French Stewart and Sandra Tsing Loh Star in TESLA Radio Play Reading at Pasadena Playhouse Tonight

The Pasadena Playhouse and The Experimental Performance Laboratory at Caltech announced that a special one-night-only staged reading of the new play TESLA, A Radio Play for the Stage by Dan Duling, directed by Michael Arabian (The Mark Taper Forum's award-winning Waiting for Godot), with live sound effects by SFX artist Tony Palermo, will be performed tonight, May 4, 2013, at 6:00 p.m.

TESLA will feature French Stewart ("3rd Rock From the Sun") who will be starring in The Playhouse's production of Stoneface - The Rise and Fall and Rise of Buster Keaton this coming season and Sandra Tsing Loh (NPR's "The Loh Down," Contributing Editor at The Atlantic Monthly ) and will be performed on the mainstage of The Pasadena Playhouse. A post-show conversation and reception with the playwright, actors, and director will follow the performance. A portion of the proceeds for the event directly supports Theater Arts at Caltech.

"Pasadena is the city of arts and science," stated Playhouse Executive Director Elizabeth Doran. "How better to celebrate this fact than through a partnership between The Pasadena Playhouse and Caltech? Stories about science are exquisitely matched to theater - science is dramatic, bold, exciting, daring, miraculous...and these are the qualities we look for in creating great theater! This Tesla radio play will be electrifying!"

"A partnership with The Pasadena Playhouse and Caltech is the perfect synergy of Science and Art," said Theater Arts at Caltech (TACIT) Director Brian Brophy. "When my friends director Michael Arabian and Elizabeth Doran, the new Executive Director at The Playhouse, decided to come on board, everything came together. This project is unique because it features actors from the multi-talented Caltech/JPL community alongside professional actors from the theater and film world. The staging will be intriguing to Pasadena audiences as it is a rare opportunity to see a radio drama with multiple voices, archival footage, and live sound effects."

TESLA, A Radio Play for the Stage tells the story of Nikola Tesla's life as a brilliant but controversial inventor and futurist during the late-19th and early-20th century. The play is excitingly staged as a radio drama featuring live sound effects. Tesla's volatile relationship with Thomas Edison, his allegiance with George Westinghouse, and his confrontation with the power brokers of American business are recounted from the perspective of the possible implications of his work to national security. Special guest stars include Phil Proctor ("Big Brother," Toy Story) as Thomas Edison; French Stewart ("3rd Rock from the Sun," Stoneface) as Tesla; Sandra Tsing Loh (Caltech alum and NPR's "The Loh Life") as Katherine, Dr. Ashley Stroupe (JPL Mars Rover Opportunity Driver) playing multiple roles, Dr. Steven Collins (JPL Mars Rover Curiosity Engineer) playing multiple roles and Brian Brophy ("Star Trek: The Next Generation," Director of Theater Arts at Caltech) playing multiple roles.

Playwright Dan Duling is an award-winning playwright/author of more than 20 plays, and the scriptwriter for the Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach. Director Michael Arabian is well known to Los Angeles area audiences, and most recently directed Waiting for Godot at the Mark Taper Forum.

TESLA, A Radio Play for the Stage will perform tonight, May 4, at 6:00pm at The Pasadena Playhouse. The Pasadena Playhouse is located at 39 South El Molino Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101. Single ticket prices are $20.00 each (General Admission) in advance, or Pay-What-You-Can at the door on the evening of the performance. Service and theatre restoration fees apply to all purchases.

Tickets are available by calling The Pasadena Playhouse Box Office at 626-356-7529. On non-performance dates, the Box Office is open Tuesday - Sunday from 12:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. On performance dates, the Box Office is open Tuesday - Saturday from 12:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. and Sunday from 12:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Tickets are available 24 hours a day at www.PasadenaPlayhouse.org. For additional information on The Pasadena Playhouse, please visit www.PasadenaPlayhouse.org.

Related information for TESLA and Theater Arts at Caltech:

The staged reading of Tesla, A Radio Play for the Stage kicks off the second year of the Experimental Performance Laboratory at Caltech's New Plays Festival, a series of four staged readings of new science-based plays.

Out of Orbit by Jennifer Maisel is the second play in the series on May 11, directed by Ann K Lindsey. Out of Orbit is a Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)-based play featuring Dr. Ashley Stroupe, a "real-life" JPL Mars Rover Driver as a Mars Rover Mission Specialist in the play. Can a brilliant scientist relate to a learning deficiency in her daughter? Can she keep up with her life on two different planets, when times are crucial on both?

Sila by Chantal Bilodeau is the third play of the series on May 18, directed by Arden Thomas. Sila stars Sandra Tsing Loh, host of NPR's "The Loh Down" and Caltech's "The Loh Down on Science." Sila is a powerful, gripping, and poetic play about climate change and its consequences for the people and animals living in the Arctic Circle.

The Washing of Water by Marcus Renner is the final play in the series on June 1, directed by TACIT artistic director Brian Brophy. The Washing of Water is based on over 60 interviews conducted across Altadena, La Cañada Flintridge, and Northwest Pasadena. The Washing of Water follows an artist activist, a homeless teenager, and a mother whose stories intersect as they fight a polluted past and search for a fresh start amidst the wilds of the Hahamongna Watershed Park.

Visit www.tacit.caltech.edu for more information about the New Plays Festival.

Photo credit: Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging