ISAAC'S EYE playwright Lucas Hnath on Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen, Fri 3/1

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Tomorrow, March 1, Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen is interviewing Isaac's Eye playwright Lucas Hnath! They will be talking about Lucas' new play and will be share some clips of a performance of Isaac's Eye. Host Kurt Anderson tweeted of the play:

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Isaac's Eye has been extended to March 10th due to popular demand! Don's miss you chance to see this "Brilliant New Play" !

Click here for more information on Isaac's Eye

Listen to the podcast at: http://studio360.org/

FIRST LIGHT: 2/22 PLUTO | 2/24 THE HUNDRED YEAR FLOOD | 2/25 FATHER UNKNOWN

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It's a busy week in FIRST LIGHT! Kicking it off is PLUTO by Bridgette Wimberly on Friday 2/22 @ 7pm. Then on Sunday 2/24 at 4pm its THE HUNDRED YEAR FLOOD by Meghan Deans & on Monday 2/25 at 7pm we have FATHER UNKNOWN by Daniel Reitz. All FREE & on 6fl!

 

Pluto by Bridgette Wimberly*

Friday, February 22 @ 7pm

Astronomy proves to be a lifeline for young man in his quest to survive his youth and connect to his troubled father.

Directed by Chuck Patterson* with Franceli Chapman, Nora Cole, Marcus Carl Franklin, Yvette Ganier, Kimberley LaMarque, Roscoe Orman & Samantha Sembler.

 

The Hundred Year Flood by Meghan Deans

Sunday, February 24 @ 4pm

A civil engineer in charge of deciding which flood-ruined homes to buy for a land reclamation project finds her task complicated when her high school boyfriend comes back to town and files a claim for the house he grew up in.

Directed by Colette Robert* with Helen Coxe*, Christine Farrell*, Adam Green, Kelli Lynn Harrison*, Megan Hill* & Megan Tusing*

 

Father Unknown by Daniel Reitz*

Monday, February 25 @ 7pm

When two different families discover their newborns have come from the same sperm donor, they delve deeper into his history, with unexpected results. A surprising look at the booming business of fertility.

Directed by Pamela Berlin* with Andrea Cirie, Annie Meisel, Henny Russell, Margot White & Gregory Woodell. Stage Directions read by Samantha Sembler.

*denotes EST Member +denotes AEA

 

Click here for more information on FIRST LIGHT

"Funky, stylized, distinctly contemporary. ISAAC'S EYE wins a whole mess of points for originality." - Charles Isherwood, New York Times

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Charles Isherwood reviewed Isaac's Eye in today's New York Times! Here is some of what he had to say in his piece entitled, Newton's New Vison.

“Don’t you give points for originality?” Isaac Newton asks of his would-be mentor, a more senior scientist named Robert Hooke, in “Isaac’s Eye,” a new play by Lucas Hnath at the Ensemble Studio Theater.
 
He doesn’t get the answer he wants. Turns out originality doesn’t count for all that much in the world of 17th-century science. Then as now, a fresh idea that proves false won’t get you too far.

In playwriting things are a bit different, happily for Mr. Hnath. “Isaac’s Eye” wins a whole mess of points for its originality. This odd little jeu d’esprit about the history of science considers immortal matters like male rivalry and overweening ambition from a willfully skewed perspective."

Click here to continue reading

Click here to read The New York Times profile on Isaac's Eye plawright Lucas Hnath

Click here for more information on Isaac's Eye

ISAAC'S EYE is "a riveting and ingenious piece of original theater"

Victor Gluck from theaterscene.net recently reviewed Isaac's Eye and had some really great things to say about the production.

"It is known that scientist Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) once conducted an experiment in which he put a needle into his tear duct. What is not known is why. Using this fact Lucas Hnath has constructed a fascinating, provocative and intriguing new play attempting to explain the circumstances around this event. The centerpiece of the 2013 First Light festival by Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science & Technology Project, Isaac’s Eye has received a spellbinding production by Linsay Firman. The play makes you understand the working of the minds of scientists in general and geniuses in particular. In addition, Hnath has blown the cobwebs off the historical play which he recasts in a contemporary light.

Hnath takes three risks which pay off beautifully, although they might have backfired: he uses an omniscient narrator, he tells his 17th century story with the actors dressed in contemporary clothing, and he begins his play as a lecture. All of these elements one would probably be told in drama school to avoid; however, here they are part of the play’s charm. Isaac’s Eye begins with a witty chalk and talk discourse delivered by the amiable Jeff Biehl, informing the audience about what facts are true and what events the play will present that are untrue about the career of Newton. He then takes us back to 1666, the year of the Great Plague of London. Biehl’s subsequent narration hints at why Newton’s life took the course that it did and why the legacy of Robert Hooke, Newton’s nemesis, has been forgotten today."

Click here to read the full review

Click here for more information on Isaac's Eye

The Scientist calls ISAAC'S EYE “Thoroughly engaging, thought-provoking, & very funny.”

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This week Mary Beth Aberlin of The Scientist wrote a reivew of Isaac's Eye entitled "Through the Eyes of a Giant" and had some wonderful things to say about the show!

