MIT and Underground Railway Theater Present From Orchids To Octopi

Catalyst Collaborative@MIT, Underground Railway Theater's science theater initiative with MIT, presents the World Premiere of From Orchids To Octopi: An Evolutionary Love Story by award-winning playwright Melinda Lopez and commissioned by the National Institutes of Health in order to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of "On the Origin of Species". Surprises erupt as a muralist's work is derailed by hallucinations, pregnancy, and dinosaurs in this witty take on how we understand - or do not - the theory of evolution. Charles Darwin comments on it all. From Orchids to Octopi plays at Central Square Theater from Wednesday March 31 through Sunday, May 2. The Press night is set for Saturday, April 3 at 8 PM.

Directed by Diego Arciniegas, From Orchids To Octopi will also be presented March 22 - 23 at the Bethesda Theatre in Bethesda, MD, near the NIH campus. There will be free student matinees at 10 am each morning, and evening performances for the general public at 7:30. Following each performance, scientists from NIH and with connections to MIT will converse with the audience about the questions raised in the play. 

Melinda Lopez is a playwright and actress whose play How Do You Spell Hope? was produced by the Underground Railway Theater at Central Square Theater last season. Another of her plays, Sonia Flew, won the Elliot Norton Award for "Best New Play" and the IRNE for "Best Play" and "Best Production." Sonia Flew has been produced at the Huntington Theatre, among other theatres nationwide, and also broadcast on NPR's "The Play's The Thing!" Her play Gary was produced at Boston Playwrights Theatre and Alexandros, a commission from the Laguna Playhouse, had its world premiere May 2008. Other award winning plays include God Smells Like a Roast Pig on a Summer's Day (Women on Top Festival, Elliot Norton Award-

Outstanding Solo Performance), Midnight Sandwich/Medianoche, (Coconut Grove Playhouse), and The Order of Things (CentaStage, Kennedy Center Fund for New Plays). Ms. Lopez was the first recipient of the Charlotte Woolard Award, given by the Kennedy Center to a "promising new voice in American Theatre." She has appeared on stage in regional theatres across the country, and works in film and radio, in addition to teaching theatre and performance at Wellesley College and playwriting at BU.

From Orchids to Octopi marks director Diego Arciniegas' debut with the Catalyst Collaborative@MIT, though his history with Underground Railway Theater includes acting in national tours in the 1980's. The Artistic Director of the Publick Theatre in Boston, most recently he directed Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and Humble Boy. Also an actor, Mr. Arciniegas most recently played Voltaire in Karen Zacharías' play Legacy of Light at the Lyric Stage Company of Boston. His work as an actor and director has received several IRNE and Elliot Norton Awards. He is a Senior Lecturer in Theatre Studies at Wellesley College. A native of Colombia, Arciniegas was educated at Williams College and trained in Theatre at the British and European Studies Group, James Wilson, Oxon., dir. Mr. Arciniegas is the narrator of the critically-acclaimed children's audio book Mike Mulligan y su Maquina Maravillosa by Virginia Lee Burton, and has narrated a number of children's stories and poems in English and Spanish.

Wesley Savick (Charles Darwin) is an actor, writer and director who wrote and directed Underground Railway Theater's adaptation of Alan Lightman's Einstein's Dreams which was seen at the Central Square Theatre, the first Cambridge Science Festival, and at the first World Science Festival in NYC. He also adapted and directEd Grace Paley's The Loudest Voice and Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory this past December, for Underground Railway Theater's Tru Grace: Holiday Memoirs. He has directed several productions for The Nora Theatre Company, the other resident company at Central Square Theater, including last spring's On the Verge by Eric Overmeyer, as well as Steven Berkoff's The Secret Love Life of Ophelia and The Man Who by Oliver Sacks, Peter Brooks and Marie-Hélène Estienne. He has served as Artistic Director of the internationally acclaimed experimental company Theatre X in Milwaukee, Artistic Associate of Chicago's Organic Theater and Resident Guest Director of the DARTS/Subaru Theatre in Tokyo, Japan. Mr. Savick has directed or acted in over 100 productions, almost all new works, including world premieres by Christopher Durang, Shel Silverstein, Derek Walcott, Howard Zinn and Robert Brustein. He has also written, co-written or adapted twenty produced plays, including Miss Margaret LaRue in Milwaukee, which premiered at the Boston Playwrights' Theatre, and an adaptation of Karel Capek's RUR. Mr. Savick is the founding director of The National Theatre of Allston, a new company devoted to original, avant-garde political work, and is a tenured Associate Professor of Theatre at Suffolk University.

