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Avant Bard Blog

Émilie Extended to November 19 in Response to Popular Acclaim

November 6, 2017

Emilie: La Marquise Du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight with Sara Barker in the role of the whip-smart 18th-century very real Emilie is a clear knockout for critics and audiences alike.” —David Siegel, DC Metro Theater Arts

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Sara Barker as Émilie. Photo by DJ Corey Photography.

When the run of this comic drama began, few folks knew much at all about Émilie Du Châtelet. And no wonder. One of the most brilliant mathematicians who ever lived, Émilie had become a “hidden figure” in history, a woman remembered if at all as the lover of a great man (Voltaire). That all changed for audiences who saw Avant Bard’s production of Lauren Gunderson’s play and were blown away by the passionate genius they got to know.

“How come I never heard of this amazing woman before?!” wondered one fan on Facebook.

“Where the hell has Emilie been all of our lives?” wrote Jayne Blanchard in DC Theatre Scene.

Critics have been raving about the show. Watch this one-minute video and see what they had to say.

Don’t miss your chance meet this brilliant and inspiring trailblazer for women in science!

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NOW PLAYING to November 19, 2017 at Gunston Arts Center, Theatre Two
2700 South Lang Street, Arlington, VA 22206
(Ample free parking. Click on the address for easy driving and  Metro directions.)

Avant Bard shows are always affordable. Performances are Pay What You Will on Thursday evenings and Saturday matinees. General admission is just $30 on Friday; $35 on Saturday evenings and Sunday matinees.

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Unscripted Afterchats with Notable Women in Honor of Émilie Du Châtelet

October 25, 2017

Special guests join the audience in conversation immediately following Saturday matinees of Avant Bard’s production of Lauren Gunderson’s Emilie, starting at about 4 pm.

Sara Barker as Émilie. Photo by DJ Corey Photography. Click the pic for more information abut the production.
Sara Barker as Émilie Du Châtelet. Photo by DJ Corey Photography. Click the pic for more information abut the production.

 Saturday, November 11, 2017

Juli MonroeFacebook-Live-logo
Director, Women’s Business Center

Juli Monroe, Program Manager at Women's Business Center at Community Business Center. Mason Enterprise Center. Photo by Creative Services/George Mason University
Photo by Creative Services/George Mason University

Juli Monroe is the Director of the Women’s Business Center, a program of the Community Business Partnership. Before beginning with the WBC, she was an entrepreneur, and her business focused on coaching clients in growing their business through effective networking and word of mouth marketing. Juli continues that work with new business owners from pre start-up to two years in business. Through the WBC, she also counsels clients and teaches classes in all aspects of starting and growing a new company.Her approach to life and business revolves around building relationships, both in person and online. She uses Twitter, Facebook and other online platforms to maintain the relationships she makes in-person and to find new friends she’s yet to meet “in real life.” Juli is excited to have published a book entitled The Enthusiastic Networker, which helps readers find their unique networking presence and voice.

Phyllis D. Frosst, Ph.D.Facebook-Live-logo
Global Director – Public Health Policy, Seqirus

Phyllis D Frosst, Ph.DDr. Phyllis Frosst is the Global Director of Public Health Policy for Seqirus in Washington D.C., where she leads global policy efforts supporting pandemic influenza preparedness. Dr. Frosst has served as the Senior Advisor for Policy, Communications and Strategic Alliances at the NIH, and Head of Policy at the National Human Genome Research Institute, where she directed policy development and served as a liaison to the US Congress. Dr. Frosst holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees with honors from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, a doctorate in Cell and Molecular Structure and Chemistry from The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in viral gene therapy.

 Saturday, November 18, 2017

Special guests to be announced.

PAST PROGRAM for Saturday, November 4, 2017

Facebook-Live-logoDr. Peggy Agouris, Ph.D.
Dean, College of Science
George Mason University

Peggy Agouris, Ph.DDr. Peggy Agouris is the Dean of George Mason University’s College of Science. She is also the Director of the Center of Earth Observing and Space Research (CEOSR), one of Mason’s most active research centers. She has authored more than 100 articles in journals, books, and conference proceedings in the image analysis and computer science literature, several of which have received national and international awards. Dr. Agouris has directed numerous Ph.D. and M.S. theses, and many of her advisees are already faculty members in various national and international institutions. Her work has been supported by research grants and contracts from NSF, NASA, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), Army TEC, USGS, and others. She has consulted for the CIA, Milcord, Intergraph, BAE Systems, and other companies, and has also served as expert witness in high-profile technology litigation cases. She received her Diploma in Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, and her M.S. and Ph.D. from the Dept. of Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering, The Ohio State University. Prior to joining George Mason University in 2007, she was with the School of Computing and Information Science, University of Maine, and before then with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich.

