First Light

Filtering by: First Light

Apr
20
to Apr 24

First Light Performances

Presented by the Ensemble Studio Theatre and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

When a new telescope focused on the heavens becomes operational, the initial images it sees are called First Light. For thirteen years, the EST/Sloan Project has led a pioneering nationwide effort to commission, develop and present hundreds of new plays that challenge and broaden the view of science in the popular imagination. Each play's life onstage begins with the First Light festival. Join us for this year's discoveries.


EST/Sloan RoughCut Workshop Production

PIDGEON
by Tommy Smith*

directed by William Carden*

Set in depression-era New York City and Stalinist Russia, Pidgeon follows the exploits of Leon Theremin, Soviet inventor and father of electronic music. When Theremin marries a whipsmart black prima ballerina, their expatriate romance shocks society and attracts the looming shadow of foreign terror. With Robert Joy*, Curran Connor*, Angela Lewis and Peter Maloney*, with Theremin music by Jen Rondeau

April 20 - 23 at 7pm, with a 2pm matinee on April 23

EST/Youngblood Presentation: A BRUNCH HISTORY OF TIME: The Youngblood Science Brunch

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Mar
11
to May 27

First Light Readings

Presented by the Ensemble Studio Theatre and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

When a new telescope focused on the heavens becomes operational, the initial images it sees are called First Light. For thirteen years, the EST/Sloan Project has led a pioneering nationwide effort to commission, develop and present hundreds of new plays that challenge and broaden the view of science in the popular imagination. Each play's life onstage begins with the First Light festival. Join us for this year's discoveries.


PLEASE CONTINUE
by Frank Basloe

Yale, early 1960s. Professor Stanley Milgram's "obedience experiments+ù test how cruel people can be when they are just following orders. Milgram gets the data he needs, but the lab assistant who conducted the experiment is left to grapple with his own cruelty, a dilemma echoed by unexpected crimes on campus. Please Continue examines the conditions under which we allow ourselves to inflict harm. 

Monday, April 4 at 7pm

 

FAST COMPANY
by Carla Ching

Mable Kwan was a famous grifter who taught her sons the long con, and how to be an expert roper and fixer. Tired of the life, Francis retired and became a magician. H became a sports writer. Blue, the youngest and the only girl, always kept out of the family trade, now studies game theory and may become the best con artist of the family. The estranged trio is called home to Mable's deathbed. With a small fortune at stake, will they be able to break old habits? Or who will con who in the end? 

Tuesday, April 5 at 7pm

 

SMASH
by Robert Askins*

directed by David P. Moore*

It's 1993 and the biggest particle collider in the world is being built in Waxahatchie, Texas. As project head, Alan is the hometown boy made good. Never mind that the hometown didn't like him too much and his bosses need his accent more than his mind. He's living his dream until things start to slip: Bill Clinton is in the White House and Congress is out of money. All of a sudden, atoms aren't the only thing about to get busted apart.

With Florencia Lozano, Joel Rooks*, Scott Sowers*, Joe Urla and Michael Louis Wells*. Stage Managed by Kate Pressman.

Thursday, April 7 at 7pm

 

THE SECRET LIFE OF ARTHROPODS AND RODENTS
by Cori Thomas

directed by Mariana Carreño King

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...

With Maggie Bofill, Teddy Cañez, Maria Helan, Maria-Christina Oliveras and José Joaquín Perez. Stage Managed byMegan Kosmoski. 

Friday, April 8 at 3pm

 

ADA
Composed by Kim Sherman & Libretto by Margaret Vandenburg

directed by Lisa Rothe

Musical direction by Kim Grigsby
Stage Managed by Mark Karafin

An opera on the life of Ada Lovelace, daughter of the poet Lord Byron and widely credited with writing the first computer program. Like her father before her, Ada embarks on a Romantic quest that rebels against Victorian restraint, creating a revolutionary language of numbers that was way ahead of her time.

Featuring Millinee Bannister, Robert Boldin, Christopher Burchett, Sarah Chalfy, Brian Cheney, Cherry Duke, Juan Jose Ibarra, David Schmidt, Abigail Shue and Sarah Statler, with Pianist Micah Young. 

Monday, April 11 at 8pm @ The 52nd Street Project, 789 10th Avenue

 

BIG HUNGRY WORLD
by Susan Bernfield

directed by Emma Griffin

Catherine is a Silicon Valley billionaire who wants to give away her money - she thinks. Always a perfectionist, she is determined that her charity be as efficient and effective as everything else she's done in her life. But feeding the world is an unruly, messy business, where the rules she learned - and invented - don't apply. A play in three parts about goodness in the context of great privilege, and the moral value of work. 

Tuesday, April 12 at 3pm

 

THE SEPARATION OF BLOOD
by Bridgette Wimberly*

directed by Woodie King

Dr. Charles Drew encountered many separations throughout his life. The discoverer of the groundbreaking method of separating and preserving blood for safe transfusions and the driving force behind the first blood bank in the world was himself unable, like all African Americans, to receive a blood transfusion. On the night of April 1, 1950, in a long perilous drive through the south, he set out to change that. 

