Caltech Theater Arts Launchpad Play Lab (Photo – Caltech)
An annual campus tradition, Caltech’s MACH 33 Science Play Festival brings three packed days of plays about the universe’s secrets and the scientists trying to unlock them — free for students, $10 suggested donation for the public, or $25 for all three days.
By Melanie Hooks
Founded in 2013, MACH 33: The Caltech Festival of New Science-Driven Plays is a one-of-a-kind play development program, culminating in readings of new theatrical works focused on science by playwrights from the Greater Los Angeles area. Over the past decade, MACH 33 has helped nurture the evolution of dozens of exciting new plays focused on the ideas, history, and human drama of science.
Peruse the schedule below or online here and pick your favorite mysteries to watch and unravel.
Tickets available at the door.
> Thursday, May 14: 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Hubble Night: River of Night and Redshift
@Frautschi Hall, Hameetman Center
Readings of selections from two new plays about Edwin Hubble: River of Night by Randal K. Jackson and Redshift by Simon Bowler, developed through MACH 33’s Launchpad Play Lab and produced by Theater Arts Caltech.
Stay after the readings for a special talkback panel featuring the playwrights, directors, and science advisors, with special guest Tim Thompson (Science Director, Mount Wilson), moderated by Ashish Mahabal (Professor of Astronomy).
> Friday, May 15, 7:00 pm
Sing for Me
@Frautschi Hall, Hameetman Center
Sing for Me
by Cris Eli Blak
directed by Melissa Coleman-Reed
Science Advisor: Tinashe Handina
A rising Black musician is offered stardom, on one condition: her voice will be heard, but her face will be replaced by an AI-generated white avatar. Sing for Me, a new Cris Eli Blak play, interrogates who gets seen, who gets paid, and what survival costs in an industry built on extraction.
Stay for a talkback with the playwright and creative team after the reading!
> Saturday, May 16, 4:00 pm –
The Heat of the Suns Rays
@Frautschi Hall, Hameetman Center
The Heat of the Suns Rays
by Katherine Vondy
directed by Jessie Lee Mills
Science Advisors: Olivia Alcabes and Zhaoyi Shen
In ancient Greece, Cassandra has visions of what is going to happen during the Trojan War. In 19th-century London, a group of academics gathers to discuss the world’s latest scientific developments. And in 2024 Phoenix, a young woman and her grandmother grapple with a historic Arizonan heat wave. What strange thread unites these faraway people, places, and times? Only the groundbreaking work of early American climatologist Eunice Newton Foote can reveal the connection.
Stay for a talkback with the playwright and creative team after the reading, as well as a 6:00 pm reception.
> Saturday, May 16, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Haunt Me
@Frautschi Hall, Hameetman Center
Haunt Me
by James Still
directed by Abigail Deser
Science Advisor: Solvin Sigurdson
Dementia Advisor: Anna Schlobohm de Cruder
Best-selling horror writer Ellery du Trent is mysteriously disappearing into the novel she’s writing, with the unsettling assistance of an AI program called MUSE. Haunt Me is an intimate psychological horror where fiction and reality slowly blur, revealing how memory, identity, and creation can slip away when the stories we tell seem to take on a life of their own. Sometimes the scariest story of all turns out to be your own life.
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