"Renowned microscopist Robert Hooke haughtily asks Isaac Newton if he’d ever had a play written about him when the two first meet in Lucas Hnath's new play Isaac's Eye. Set sometime during the plague year 1665–66, this meeting never actually happened, which is the case with a number of scenes in the play. Isaac’s Eye opens with a twentysomething Newton, confident of his genius, explaining his obsession with gaining entry into the Royal Society (founded in November 1660) of which Hooke was the Curator of Experiments. The young physicist is intent on explaining a cornucopia of his ideas to the most learned men in England. He wants to pierce them with his intelligence. After several rebuffs, Newton has forced the meeting by sending Hooke all of his work, leaving the curator worried about being scooped by Newton's findings on the nature of light.   

What follows is a thoroughly engaging, thought-provoking, and often very funny exchange of ideas between two titans of science. Hnath plays Newton's decidedly odd, tortured personality off of the prickly Hooke, who was just 7 years Newton’s elder, but definitely more a man in and of the world. The two argue about things that still obsess practitioners of science to this day: experimental design, researcher bias, the importance of replicability, the value of thought experiments, credit for discovery—and they dis each other in earthy 21st-century language."

Click here to read the full review

Click here for more information on Isaac's Eye

FIRST LIGHT: 2/16 & 2/17 SOLDIER OF THE MIND | 2/18 THE DRIVE | Tue 2/19 THE DEVIL'S SALT

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Coming up next week in FIRST LIGHT we have one workshop presentation and four different readings! First up is the EST/Sloan RoughCut presentation of Soldier of the Mind by Justin Fleming. Next we have The Drive by Anna Moench & Rob Rusli which is unfortunately for you, sold out. Then we have The Devil's Salt by France-Luce Benson*, Pluto by Bridgette Wimberly* & The Hundred Year Flood by Meghan Deans. There is something to see for everyone, check out all the deatils below!

 

EST/Sloan Rough Cut Presentation

Soldier of The Mind by Justin Fleming

Saturday, February 16 @ 7pm & Sunday, February 17 @ 2pm

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.

Directed by John Giampietro* with Julie Fitzpatrick*+, Richmond Hoxie*+, Alfredo Narciso*+, & Michael Tisdale+

*denotes EST Member +denotes AEA

 

The Drive by Anna Moench & Rob Rusli

Monday, February 18 @ 7pm

A musical account of the motivations and actions of Lisa Nowak, the NASA astronaut who was apprehended on her way to murder her lover’s fiancée.

SOLD OUT.

 

The Devil’s Salt by France-Luce Benson*

Tuesday, February 19 @ 3pm

As practiced by Haitian firebrand Jean Dominique, Agronomy, the science of soil management and crop production, becomes a dangerously
revolutionary act.

FREE & on the 6th floor. Reserve your seat by clicking here.

 

Pluto by Bridgette Wimberly*

Friday, February 22 @ 7pm

Astronomy proves to be a lifeline for young man in his quest to survive his youth and connect to his troubled father.

FREE & on the 6th floor. Reserve your seat by clicking here.

 

The Hundred Year Flood by Meghan Deans

Sunday, February 24 @ 4pm

A civil engineer in charge of deciding which flood-ruined homes to buy for a land reclamation project finds her task complicated when her high
school boyfriend comes back to town and files a claim for the house he grew up in.

FREE & on the 6th floor. Reserve your seat by clicking here.

 

Click here for more information on FIRST LIGHT 2013

Hear the experts on ISAAC’S EYE discuss Isaac Newton’s life & times after 2/20 show

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Come to the Wednesday, February 20 @ 7pm performance of this year EST/Sloan Mainstage Production of Isaac’s Eye and stay for what promises to be an eye-opening panel discussion of the life, work, and times of Isaac Newton and Robert Hooke. The evening’s distinguished panel features

Matthew L. Jones, James R. Barker Associate Professor of Contemporary Civilization and Chair of the Contemporary Civilization Program, Columbia University

Matthew Stanley, Associate Professor, History of Science, New York University Gallatin School. He holds degrees in astronomy, history of science, physics, and religion, and currently runs the New York City History of Science Working Group.

Lucas Hnath, playwright and author of Isaac’s Eye; resident playwright, New Dramatists

The discussion will be moderated by EST/Sloan science advisor Gabriel Cwilich, Associate Professor of Physics and Division Coordinator of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Yeshiva University

Click here for tickets

Click here for more information on Isaac's Eye

ISAAC'S EYE on Science Friday 2/15 @ 3pm - Click here to Listen!

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Tune into Science Friday on 2/15 @ 3pm to listen to Isaac's Eye playwright Lucas Hnath and actors Haskell King & Michael Louis Serafin-Wells chat with Ira Flatow about the play!

"A New View of Newton in Isaac’s Eye" is the third segment in the program and should start around 3pm.

Click here to listen.

Click here for more information on ISAAC'S EYE

"ISAAC'S EYE is Piercing" & "Clearly Hnath is a talent to watch...." - Huffington Post

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Michael Giltz from The Huffington Post wrote a great review of Isaac's Eye entitled, "Isaac's Eye Is Piercing." Read some excerpts below.

"Hnath is so good in this first act I was certain I was watching one of the best plays of the year, even though it's only February. The four-person cast and director Linsay Firman were perfectly in sync with his skill, which is exactly what happens when good actors combine with good writing."

"I can strongly recommend Isaac's Eye for an excellent ensemble molded beautifully by their director. And clearly Hnath is a talent to watch, one good enough to make the exceptional promise of the first act shine much brighter than the modest let-down of the second."

Click here to read the full review

Click here for more information on Isaac's Eye

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