THEATRE

As spring approaches, Central Square Theater will treat audiences to a festival of new works presented throughout the month of March! From global warming to faith, space exploration to a homecoming, PLAY it Forward! will bring to life a diverse offering of stories through two Catalyst Collaborative @ MIT readings, two readings from New Plays At The Nora, a reading for the city-wide "ZinnFest," as well as "Page to Stage: A Young Playwrights Celebration."

Festival events will take place at Central Square Theater and The Broad Institute in Cambridge between March 2 - 24, 2009. On Monday, March 2 and Tuesday March 3 at 7 PM, Catalyst Collaborative @ MIT (CC@MIT) presents Atlas of Mud by Jennifer Fawcett, and directed by Jay Scheib. A mythic allegory exploring the human dimensions of global warming, Fawcett's drama won the 2008 Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival National Science Playwriting Award. On Friday, March 13 and Saturday, March 14, CC@MIT presents Frontier Theory, written and directed by Rebekkah Maggor. Written in conjunction with James Battat, Pappalardo Fellow of Physics at MIT, Frontier Theory is a CC@MIT commission. Maggor and Battat explore the nature of scientific research through the eyes of a female astrophysicist who abandons academia to pursue a career as an astronaut. The first performance of each staged reading will be hosted at the Broad Institute, placing it in the center of Cambridge's dynamic scientific community; the second performance of each will be at Central Square Theater. Each staged reading will be followed by a conversation led by scientists and the playwrights. As part of "ZinnFest," a city-wide celebration honoring the work of historian, playwright and social activist Howard Zinn ("A People's History of the United States"), Marx is back in Marx in Soho, Friday, March 6 at 8 PM and Saturday, March 7 at 4 and 8 PM. Written by Zinn, directed by David Wheeler (associate artist at A.R.T.; resident director since 1984) and starring Max Wright (2008 Elliott Norton award for A.R.Ts No Man's Land, directed by David Wheeler; 1998 Tony nomination, Chekov's Ivanov; Willie Tanner on TV's "Alf") this witty and insightful “play on history discovers Karl Marx agitating the authorities of the afterlife for a chance to clear his name. Through a bureaucratic error, though, Marx is sent to Soho in New York, rather than his old stomping ground in London, to make his case. On Saturday, March 7 at 6 PM, Howard Zinn will host a conversation with the audience and community organizers, including Marcy Goldstein-Gelb, Executive Director, Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health; Ardeene Goodridge, Coordinator, Area IV Neighborhood, Cambridge; and Michael Muehe, Director, Cambridge Commission for Persons with Disabilities. The performance at 4 pm on Saturday, March 7th, as well as the conversation at 6 pm, will both be ASL interpreted. In "Page to Stage: A Young Playwrights Celebration," original scripts by Cambridge Public Schools' students will be performed by professionals as fully staged productions, on Wednesday, March 11 at 10 AM & 7 PM.

The Nora Theatre Company presents two readings through its New Plays At The Nora series, a program designed to help develop and promote plays by women playwrights from the area. On Monday, March 16 and Tuesday, March 17 at 7 PM, the company will present Vessel of Glass by Lyralen Kaye; when two nuns befriend a troubled student, their faith and convictions are called into question: what is God's will and who is His messenger? On Monday, March 23 and Tuesday, March 24 at 7 PM, memories of the past and choices for the future haunt a middle-aged woman determined to sell her inheritance as she returns to her family home in coastal Maine, in Weekend at the Dreaming Cloud by Kelly DuMar.