Debra Wise (Emma Darwin) is a founding member of Underground Railway Theater, and has served as Artistic Director since 1998. She has been involved in the collaborative creation of over 30 new works, as performer, playwright, director, and/or dramaturge. Wise is also CoDirector of Catalyst Collaborative@ MIT, the major new initiative pairing theater artists and world-class scientists which gave birth to the From Orchids to Octopi project . Wise has written several plays, including Home is Where; Washed-Up Middle-Aged Women; and States of Grace, and has helped create three commissions for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Wise has acted with other theater companies both in New York (original works with Julie Taymor and Elizabeth Swados) and in Boston (The Real Thing and Orson's Shadow, New Rep; Brooklyn Boy, Speakeasy Stage Co.; Trust, Sugan Theatre), and has been a regular guest artist with The Revels. She has also led a number of other arts initiatives, including educational programs. Most recently, Wise was nominated for Best Actress by the IRNE Awards Committee for her performance in Tru Grace: Holiday Memoirs.

Tom O'Keefe (Charles) is a film, TV and stage actor. For the theater he has acted in Measure for Measure and Wordplay (Shakespeare & Co.), Humble Boy (Publick Theatre Boston), Nick in Questa (Court Theater, LA), Little Gentleman (Laurel Grove Theater Co.), Choice Words (Hollywood Court Theater), and Sin: A Cardinal Deposed (Hayworth Theater). In television O'Keefe has appeared in CSI, Criminal Minds, The Shield, ER, Rules of Engagement, and Drake and Josh. He has also appeared in films: A New Tomorrow, Avenging Angel, and Crash N' Burn.

Kortney Adams (Emma) is an actor, director, and teaching artist in Boston. Recent projects include Harriet Jacobs (Underground Railway Theater), Voyeurs De Venus (Company One), Doubt (Gloucester Stage Co.), Almost, Maine (Village Theatre Project), The Trial of One Short-Sighted Black Woman... (Roxbury Crossroads Theatre), The Merchant of Venice (Publick Theatre), After Mrs. Rochester, for which she won an IRNE for Best Supporting Actress (Wellesley Summer Theatre), and the role of Barbara Demarco in the long-running hit Shear Madness.
The set and puppets for From Orchids to Octopi are being designed by master muralist David Fichter, whose murals surrounded the audience in Underground Railway Theater's recent production of The Life of Galileo. The world of From Orchids to Octopi will be created by a large-scale mural that evolves into being during the course of the play. Other members of the design team include Heidi Hermiller (costumes), Kenneth Helvig (lighting), Will Cabell (Master Puppeteer/Creative Technical Director), and Bill Barclay (composition and sound - whose work is being supported by a Meet the Composer award from New England Foundation for the Arts).
The Talk in the Box Series for From Orchids to Octopi will include Pre-Show Saturday Symposia and Post-Show Conversations with project artists and renowned scientists from MIT and Harvard - including Eric Lander (CoChair, President Obama's Advisory Council on Science and Technology), Richard Lewontin (evolutionary biologist), and Richard Wrangham (author of How Cooking Made Us Human).