PAST PROGRAM for Saturday, October 28, 2017

Dr. Jessica Pfeifer, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Philosophy, UMD – Baltimore County
Executive Director of the Philosophy of Science Association

Dr. Sethanne Howard, Ph.D.
Astrophysicist, Meteorologist & Oceanographer (retired)
Author of The Hidden Giants, a history of women in science

Jessica Pfeifer, Ph.DJessica Pfeifer is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and Executive Director of the Philosophy of Science Association, the leading international association devoted to philosophy of science. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego, in Philosophy and Science Studies, and a B.A. from Wesleyan University, majoring in Philosophy and in Government. Her work focuses on the nature of necessity, possibility, and probability in science, and especially evolutionary theory. She has published articles in leading journals on the philosophy of science and has co-edited two books, The Philosophy of Science: An Encyclopedia (Routledge 2002) and The Philosophy of Philip Kitcher (Oxford 2016).

Sethanne HowardSethanne Howard was born in Coronado, California, in 1944. She is the first woman to receive a degree in physics from the University of California, Davis.  She received a Master’s Degree in nuclear physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a Ph.D. in astrophysics from Georgia State University. Between her bachelor’s degree and PhD, she worked for a US Naval facility as an oceanographer and meteorologist during which time she created, designed, and conducted the ADP/Geophysics training and indoctrination program (still used there).  She completed her Ph.D. studying large-scale computer simulations of interacting galaxies. After her Ph.D. work she spent time working with x-ray satellites at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where she received two awards for education outreach.  In 2000, she started working at the U.S. Naval Observatory, where she was Chief of the Nautical Almanac Office and produced the book used as an international standard by the astronomical community.  She is now retired. Her hobby is the history of women in science and technology, and she maintains a website dedicated to this effort hosted at the University of Alabama (www.4kyws.ua.edu). Her book on the history of women in science, The Hidden Giants, was just published and is available online.

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Who’s Who in Emilie: La Marquise Du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight

September 25, 2017

Meet the actors and creative team who will bring to life Lauren Gunderson’s whip-smart comedy about an 18th-century genius.

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To find out about the show these talented folks are working on, click the image above.

CAST

Sara_Barker 2Sara Barker (Emilie) has worked with Avant Bard on King Lear (Edgar), Othello (Desdemona), Orlando (Orlando), Mary Stuart (Elizabeth), Six Characters in Search of an Author (Stepdaughter), The House of Yes (Jackie-O), The Cherry Orchard (Varya), The Mistorical Hystery of Henry (I)V (Hotspur), Lulu (Lulu), and The Miser (La Fleece). Credits also include Factory 449’s 448 Psychosis and Closet Land, Rorschach’s A Maze (Oksana), Scena’s The Importance of Being Earnest (Algernon). NYC credits include The Brick’s King Lear (King Lear), Hipgnosis Theatre’s The Winter’s Tale (Paulina), and various devised works with directors Lear DeBessonet and Josh Fox. Sara is a graduate of St. John’s College and a company member with Avant Bard, Factory 449, Rorschach Theatre, and The Klunch. www.sarabarker.com/acting

Brit HerringBrit Herring (Voltaire) is very happy to be making his Avant Bard debut! Brit has appeared Off-Broadway in Shel Silverstein’s The Devil and Billy Markham at SoHo Playhouse and in Paradise at The Lion Theater on Theater Row. Most recently Brit appeared in Everyman Theatre’s production of Great Expectations directed by Tazewell Thompson and made his debut at Arena Theatre in A Raisin in the Sun. Regionally he has acted with Shakespeare Theatre Company, Guthrie Theater, The Kennedy Center, Infinity Theatre Company, Annapolis Shakespeare, and many others. Brit received his MFA from Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Academy for Classical Acting at The George Washington University, and trained with The British American Theatre Institute. Brit works as a voiceover artist with The National Library Service for the Blind and Handicapped.

Lisa HodsollLisa Hodsoll (Madame) is very pleased to work with Avant Bard for the first time.  She recently finished playing Laura Bush in the Klunch’s one-woman show Laura Bush Killed a Guy.  Other recent credits include A Fool’s Paradise: 30 Shakespeare Scenes in 60 Minutes at the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the one-woman show Medea’s Got Some Issues (in Chicago with Chicago Theater Sweatshop and in D.C. with No Rules Theatre Company). Additional recent credits include Theater J: The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures (Maeve); Theater Alliance: The Wonderful World of Dissocia (Jane/Dot, Helen Hayes nominated); and Studio Theatre: Edgar and Annabel (Miller). She is a member of Factory 449 and The Klunch.

Billie Krishawn-2Billie Krishawn (Soubrette) is thrilled to make her Avant Bard debut in this production of Emilie. A native Washingtonian, Billie has performed in NY, NJ, and the DMV as an actress, teaching artist, and poet. Her recent credits include Jumanji (Adventure Theatre MTC), How Old Is a Hero (Discovery Theater), and Bully (Interrobang Theatre Company). Film credits include TV One’s For My Man and Orange Juice in Bishops Garden. See her in these upcoming productions: Greensboro Lunch Counter at the Museum of American History, Skin of Our Teeth at Constellation Theatre Company.

Steve LebensSteve Lebens (Gentleman) is excited to make his debut with Avant Bard.  Recent productions include Lazarus with Unstrung Harpists, King Lear with Lean and Hungry, Hamlet and Diary of Anne Frank with Compass Rose, and 12 Angry Men with American Century.  He has also performed with Studio, Source, Signature, Folger, American Ensemble, the Guthrie, Karachi Drama Circle, and Teatro de las Americas.  Screen credits include House of Cards, VEEP, Law and Order: CI, Field of Lost Shoes and King Lear.

CREATIVE TEAM

Lauren Gunderson
Lauren Gunderson

Lauren Gunderson (Playwright) is the most produced living playwright in America of 2016, the winner of the Lanford Wilson Award and the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award, a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and John Gassner Award for Playwriting, and a recipient of the Mellon Foundation’s 3-Year Residency with Marin Theatre Company. She studied Southern Literature and Drama at Emory University, and Dramatic Writing at NYU’s Tisch School, where she was a Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship. Her work has been commissioned, produced, and developed at companies across the U.S. including South Coast Rep (Emilie, Silent Sky), The Kennedy Center (The Amazing Adventures of Dr. Wonderful and Her Dog!), The O’Neill, The Denver Center, San Francisco Playhouse, Marin Theatre, Synchronicity, Olney Theatre, Berkeley Rep, Shotgun Players, TheatreWorks, Crowded Fire, and more. Her work is published at Playscripts (I and You, Exit Pursued By A Bear, The Taming, and Toil And Trouble), Dramatists (Silent Sky, Bauer, Miss Bennet), and Samuel French (Emilie).

Rick HammerlyRick Hammerly (Director) first worked with Avant Bard, nee Washington Shakespeare Company, as an actor in their 1991 production of Hamlet. His recent directing credits include the Helen Hayes–recommended Lela & Co. (Factory 449), Junie B. Jones Is Not a Crook (Adventure Theatre MTC), Driving Miss Daisy (Riverside Center for the Performing Arts) featuring Karen Grassle (TV’s “Little House on the Prairie”), and Closet Land (Factory 449). He directed The Brontes (New York Musical Theatre Festival & Capital Fringe), Lake Untersee (Source Festival), an award-winning production of Dead Man Walking (American University), and a concert reading of the musical YANK! for Rainbow Theatre Project. Locally, he has also directed productions for SCENA Theatre, Actor’s Theatre of Washington, and Fourth Wall Productions. His Assistant Director credits include The Laramie Project, Driving Miss Daisy, The Glass Menagerie, and the upcoming Jefferson’s Garden, all at Ford’s Theatre. His acting credits include a Helen Hayes Award-winning performance as Hedwig in Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Signature Theatre) and Helen Hayes Award nominations for Angels in America (Signature Theatre), Me and Jezebel (MetroStage), and OLIVER! (Adventure Theatre MTC). He is the current Producing Artistic Director of Factory 449: a theatre collective.

Version 2Greg Stevens (Set and Properties Designer / Scenic Artist) returns to Avant Bard having designed costumes for Lulu. For Factory 449 (where he is founding company member) his credits include Lela & Co. (set), Closet Land (set), The Amish Project (set, Helen Hayes Award nomination), The Saint Plays (set/costumes), 4.48 Psychosis (set).  For State of Play Productions (NYC)  he designed the set for The City that Cried Wolf; for Rainbow Theatre Project he directed Kingdom of Earth and  Suddenly Last Summer and designed set and costumes for Get Used to It! and The Oldest Profession. For The In Series his credits include  The Cole Porter Project (co-author/co-direct/set), La Clemenza di Tito (set), and Viva Zarzuela(set/costumes); for the  Actors’ Theatre of Washington, The Owl and the Pussycat (set), Vampire Lesbians of Sodom (set/costumes), Boston Marriage (set), and Les Liaisons Dangereuses (set/costumes). BA, Theatre, San Diego State University; MAT, Museum Education, GWU.

Joseph R WallsJoseph R. Walls (Lighting Designer) has collaborated with several theatre companies in New York, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake City.  He previously collaborated with Avant Bard on No Man’s Land, King John, Orlando, and Nero/Pseudo.  He has also collaborated with a a large number of ballet companies including The Washington Ballet, Public Displays of Motion, Inland Pacific Ballet, Ballet Spartanburg, Staibdance, Steps Academy of Dance in Panama City, Panama, The Charlotte Ballet, SCGSAH, Raiin Dance Theater,, and The Atlanta Ballet, where he is currently the lighting supervisor and recently designed Gemma Bond’s Denouement and Andrea Miller’s Push.  He is the former lighting supervisor for Charlotte Ballet at the Chautauqua Institution and The Washington Ballet.   www.jwallsdesign.com

Danielle PrestonDanielle Preston (Costume Designer) is thrilled to be returning to Avant Bard after having previously designed Holiday Memories, TAME., and  The Gospel at Colonus. Other local credits include The Christians (Theater J), The How & The Why (Theater J), Darius & Twig (The Kennedy Center), Where Words Once Were (The Kennedy Center), All the Way LIVE! (The Kennedy Center), Other Desert Cities (Triad Stage), Mnemonic (Theater Alliance), To Tell My Story: A Hamlet Fanfic (The Welders), Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train (1st Stage), Well (1st Stage). Education: BA in Theater Production, Meredith College; MFA in Costume Design, The University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Member of United Scenic Artists Local 829 Upcoming designs: Roz & Ray (Theater J), Where Words Once Were (The Lincoln Center, NYC), Darius & Twig (national tour/ The Kennedy Center).

Frank DiSalvo JrFrank DiSalvo Jr. (Sound Designer) is returning to Avant Bard after designing sound for The Madwoman of Chaillot. He designs often for Washington Stage Guild and The Catholic University of America, where he received his MFA in Playwriting. He received two Helen Hayes nominations in 2015 for his work with Rorschach Theatre and Washington Stage Guild.

Elena DayElena Day (Movement Coach)  is excited to join the Avant Bard family. Movement directing credits include Kennedy Center Young Audiences: Mockingbird; Imagination Stage: Smartest Girl, Wiley and the Hairy Man (Helen Hayes Award, Outstanding Production, Theatre for Young Audiences); The Studio Theatre: Laugh, Moth; Adventure Theatre MTC: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, Junie B. Jones Is Not a Crook. Performance credits include Cirque du Soleil’s La Nouba.  She is on the faculty at The Studio Theatre Conservatory and The Wolf Trap Institute. www.elenaday.com

 

Christian SullivanChristian Sullivan (Technical Director) is a proudly tatted company member of Rorschach Theatre. Having worked for most of the professional theatres in town, Christian is an actor, carpenter, and fighty guy who has worked coast to coast, north to south. Next up he will be once again fighting decency is Elvis’ Birthday Fight Club.

Joan CumminsJoan Cummins (Dramaturg) is a dramaturg, director, and teaching artist working in new plays and interactive theater. She is also a public historian, working to make history accessible to the public through interactive experiences and performance. Locally, she has worked with dog & pony dc, President Lincoln’s Cottage, The Welders, Signature Theatre, Pinky Swear Productions, the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., the Capital Fringe Festival, Ford’s Theater, and the Kennedy Center

Rick LoreRichard Lore (Production Stage Manager) returns to his first love after a 25-year diversion with public television. While at PBS, he conducted talent workshops for 71 stations. Directing credits include premiere works by Israel Horovitz, Martin Sherman, and Ernest Joselovitz. He is a member of Actors Equity. His play Mixed Doubles, was produced in Denver, Chicago, and San Jose.

Solomon HaileSelassie (Rehearsal Stage Manager)   

 

Emilie 810x810 square
To find out about the show these talented folks are working on, click the image above.

Emilie: La Marquise Du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight
B
y Lauren Gunderson
Directed by Rick Hammerly
Starring Sara Barker as Emilie
October 12 to November 12, 2017
Gunston Arts Center, Theatre Two
2700 South Lang Street, Arlington, VA 22206

 

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6 Cool Things to Know About Emilie du Châtelet

September 9, 2017

 

 

By Joan Cummins, Dramaturg

Emilie 4 R wide USE_150_dpi
Gabrielle Emilie le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise du Châtelet (1706–1749).

Born to a wealthy aristocratic family in Paris in 1706, Emilie du Châtelet was one of the few people in her time who could wrestle with the cutting-edge math of calculus. For a long time best known as the lover of Voltaire—the iconoclastic French dramatist, philosopher, and scientist—she was also extraordinary in her own right.

Having discovered the questions science posed about the nature of the universe, she never stopped searching for answers.

Click here for more information about the production.
Click for more information about Avant Bard’s production of the play.

She also worked tirelessly on behalf of those she loved. Contentedly married to the Marquis du Châtelet, Emilie lobbied on behalf of his military career, educated their son herself, and organized an advantageous marriage for their daughter into the court of Naples. She also did her best to keep Voltaire out of prison for his screeds against the Church. All the while she furiously corresponded with other intellectuals, worked through the principles of Newtonian physics from the ground up, and was the first woman published by the prestigious Académie Royale des Sciences.

In 1749 she found herself unexpectedly pregnant again by her new young lover Saint-Lambert, and continued to work on her translation and commentary on Newton into the wee hours of the morning. She died due to complications from childbirth at the age of forty-two.

6 Cool Things to Know About Emilie du Châtelet

1. Emilie tackled historic scientific problems.

The major scientific debate afoot in the 1740s was between Isaac Newton’s system describing the motion of the universe (including gravity) and Gottfried Leibniz’s opposing views on how space, time, and force worked. They disagreed on God’s role in the function of the universe, the fundamental nature of matter, and whether force was “living” or “dead.” The two men were also engaged in a furious dispute over who had first claim to the invention of calculus, an argument Leibniz lost in the 1700s but is now considered to have been right about all along. Emilie du Châtelet waded directly into these debates and provided new insights into the function of the universe.

2. Emilie had a secret love affair…with Voltaire.

Voltaire.
Voltaire.

As a poet, scientist, and public intellectual, Voltaire was a lifelong critic of the hypocrisy and corruption he saw among the clergy and aristocracy in France. He drew on themes from classical stories and the history of France in his vast oeuvre of writing. Always volatile, he spent much of his life fleeing condemnation or returning to Paris more famous than before. After losing Emilie so early, Voltaire would go on to live another thirty years, befriending Benjamin Franklin, writing his most famous work, Candide, and briefly joining the Prussion court before his death in 1778.

3. Emilie helped change what it meant to even do science.

I <3 SCIENCEShe insisted on using experimental results to back up her conclusions, and implemented Leibniz’s principle of sufficient reason. In essence, this principle refused to accept easy answers, and required a scientist to continue to seek explanations for why something worked one way and not another until you really got to the bottom of it. She also advocated for scientists to come up with hypotheses and then test them to determine whether they were true, an idea controversial in her day that today is the foundation of scientific work.

4. Emilie was a lover of knowledge.

In the early 1700s, the kind of work Emilie and her contemporaries were doing was bigger than “just” science. People were trying to figure out how the world worked, and the fields we today call science, ethics, math, and philosophy all overlapped. Philosophes (or philosophers in English—which has its roots in the Greek for “lover of knowledge”) could weigh in on gravity, human nature, political structures, religion and any number of other things.

