Middlebury Actors Workshop Presents ADA AND THE ENGINE

MAW opens 18th Season with Gunderson's play about Ada Byron Lovelace: First Computer Programmer & a pioneering woman in the field of mathematics and science.

Middlebury Actors Workshop kicks off its 2019 season April 11-14 with Lauren Gunderson's Ada And The Engine, the true story of Ada Byron Lovelace (only legitimate daughter of the poet Lord Byron) and her mentor Charles Babbage: two 19th Century visionaries who anticipated the computer age.

As the British Industrial Revolution dawns, young Ada Byron Lovelace sees the boundless creative potential in the "analytic engine" of her friend and soul mate Charles Babbage, inventor of the first mechanical computer. Ada envisions a whole new world where art and information converge. The play is a music-laced story of love, friendship and the edgiest dreams of the future. Ada was a "Steve Jobs" for the Victorian Age.

"I've spent a career searching for plays of women's stories that offer complex, challenging roles for women; Ada And The Engine satisfies both of those requirements, "says director, Rebecca Strum. " Relationships form an important part of Gunderson's characters' arcs, but it's their intellectual desires, their need to transform their world that interests this playwright. I love that we are rehearsing this play during Women's History Month!"

The cast includes Mary Krantz, Steve Small, Jordan Gullikson, Elisa Van Duyne and Melissa Lourie. Middlebury College Professor of Music, Peter Hamlin has composed a score for the play and Rebecca Strum directs.

There will be an optional post-show talkback with audience, cast, director and Middlebury College Professor of Mathematics, Mike Olinick after the closing matinee on Sunday, April 14.

Performances are at Town Hall Theater on April 11-14. Thursday - Saturday at 7:30pm and Sunday matinee at 2pm. Tickets are $25/$12 students and may be purchased at: www.townhalltheater.org or at the box office: 802-382-9222.