Finalist for Mach 33 Festival

Last week, I announced that my play Dark Night of the Soul had made the longlist of shows being considered by the Free Spirit Theatre. Unfortunately, the play ended up not making the shortlist for the company.

However, my play Bones of the Sea has now been named a finalist for the 2019 Mach 33: Caltech/Pasadena Playhouse Festival of New Science-Driven Plays. Three winners are slated to be announced shortly.

Mach 33 seeks to foster conversations around science, math, and technology. It presents staged readings of unpublished new work, hosted by the Pasadena Playhouse, but produced by Caltech Theater. Plays are presented by casts including Caltech students, faculty, staff, and other members of the community. All readings are followed by post-show discussions with playwrights.

Bones of the Sea tells the true story of Mary Anning, a working-class woman and religious dissenter who revolutionized the scientific world at the beginning of the 19th century. Anning was the ultimate outsider: wrong class, wrong sex, wrong religion. Yet she managed to make remarkable contributions to the world, and I think it's about time to tell her story.

The script had a reading in New York City with a cast of wonderful theatre veterans, including Jessica Vera, Steven Haworth, Gordon Stanley, and Carole Monferdini. Elephant Room Productions subsequently did a reading of the play and featured it on a podcast.

In addition to Bones of the Sea, Mach 33 also chose as finalists ProjectX by Taylor Hatch, Sizzle Sizzle Fry by Susan Bernfield, The Surest Poison by Kirsten Idaszak, and Ushuia Blue by Caridad Svich.

Wish me luck!

Happy Birthday, Mary Anning!

Today is the 219th birthday of Mary Anning, the fossil hunter and paleontologist who revolutionized the scientific world at the beginning of the 19th century.

My play about Anning, Bones of the Sea, had a reading earlier this year by Elephant Room Productions. You can hear a selection from the play (and an interview with me) on the company's podcast The Trumpet.

Anning was a working-class woman and a religious dissenter. She had three strikes against her: wrong class, wrong sex, wrong religion. Yet she managed to make remarkable contributions to the scientific world. Now more than ever, I think we need stories like hers.

The fossils Anning uncovered (including the first discovered remains of an ichthyosaur, which she and her brother found while they were still children) provided the core of the fossil collection at the British Museum in the 19th century. Most of those fossils have since been moved to the Natural History Museum in London.

When I was in London a couple years ago, I took pictures of some of the fossils Anning had collected. Unfortunately, she had to fight to get some of her finds recognized. After she uncovered a plesiosaur, some skeptics claimed she must have faked the fossil, arguing no sea creature could possibly have had a neck that long. After colleagues of hers uncovered another plesiosaur fossil elsewhere, more people started to believe her.

I'm hoping the play will have another reading in the coming year. Stay tuned!

Trumpeting My Play

Last month, Elephant Room Productions did an in-house reading of my play Bones of the Sea, about the nineteenth-century paleontologist Mary Anning.

Robert Gene Pellechio interviewed me for ERP's podcast The Trumpet. You can listen to the podcast online here. It also includes an excerpt from the play, read by Katrina Art and William Gwyn.

It was great  to hear the piece read out loud in the recording, and I'm currently working on some rewrites based on what I heard. Hopefully, Mary will be able to take to the stage sometime in the future.

In the meantime, if you're interested in the company's Elephant Ears Reading Series, I definitely recommend ERP. They're a good group.