Emiie Good to Know p2

5. Emilie fixed Newton’s physics.

Emilie took Newton’s work on the universe and improved upon it, incorporating Leibniz’s insights and her own. She found additional experimental proof for some of Newton’s assertions, and did the extensive calculus to back them up further (Newton himself used only geometric proofs in his major opus Principia). Emilie’s translation of Principia, accompanied by her commentary, is still today the authoritative version in French

6. Emilie contributed to our modern understanding of energy.

She argued in favor of force vive, which squared the speed of an object to determine its force (energy), against Newton’s insistence on plain multiplication (F=mv2 vs. F=mv). We now understand these two concepts to be kinetic energy and momentum respectively. This squaring of speed would reappear in Einstein’s famous formulation E = mc2, which explained that all matter everywhere included an astonishing amount of energy and reframed how we understand the universe.

Joan CumminsJoan Cummins is dramaturg for Avant Bard’s production of Lauren Gunderson’s Emilie: La Marquise Du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight. A dramaturg, director, and teaching artist working in new plays and interactive theater, she is also a public historian, working to make history accessible to the public through interactive experiences and performance. Locally, she has worked with dog & pony dc, President Lincoln’s Cottage, The Welders, Signature Theatre, Pinky Swear Productions, the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., the Capital Fringe Festival, Ford’s Theater, and the Kennedy Center.

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“The Real Reason I Wrote About Emilie Is Because I’d Like to Hang Out With Her”

August 7, 2017

A Q&A With Playwright Lauren Gunderson

By Amy Holzapfel, Associate Professor of Theatre, Williams College

What inspired you to write a play about Emilie, Marquise Du Châtelet?

Lauren Gunderson
Lauren Gunderson

I read a great book called Emilie Du Châtelet: Daring Genius of the Enlightenment, by Judith Zinsser. Emilie’s life story encompasses so many riveting and profound subjects: love, sex, physics, feminism, history, what life means, what love means. I like writing about historical characters because there is such grandiosity to re-imaging and resurrecting a real person onstage. There is simple magic in listening to her journey, and rooting for her, and falling in love with her, all the while knowing that she is based on a real woman. So the real reason I wrote about Emilie is because I’d like to hang out with her.

What was your writing process like for Emilie?

Writing, for me, begins long before typing. I usually start writing a new play with a lot of reading and daydreaming. When I understand my idea enough to talk about to my friends (or my cat, who was christened Emilie La Marquise Du Châtelet, with all respect), I always start at the beginning. Emilie begins with her first monologue to the audience, her arrival in this space and time. She finds herself, she starts to remember her life, and then she pretty much starts her play for herself.

The rest of the play came to me sans filter. The rules invented themselves, and I pretty much just said “sure!” The play shifts when she meets Voltaire and we get their chemistry and romance. Then it shifts again when her heart breaks, and she must become her own support system. Emilie herself never lingers, never apologizes, never slows. In the end, I realized that I had to have the whole play turn against her as she approaches its end. She is not fighting herself or her society, she is fighting her medium. That was fun to write. How does one turn a play against its main character?

In the end, I realized that Emilie’s greatest proof of her value is herself. I had to craft an ending that lets her say goodbye to her world, her story, and her self with confidence and a full heart. That means that the play ends in a similar (though much deeper, truthful, satisfying) place where it ends—dark into light into dark.

What, for you, is the central story of your play?

Emilie 810x810 squareIt is a story of Emilie, who, looking back, wants to know if her bold life full of love and discovery actually mattered and how. She’s a scientist so she needs proof, even though it’s impossible to quantify a life’s meaning. The play starts when she is given one chance to “defend” her life and scour it for meaning. In the end she is met by two realizations: her science did matter to the world (she was right about squaring speed), and that the only person who needs to believe that she mattered is herself. We live (and die) best when we are sure of ourselves and fight for our truth.

What has Emilie taught you?

What a great question! So much so I’m stumped as to how to begin. I’d love to know what she’s taught others first…

In your play, what do you think Emilie gains from her relationship with Voltaire? What do you think he gains from her?

I think they both gain a best friend. Even though they were lovers they were, more than anything, friends, like minds, twin inspirations for each other. From him, she gained adventure and boldness and humor. From her, he gained an avenue into legitimate scientific discourse, a steady companion, and a person to look up to. I think they both allowed each other to live life fully, with all its complexity and curiosity.

