LSU SciArts New Play Festival 2025
The LSU School of Theatre and College of Science are excited to announce the return
of the SciArts New Play Festival.
This groundbreaking festival will showcase three staged readings of new accurate science
plays
selected from over 150 submissions across the nation.
Performances
Dates: April 15-17
Time: 7:00pm
Location: Music and Dramatic Arts Building, Studio Theater
Five Degrees Above Polaris
Written by Karen Howes
Directed by Rachel Aker
April 15th 7:00pm
MDA Studio Theater
Set in 1847, Five Degrees Above Polaris follows American astronomer Maria Mitchell as she travels to Rome to challenge the Vatican’s official astronomer, Father Francesco De Vico, who received credit and a medal for the discovery of a comet that was initially sighted by her. While trying to make her mark as a respected scientist, she is swept into a world of stuffy Harvard professors, romantic Italian revolutionaries, and the dogma of Catholicism. But Maria is dead-set on getting the medal that she rightly deserves, which forces her to make unusual choices.
Better Living
Written By Rich Rubin
Directed by Craig Ester
April16th 7:00pm
MDA Studio Theater
Junior chemist Connie is assigned a secretive task by her 3M supervisor, Paul: to assess PFOS prevalence in the general population. She discovers the fluorochemical is nearly ubiquitous—in human blood, air, water, and soil. Connie's reaction to this shocking discovery is very different from Paul's, leading to escalating conflict and mutual recrimination. Years later, seeking closure, she reaches out to Paul, now suffering from Alzheimer's and barely remembering their disputes. In the end, Connie realizes that, like PFOS, her regrets are permanent.
Alice Wareham and the Fabulation of Time
Written by Catherine Yu
Directed by Barrett Hileman
April 17th 7:00pm
MDA Studio Theater
Alice Wareham is a brilliant physicist who studies black holes. When she is approached by the CIA to become an asset, she agrees, and is whisked away to a lab in Marseille, France. As she strikes up a friendship with the French physicist she is spying on, she wonders if she'll be able to make her breakthrough and save her country before time runs out.
Karen Howe’s plays have been published and produced across the country, winning commissions, grants, and awards including the Maxim Mazumdar New Play Prize, two-time winner of The New Science Driven Play award, nominee for Susan Smith Blackburn, winner of the Bennett Prize, selected for the Women’s Playwright Initiative, and finalist for the Woodward/Newman prize out of over 2000 submissions; additional finalist recognition by Henley Rose, Ashland, Humanitas, Full Circle, NJ Playwrights, Gary Marshall, etc. Other playwriting experience includes theatre outreach and writing musical plays for The William Inge Center, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Virginia Avenue Project, Fulton County Charities, The Young Actors Ensemble, and The Academy Theatre. In academia, Karen has taught over 50 courses in dramatic writing and literary analysis. Currently, she runs the Playwrights Think Tank for FAIR-Arts and facilitates an online book club called “In Conversation.” She has 4 children, 3 cats, an Australian Shepherd, and a husband.
Rich Rubin’s plays have been staged throughout the U.S. as well as in Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico and the Middle East. Full-length plays include Picasso In Paris (winner, Julie Harris Playwright Award); Swimming Upstream (winner, Todd McNerney Playwriting Award; finalist, Reva Shiner Comedy Award); Caesar's Blood (finalist, Oregon Book Award, finalist, Ashland New Play Festival); Shakespeare's Skull (winner, Portland Civic Theatre Guild New Play Award); Left Hook (finalist, Woodward-Newman Drama Award; semifinalist, O’Neill Conference); Assisted Living (winner, Neil Simon Festival New Play Award); One Weekend In October (winner, Playhouse Creatures Emerging Playwright Award; semifinalist, O’Neill Conference); Cottonwood In The Flood (winner, Fratti-Newman Political Play Award); Costa Rehab (finalist, Oregon Book Award); September Twelfth (finalist, Oregon Book Award; finalist, Playwrights First Award); Marilyn/Misfits/Miller (finalist, Julie Harris Playwright Award; semifinalist, O’Neill Conference); Russian Troll (finalist, Oregon Book Award); Book Of Revelation (finalist, Clive Award); Kafka’s Joke (finalist, Woodward International Playwriting Prize; finalist, Oregon Book Award); Dispersion Of Light (semifinalist, O’Neill Conference); Class Act (semifinalist, O’Neill Conference); and Ivory Tower (finalist, Waterworks Festival). Member: Dramatists Guild, New Play Exchange and Portland’s Nameless Playwrights and LineStorm Playwrights.
Catherine Yu is a writer of plays and librettos. Her plays include In Spite of My Ambivalence (2024 Venturous nomination); In Love and Friendship (2023 Austin Film Festival Second Round); Le Jeté (2019 BAPF Semifinalist); The Day is Long to End (2018 University of Florida production); and The Sun Experiment (FringeNYC Excellence in Playwriting; Time Out NY’s Top Ten Nightlife and Music Events of the Week in August 2014).
Past SciArts Festival Winners
2019
Another Revolution by Jacqueline Bircher
The Surest Poison by Kristin Idaszak
Maize by Judith Pratt