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***FREE TICKETS WERE AVAILABLE FOR MIT STUDENTS TO SELECTED PERFORMANCES***

April 15 update: This production of "Einstein's Dreams" is a completely new adaptation of Alan Lightman's internationally acclaimed novel, written by Wesley Savick in collaboration with the artists from Underground Railway Theater.

The performance runs a little over an hour, and is followed by open conversation with the artists and special guests from the scientific community.

MIT and Underground Railway Theater
In association with the
inaugural Cambridge Science Festival
present 'Einstein's Dreams' April 19-29

Cambridge, MA...The Catalyst Collaborative at MIT (CC@MIT), a collaboration between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Underground Railway Theater (URT) dedicated to developing new plays about science, is pleased to present its first fully-staged production, "Einstein's Dreams." The play is a dramatization of the best-selling novel by MIT physicist Alan Lightman, adapted for the stage by Wesley Savick (in collaboration with the artists from Underground Railway Theater.

Performances begin Thursday, April 19 at MIT's Broad Institute Auditorium, 7 Cambridge Center Cambridge, and run through Sunday, April 29. "Einstein's Dreams" will be available for press viewing beginning Saturday, April 21 at 8pm.

Directed by Savick, the production will feature Boston actors Robert Najarian (Albert Einstein), Steven Barkhimer and Debra Wise as well as accordion virtuoso Evan Harlan, who has created an original score.

Post-performance discussions will feature an array of prominent artists and scientists, including Alan Lightman; John Durant, director of the MIT Museum; Claude Canizares, MIT Professor of Physics and Vice President for Research; Jerome Friedman, MIT Professor of Physics and 1990 Nobel laureate; Alan Guth, V. F. Weisskopf Professor of Physics at MIT; and Paula Apsell, Executive Producer, NOVA, Director of WGBH Science Unit. See performance schedule below.

The production is being presented as part of the MIT Museum's inaugural Cambridge Science Festival (April 21-29), "nine days of discovery celebrating the impact of science and technology in our lives."

Tickets are $18 general admission or $12 for students/seniors and will be available starting March 26, at Cambridge Science Festival. The show is recommended for ages ten and older.

"Einstein's Dreams" Performance Schedule

*A reception celebrating the future Central Square Theater will be held following the 7:30pm performance on Wednesday, April 25.

Catalyst Collaborative at MIT (CC@MIT)

The mission of the Catalyst Collaborative at MIT (CC@MIT) is to develop new plays about science to provide the public with a better understanding of our increasingly scientific and technological world.

Two staged readings of "Einstein's Dreams" presented in 2006 by CC@MIT drew standing-room-only audiences. "No ordinary crowd: an amalgam of scientists, actors, playwrights, and curious Cantabrigians interested in physics, theater, or both," is how freelance writer Mara E. Vatz described the audience.

'Einstein's Dreams'

Since its publication in 1993, "Einstein's Dreams" has been translated into more than 30 languages and has been the basis for more than two dozen independent theatrical and musical productions.

Set in Berne, Switzerland, 1905, the play portrays Einstein, a modest but brilliant patent clerk in a new marriage, struggling to make ends meet, while in the back of his mind re-conceiving time! Einstein performs acrobatics, both physically and mentally, and the audience is invited into reflections on time that range from whimsical to scientific to extremely personal. "Einstein's Dreams" is a journey -- alternately wry and wild, funny and intellectually stimulating, provocative and surprisingly moving.

Alan Lightman

Novelist, essayist, physicist, and educator, Lightman is adjunct professor of humanities at the MIT. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, he was educated at Princeton and at the California Institute of Technology, where he received a Ph.D. in theoretical physics. His novels include "Good Benito," "The Diagnosis," and "Reunion," and his essays, short fiction, and reviews have been published in several magazines. In his scientific work, Lightman has made fundamental contributions to the theory of astrophysical processes under conditions of extreme temperatures and densities. In particular, his research has focused on relativistic gravitation theory, the structure and behavior of accretion disks, stellar dynamics, radiative processes, and relativistic plasmas.

"The sciences and the arts have a great deal to say to each other," said Lightman, an acclaimed author and Adjunct Professor of the Humanities at MIT. "The Catalyst Collaborative at MIT is an imaginative and wonderful way to contribute to the conversation between science and theater."

Lightman continued, "I'm delighted that MIT will be involved with a theatrical production of 'Einstein's Dreams,' not only as my home institution, but a place where science and the arts and creativity in general have always lived together happily."

Central Square Theater

MIT and URT (with its partner the Nora Theatre Company) are also involved in a collaboration to create the new Central Square Theater, in a building owned by MIT at 450 Massachusetts Ave. Construction begins this spring on the facility, which will feature a state-of the-art black box theater. The Theater projects their first full production will be staged in the winter of 2008.

Founded in 1979, URT seeks to connect high-quality professional theater with communities through original plays and rigorous educational programming.

"Einstein's Dreams" is supported in part by grants from the Council for the Arts at MIT and the MIT Museum.

MIT's Broad Institute Auditorium, located near the Kendall Square MBTA stop at 7 Cambridge Center at the corner of Ames and Main Streets, is accessible to persons with special needs and to those requiring wheelchair seating. Parking is available at several pay lots and garages near MIT, including 4 Cambridge Center East Garage (entrance on Ames St. or Broadway); 5 Cambridge Center, 7 Cambridge Center West Garage (Ames St./Galileo Way); 10 Cambridge Center North Garage (Binney St. off Broadway). Maps/info.

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