Are you or have you ever been a “science geek”? What do you love most about science?

I <3 SCIENCEI accept the mantle of science geek! Though I’ve never been a scientist, I am definitely a science enthusiast. I discovered a love of asking big questions about life and found a home for that in science as well as art. What I love about science is that everything is up for debate all the time. You are never done with science. It’s always moving, expanding, confirming, re-confirming. Scientists are never satisfied, but ever hungry for the next technology to prove the next theory. Science continues to surprise us, upend us, challenge us to be better. Science continues to make impossible things possible.

What do you consider to be Emilie’s bravest act?

Her bravest act was probably the very first time she spoke up for her right to have an education. Her father acquiesced even when the idea of education [for?] women in the sciences was uncommon. As a girl being groomed for marriage and child rearing, something about Emilie made her speak up and ask for what she wanted: a tutor. She was ridiculed for her intellect, asked to be quiet when she had a pertinent thought to share, mocked for writing the first popular science book in Europe. But all of that bravery started when she was a child with one request

What do you see as some of the biggest challenges for women in our age?

A lot of the challenges we have faced in the past aren’t gone. Gender and racial discrimination within and without of the feminist movement, for one. Pervasive and excessive violence against women across the world. Extremism that continues to assume women’s abilities and thwart their natural rights and freedoms. Women in professional sciences, in politics, in business are still underrepresented in positions of power. Even in the performing arts, a generally progressive field, a play about men is considered a universal story, but a play about women is often a “women’s” play. We still see more male directors, writers, and even male roles than women’s. This all amounts to fewer women’s stories defining our half of humanity…. The power of women’s stories to inspire understanding and acceptance and empowerment for women (and men too) all over the world is vital.

Sara Barker
Sara Barker

Emilie: La Marquise Du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight
B
y Lauren Gunderson
Directed by Rick Hammerly
Starring Sara Barker as Emilie
October 12 to November 12, 2017

Gunston Arts Center, Theatre Two
2700 South Lang Street, Arlington, VA 22206

good-devil-click-here-button

 

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The Gospel at Colonus Free Concert August 5 at Lubber Run

July 25, 2017

Orlando Program

Avant Bard’s acclaimed sold-out production of The Gospel at Colonus returns in a one-night-only concert staging at Lubber Run Park Amphitheater in Arlington, VA, Saturday, August 5, at 8 pm. FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

ABOUT THE SHOW: The legendary African American musical The Gospel at Colonus is a soaring celebration of transcendence and the fragility of life. The music is an inspiring fusion of Black church gospel with blues and Motown. The show’s message of redemption is sorely needed right now. With its epic poetry and magnificent score, The Gospel at Colonus reminds us that out of the deepest sorrows, the highest and most uplifting hope can emerge.

ABOUT THE VENUE: The main entrance to Lubber Run Park is at 200 North Columbus Street, Arlington, VA 22203. The Amphitheater has bench seating for roughly 700, plus there is plenty of room for lawn chairs and picnic blankets. THIS IS A PERFECT EVENT FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY.

NO RESERVATIONS REQUIRED FOR CONCERT.

PACK-A-PICNIC PARTY Pre-show SEASON 28 KICKOFF PACK-A-PICNIC PARTY

WHERE: The Lubber Run Picnic Shelter (click to download park map). WHEN: Before the Gospel at Colonus concert Saturday, August 5, 2017, at 6 pm. Bring what you want to eat and drink (sorry, alcohol is not permitted).

RSVP FOR PICNIC PARTY APPRECIATED. Email Quill Nebeker, Director of Audience Engagement, quill@avantbard.org.

DIRECTIONS TO LUBBER RUN PARK


FOR MORE INFORMATION call 703-418-4808.
For a PDF of the map below, click on it.

To download a PDF of this map, click on it.

The Free Summer Concert Series at Lubber Run Amphitheater is produced by Arlington Arts, the presenting arm of Arlington County Cultural Affairs, in collaboration with the Arlington County Department of Parks and Recreation, and with the cooperation of the Lubber Run Amphitheater Foundation.

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This program is supported in part by Arlington County through the Arlington Cultural Affairs division of Arlington Economic Development and the Arlington Commission for the Arts, and by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

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