Mad Cow Theatre to Experiment with 2017 Science Play Festival

Mad Cow Theatre has announced the 2017 Science Play Festival, running February 24-26 in the Harriett Theatre.

Navigating the worlds of science, technology, and history through imaginative stories, the 4th annual Science Play Festival features staged readings followed by moderated talkbacks with the cast and experts from related scientific fields. In 2014, Mad Cow Theatre's first Science Play Festival burst onto the scene with standing-room-only performances in the Zehngebot-Stonerock Theatre. This year's festival will take place in The Harriett and features three more staged readings exploring the many intersections between art and science.

This year's three plays - each to be read by a cast of Mad Cow regulars - will be Deborah Breevort's Blue Sky Boys, Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People, and Lauren Gunderson's Silent Sky.

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The Blue Sky Boys by Deborah Breevort
Friday, February 24 @ 7:30 p.m.
How did Buck Rogers, Galileo, and the Red Baron help NASA land a man on the moon? Deborah Breevort's (The Women of Lockerbie) new award-winning play combines fact and mythology to illustrate the intersection of creativity and science. The Blue Sky Boys is an exhilarating romp through the innovating minds of the maverick engineers who stopped at nothing to answer President Kennedy's call to fulfill the nation's destiny: get a man to the moon! "A blessed reminder of a time when our country - though, then as now, riven by divide - still could be unified in hope and purpose." -Albany Times Union "It's like Bill Nye the Science Guy on L.S.D. It's a lot of fun and you actually may learn something!" -Aisle Say

The Blue Sky Boys will be directed by Jay Becker, and the ensemble will include Adam Graham, Wesley Slade, Tommy Keesling, Adam Delmedico, Viet Dung, Bert Rodriquez, and Marty Stonerock.

An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen
Saturday, February 25 @ 7:30 p.m.
Henrik Ibsen's (Ghosts, Hedda Gabler) An Enemy of the People, written in 1892, could be ripped from today's headlines. A local doctor discovers poisoned waters in his town's profitable and popular medicinal springs. His crusading efforts to expose the dangers unravel the inevitable and potentially tragic consequences that occur when scientific facts become "inconvenient truths" to commercial and political interests. Provocative and unyielding, Ibsen's classic work still has plenty to teach us.

An Enemy of the People will be directed by Tony Simotes with dramaturgy by Robin Olson, and the ensemble will include Arthur Rowan, Ginger McDermitt, Lily Garnett, Holland Hayes, Ron Schneider, Brian Chambers, Rod Cathey, and Jim McClellan.

Silent Sky by Lauren Gunderson
Sunday, February 26 @ 2:30 p.m.
Lauren Gunderson (I and You, Mad Cow Season 18) reveals the thought-provoking and entertaining story of early 20th century astronomer Henrietta Leavitt whose revolutionary work in mapping the stars became the basis for much of modern astrophysics. With bursts of smart, infectious humor, Silent Sky explores a woman's place in society during a time of immense scientific discoveries, when women's ideas were dismissed until men claimed credit for them. "Lauren Gunderson's luminously beautiful play Silent Sky is an intellectual epic told on an intimate scale. Bottom line: Heavenly." -Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Silent Sky will be directed by Grace Zottig, and the ensemble will include Melanie Whipple, Becky Lane, Garrett Jurss, Cynthia Beckert, and Sara Oliva.

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A moderated talk-back will follow each reading. All tickets are $12 and be purchased by visiting madcowtheatre.com or calling 407.297.8788. More about the Science Play Festival.

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