Mad Cow Theatre's SCIENCE PLAY FESTIVAL Runs This Weekend

For the first time ever, Mad Cow Theatre creates a unique and interactive festival exploring the world of science through a weekend of staged readings and discussion forums of some of the most provocative science plays. Join us as we explore science, technology and history through imaginative stories.

One of the highlights of The Science Play Festival will be the community discussions that will take place after each reading and will feature notable members of the Central Florida community who are experts in the fields of science, art, and a combination of the two.

Director Denise Gillman (Collected Stories, The Legacy of Light) lends her expertise to delve deeply into these works, which include Isaac's Eye by Lucas Hnath, An Experiment with an Air Pump by Shelagh Stephenson, Photograph 51 by Anna Ziegler, and A Short History of Nearly Everything, a play for youth adapted by Lauren Gunderson from Bill Bryson's original work of the same name. Denise is an expert in the realm of science plays will be directing Photograph 51. See below for her complete biography.

An interactive feature of this festival will include moderated conversations hosted by one of the play reading directors. Panelists will join the moderator providing expertise from their fields of work while engaging the audience and artists in a lively conversation. All discussions will happen post-show and are free to the public.Schedules are subject to change. See below for schedule.

An Experiment with an Air Pump
by Shelagh Stephenson
Tonight, January 10, 2014 at 7:30pm
An award winning play where medical ethics are entwined in a detective story, spanning two hundred years. In 1799, on the eve of a new century, an English house buzzes with scientific experiments and furtive romance. An Experiment with an Air Pump catapults us to 1999, present day in the same house where we encounter a world of scientific chaos, genetic engineering and a dark secret that has been buried for over 200 years. The story is one of exploration into past events where humans, art, and science create questions with answers that are beautifully intertwined.

Areas of science: Bioethics, biology (stem cells, human body dissection)
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Adapted by Lauren Gunderson from a book by Bill Bryson
Saturday, January 11, 2014 at 1:00pm
Adapted from Bill Bryson's book of the same name, A Short History of Nearly Everything is a fast-paced, fun, informative discussion among Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin. Written for young people, the play explores the theories and history behind the Big Bang, evolution and scientific discoveries in a "funny, fast, bumbling race for knowledge."

Areas of science: Physics, biology
Photograph 51
by Anna Ziegler
Saturday, January 11, 2014 at 7:30pm

An intriguing portrait of British scientist Rosalind Franklin and her-often overlooked-role in the discovery of DNA's double helix structure. This complex tale explores how Franklin, a smart, stubborn, and courageous woman, operated in a field dominated by men. A balance of the historical, romantic, and scientific, Photograph 51 is a touching human play of ideas.

Areas of science: Biology (DNA), x-ray crystallography
Isacc's Eye
by Lucas Hnath
January 12, 2014 at 7:30pm

To understand light and optics better, young Isaac Newton inserted a long needle "between my eye and the bone, as near to the backside of my eye as I could." Why take such a risk? Playwright Lucas Hnath reimagines the contentious, plague-ravaged world Newton inhabited in Isaac's Eye, exploring the dreams and longings that drove the rural farm boy to become one of the greatest thinkers in modern science.

Areas of science: Physics, light/light particles The Mad Cow Science Play Festival runs from January 10 - 12, 2014 at Mad Cow Theatre, 54 West Church Street (Second Floor) in Downtown Orlando.

All evening readings that begin at 7:30pm are followed by a moderated Talk Back.

Single tickets are $5.00 per reading. A Short History of Nearly Everything is free for kids age 10 and under with a paid adult entry. Up to two free kids' tickets per every adult ticket purchased. Must be at least 5 years old.

Tickets will go on sale Thursday, December 12, 2013 at 10:00am.