From Orchids to Octopi plays at Central Square Theater, 450 Mass. Ave. in Cambridge, Wednesday, March 31 through Sunday, May 2. Performances are Thursdays at 7:30 PM, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM, with matinees on Sundays at 2 PM. There will be three Wednesday evening performances at 7:30 PM, on March 31, April 7 and April 21. Tickets, priced at $35; $25 for seniors; $20 for University students (valid ID required); and $15 for students 12-18, can be purchased by calling (866) 811-4111, online at www.centralsquaretheater.org, or at the Central Square Theater box office. For box office hours, group discounts, student rush tickets, and more info call (617) 576-9278 x213. In addition, there will be two Wednesday student matinees for school groups (recommended for middle and high school groups), April 14 and 28, 10:00 am each day; to reserve for the student matinees and for information about study guides, contact Ezra Flam, Education Program Manager, eflam@undergroundrailwaytheater.org, 617-576-9278 x217.

Talk-in-the-Box Series

Pre-Performance Symposia Free with admission to the performance

Saturday, April 3 7:00 WHAT DARWIN GOT WRONG

How have our views on evolution changed since Darwin first proposed the theory?

Christopher Marx - Harvard University - AssistantProfessor, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology;

David Sloan Wilson - author - Evolution for

Everyone,

Professor, Biology & Anthropology, SUNY

Binghamton
Saturday, April 10 7:00 RESISTANCE TO DARWIN

How do we explain and respond to denials in history and science?

Joseph Levine - Co-author of Miller & Levine Biology; science educator and consultant;

John Durant - MIT - Director of the MIT Museum

Saturday, April 17 7:00 EVOLUTION AND DISEASE

Why would Darwin be microbiologist if he were alive today?

Jonathan King - MIT - Professor of Biology; Chair, Massachusetts Darwin Bicentennial Project;

Hidde Ploegh - MIT - Professor of Biology; Member, Whitehead Institute
Saturday, April 24 7:00 MISSING LINKS

We know a lot about species throughout history. What came between them?

Andrew Berry - Harvard University - Lecturer, Organismic & Evolutionary Biology; Associate of Population Genetics, Museum of Comparative Zoology;

Hopi Hoekstra - Harvard University - John L. Loeb Associate Professor of Biology, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology; Curator of Mammals, Museum of Comparative Zoology

Saturday, May 1 7:00 SOCIETY AND SEX

How do sex, reproduction and relationships impact evolution?

Linda Ellison - Harvard University - Lecturer on Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality;

Zarin Machanda - Harvard University - Lecturer on Human Evolutionary Biology, Anthropology
Post-Performance Talkbacks
Wednesday, March 31 Artists & Audiences - Meet Playwright Melinda Lopez, Creative Team and Cast

Thursday, April 1 Harvard Night - Jonathan Losos, Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology; Curator of Herpetology, Museum of Comparative Zoology

Sunday, April 4 David Sloan Wilson, author of Evolution for Everyone; Professor of Biology and Anthropology, SUNY Binghamton

MORE...
PG. 5/FROM ORCHIDS TO OCTOPI ANNOUNCEMENT

Wednesday, April 7 Richard Wrangham, author of How Cooking Made Us Human; Ruth Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology, Harvard

Thursday, April 8 Artists & Audiences - Meet Director Diego Arciniegas and the Cast

Friday, April 9 PLAY it Forward - Envisioning Central Square Theater - conversation with its directors

Sunday, April 11 Eric Lander, Director of the Broad Institute; Professor of Biology, MIT; Co-Chair, President Obama's Advisory Council on Science and Technology

Thursday, April 15 MIT Night - Thomas Levenson, Director, Program in Writing & Humanistic Studies

Friday, April 16 Pardis Sabeti, Assistant Professor, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard

Sunday, April 18 Artists & Audiences - Meet the Composer, Bill

Barclay

Thursday, April 22 Artists & Audiences - Meet Muralist David Fichter, Creative Team and Cast

Friday, April 23 Marc Lipstich, Professor of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health