Tuesday, April 12 at 7pm

 

FLATLAND
Conceived and directed by Jon Levin

Written by Jon Levin and Josh Luxenberg from research, interviews, improvisations and discussions by the Sinking Ship Presented alongside an Exploration of contemporary THEORIES of PHYSICS pertaining to EXTRA DIMENSIONS of SPACE. Based on "Flatland" by Edwin Abbott Abbott, and incorporating material from writing by Abbott, Charles Hinton, Brian Greene, Lisa Randall, Wade Davis, and conversations with Raman Sundrum, Andreas Karch and Wade Davis.

On the last night before the new Millennium, A. Square, an inhabitant of Flatland, is visited by a Sphere from the land of three dimensions. Sphere takes him on a journey to discover the true nature of the universe. But in Flatland, the notion of a third dimension is heresy, and one who preaches such heresy must be silenced. Using puppetry, physical theater and technology from overhead projectors to lasers, Flatland tells the story of a search to comprehend the world beyond our experience.

Featuring Brian Stokes Mitchell, Roger Robinson, Linda Powell, Olivia Ford and James Earl Jones

Ensemble: Clare McNulty, Johanna Morris, Jeremy Pickard, Eric Wright, Jesse Garrison, with a particularly large amount of research done by Solon Gordon. Performed by Sinking Ship Ensemble Rehearsal/workshop puppets built by Eric Wright. Technical Directed by Jesse Garrison. Stage Managed by Sarah Biesinger. 

Thursday, April 14 at 3pm & Friday, April 15 at 7pm @ The Vault (LMCC's Swing Space), 14 Wall street, Level B

 

A LADY ALONE
by Lynn Eckert, Christine Farrell*, and Kevin Confoy*

directed by Kevin Confoy*

Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to receive an MD degree from an American medical school. A Lady Alone is a one-woman play about a life that spanned the American Civil War and the most intriguing questions of science and the human condition at the top of the 20th century.

Monday, April 18 at 7pm

*denotes member of Ensemble Studio Theatre

 

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Oct
27
to Nov 21

Photograph 51 by Anna Ziegler*

Ensemble Studio Theatre and The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation presents

Photograph 51
by Anna Ziegler*

Directed by Linsay Firman*

October 27 - November 21, 2010

London, 1953. Scientists are on the verge of discovering what they call the secret of life: the DNA double helix. Providing the key is driven young physicist Rosalind Franklin. But if the double helix was the breakthrough of the 20th century, then what kept Franklin out of the history books?

A play about ambition, isolation, and the race for greatness.

Photograph 51 is the winner of the 2008 STAGE International Script Competition and was developed, in part, through the University of California, Santa Barbara's STAGE Project by the Professional Artists Lab (Nancy Kawalek, Director) and the California NanoSystems Institute.

Featuring Kristen Bush*, Kevin Collins, David Gelles*, Haskell King*, Benjamin Pelteson and Jeremy Webb.

Scenic Design - Nick Francone
Sound Design - Shane Rettig
Costume Design - Suzanne Chesney
Lighting Design - Les Dickert
Properties Design - Caitlin Fergus
Dialect Design - Erik Singer
Casting Director - Kelly Gillespie
Production Stage Manager - Danielle Buccino
Assistant Stage Manager - Olga Kreimer

* denotes EST Member


REVIEWS

"Critic's Pick! A play that glows with intelligence and humanity. Compelling theatre." - Backstage

"Provides an emotional journey into the complex realities of laboratory science." - Science Magazine

"Who knew science could make for such terrific theatre?" - New Scientist

"Palpable, persuasive drama." - TheaterMania

"I highly recommend it!" - Discover Magazine

"There's something irresistible about plays that deal with iconic scientific discoveries" - The Scientist


Media

Podcast of Science Friday interview with playwright Anna Ziegler and actress Kristen Bush. Listen here.

Scientific American podcast of panel discussion on the issues and controversy surrounding the play. Part 1 / Part 2

Also read Scientific American's write-up about the panel discussion here.


The Story Behind the Play

The Story Behind the Play

In the early 1950s, scientist Rosalind Franklin used x-ray diffraction photography to examine what people were calling the "secret of life": the structure of DNA.

One particular image, nicknamed "Photograph 51", was the key that revealed the secret of DNA's double helix.

Fellow scientists James Watson and Francis Crick used "Photograph 51" as the inspiration for their 1953 paper in Nature Magazine detailing DNA's helical structure. This breakthrough won them the 1962 Nobel Prize.

To the layperson, this landmark photograph may not reveal much at all. To get a closer look, take a look at PBS/NOVA's animated explanation of "Photograph 51" and its significance.

To learn more about the fascinating history and science behind the play, check out the New Yorker article "Photo Finish" or the PBS documentary "Secret of Photo 51".

A newly discovered trove of letters from this era has revealed deeper insight into the people behind the race to discover the "secret of life". To learn more, read the New York Times article about this recent find.

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