the dramaturgy but never rushing my process as I worked to figure things out. They were also so open to exploration. To the extent that there is a “standard” Sloan play, my play definitely doesn’t fit the mold. There are no actual scientists in the play! But they were totally open to going on this journey with me, while also providing clear guiderails to make sure that the play kept science at the center. It was such an open process, and the people were so kind throughout. It really was a pleasure to be a part of.
What’s next for Jacob Marx Rice?
Deadline just announced a film I wrote (about a magician who gets pulled into the horrific maw of WW2 and has to use his wits, and his magic tricks, to survive the unsurvivable) that is set to shoot in 2025. And I’ve been in talks with a few theaters around the country about my play A Brief List of Everyone Who Died, which premiered at the Finborough in London last year and was nominated for four off West End Awards. I’m really hoping to be able to bring it stateside soon.
BINDING ENERGY was one of six readings of new plays in development as part of the EST/Sloan Project in this year’s First Light Festival, which runs until June 17. All readings are free, but reservations are encouraged. The festival is made possible through the alliance between The Ensemble Studio Theatre and The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