Saturday, April 24: David Edwards, GorDon McKay Professor of the Practice of Biomedical Engineering, Harvard; founder and director of Le Laboratoire, Paris, France (tentative)

Sunday, April 25 David Jones, Associate Professor, Program in Science, Technology, and Society, MIT

Thursday, April 29 Joseph Levine, co-author of Miller & Levine Biology; science educator and consultant

Friday, April 30 Natalie Kuldell, Instructor in Biological Engineering, MIT

Saturday, May 1 Richard Lewontin, evolutionary biologist; Professor Emeritus, Harvard

Sunday, May 2 Nancy Hopkins, Amgen, Inc. Professor of Biology, MIT

About Central Square Theater

At Central Square Theater, a new state-of-the-art community-based theatrical arts facility, audiences find, under one roof, the distinctive repertoires of two award-winning non-profit professional companies, The Nora Theatre Company and Underground Railway Theater, as well as collaborative projects drawing on their creative synergy. Schools, families and community groups benefit from outreach and educational programs, and local businesses enjoy increased foot traffic and new customers. As the first permanent home for these two theater companies, Central Square Theater is a vibrant hub of theatrical, educational and social activity, where artists and audiences come together to create theater vital to our communities.

The seeds of the Central Square Theater (CST) were sown in 1997, with a partnership between The Nora Theatre Company, Underground Railway Theater, and the Community Development Department of the City of Cambridge, which brokered a relationship with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). MIT constructed the building and provided an extraordinary 20-year lease commitment at under $5 per square foot -- a contribution valued at more than $2 million over time. For more information, please call 617-576-9278 or go to www.centralsquaretheater.org. 

Abut the National Institutes of Health

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) - The Nation's Medical Research Agency - includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. From Orchids to Octopi was commissioned by the National Institutes of Health as part of its continuing celebration of Darwin's 200th birthday known as Evolution Revolution. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

About Catalyst Collaborative@MIT

Catalyst Collaborative@MIT (CC@MIT) is a unique collaboration between MIT and Underground Railway Theater (URT), a professional company with 30 years experience connecting professional theater with community. CC@MIT is dedicated to creating and presenting plays that deepen public understanding about science, while simultaneously providing an artistic and emotional experience not available in other forms of dialogue about science. Through performances and post-show conversations with scientists and artists, CC@MIT: engages audiences in thinking about themes in science and technology of social and ethical concern; provides insight into the culture of science and the impact of that culture on our society; and examines the human condition through the lens of science and technology that intersects our lives, and the lives of the scientists whose work changes our world and their own. By

pairing MIT's expertise in science and technology and Underground Railway Theater's artistic excellence and history

of community involvement, CC@MIT is poised to make significant contributions to the role of science in society.

Since its launch four seasons ago, CC@MIT has produced eight staged readings, three full productions and a three commissions - a significant body of work exploring a wide range of science content and theatrical form, including Small Infinities (about Newton), Partition (about mathematical genius Ramanujan), On Ego (by a team of playwright and neuroscientist), Operation Epsilon (about German nuclear physicist interned during WWII), Atlas of Mud (about global warming, the first winner of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Science Playwriting award), Frontier Theory (by playwright Rebecca Maggor and astronomer James Battat), Einstein's Dreams (an original adaptation of Alan Lightman's novel, premiered at the nation's first city-wide science festival in Cambridge, MA, and played to sold-out houses at the 2008 NYC World Science Festival), QED (an evening with Richard

Feynman), and The Life of Galileo. URT teaching artists have been on the faculty of MIT and the Youth Astronomy Apprentices Project of the Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research.

About Underground Railway Theater

The mission of Underground Railway Theater (URT) is to connect professional theater with communities, combining actors, puppetry and music to engage diverse audiences with performances of beauty and social content - theater that challenges and delights, informs and celebrates. URT was founded in Oberlin, Ohio, one of the Midwestern stops on the underground railroad, and toured nationally for 30 years before becoming a resident company at the Central Square Theater.

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