backstage.com: With an aim to bridge the divide between science and the arts, the Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC) announced today the 2012 recipients of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Initiative commissions. Awarded to six writers, the Foundation provides a grant to MTC to support the development of plays that explore themes of math, science, and technology, and depict scientists, mathematicians, and engineers as major characters. This year’s recipients are April de Angelis, Nick Jones, Heidi Schreck, Melissa Ross, Sarah Treem, and Bess Wohl.
4 comments:
I think this is a fantastic idea. The divide is fairly clear on campus between the arts people, and the science people. The real world is no different. It's a little sad that people have to be given incentive to write about scientific characters, but if it gets a different viewpoint into the theatre world, I'm all for it. Most new playwrights do things based on twisted fairy tales or coming out stories or political satires. All of which are fantastic in their own right, but why not write about a new topic? I mean, there can be a workplace split between science and the arts, but there's no reason for there to be a social divide.
This is a great idea. I personally never read any plays about technology or with scientists as the protagonist. Some of that is my own fault but i also feel like there isnt much out there in the theatre world that ive heard much about that has to do with this subject matter. So im happy to see that some headway is being made to remedy this.
More and more Theatre needs to be blinded by science...
Proof is one of my all-time favorite plays and although mathematics provides a strong backdrop for the action of the play, it is clearly NOT about math nor does the average audience member need to know ANYTHING about writing mathematical proofs before seeing a production of the show. I believe THAT'S the key to a successful play which can highlight Science and it's great to see the SLOAN Foundation supporting the idea of ::GASP:: potentially educating audiences as well as entertaining them.
We need more of this. I don't understand why people always assume that art and science cannot coexist. CMU's BXA program has clearly shown that the two fields can coexist. I also agree with Lukos, on how we need more plays based on science or sci-fi. While I can understand a hesitance to create a science fiction play due to lack of an ability to use CGI to portray whichever cool effect you want, there is still enough interesting things to be done within the science fiction genre that can be put on stage.
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