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Catalyst Collaborative @ MIT (CC@MIT) presents preview performance of Peter Parnell's play QED

An Evening with Richard Feynman -- Nobel Prize Winning Physicist, Brilliant and Controversial Theorist, Accomplished Juggler, Prankster, Safecraker, And Lover of Tuvan Throat Singing!

Cambridge, MA... Catalyst Collaborative at MIT (CC@MIT), a collaboration between Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Underground Railway Theater (URT) presents preview performances of QED as part of the 2008 Cambridge Science Festival presented by the MIT Museum.

QED, written by Peter Parnell, is about Richard Feynman (1918-1988) who earned his undergraduate degree from MIT in 1939 and a Nobel Prize for his work in quantum electrodynamics in 1965. Directed by Jon Lipsky, starring Keith Jochim as Feynman, and featuring Danielle Kellermann, QED is very funny, surprisingly moving, and deeply inspirational about scientific inquiry as an expression of the human spirit.

Preview performances begin Wednesday, April 30 at MIT's Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Lobby Auditorium, 7 Cambridge Center Cambridge, and run through Sunday, May 4. QED will re-open this summer as the first production at the new Central Square Theater.

Performances will be followed by conversations with the public led by scientists of the MIT community, many of whom knew Feynman personally.  

Tickets are $20 general admission or $12 for students/seniors. To purchase tickets please click icon below, visit www.undergroundrailwaytheater.org, or call (866) 811-4111.

QED Performance Schedule:

CC@MIT is a unique collaboration between MIT and URT, a 28 year-old community-based, professional theater. CC@MIT is dedicated to developing new plays about science to provide the general public with a better understanding of our increasingly scientific and technological world. By pairing MIT's expertise in science and technology and Underground Railway Theater's artistic excellence and history of community involvement, CC@MIT is poised to make significant contributions to the role of science in society.

CC@MIT productions aim to clarify complex, profound ideas, making them accessible to non-specialists, while serving as a thought-provoking and entertaining experience for experts and the general public alike. The project presented three different, highly acclaimed staged readings in 2006, and in 2007 presented its first full production, Einstein's Dreams, a new dramatization of the international best-selling novel by MIT faculty member and physicist Alan Lightman, as part of the first Cambridge Science Festival and a well-received staged reading of David Mamet's The Water Engine: An American Fable. Einstein’s Dreams has been invited to the World Science Festival in NYC, where it will be performed May 29-31 at the City University of New York. CC@MIT’s other programs include an annual commission of a new work by a New England playwright and scientist team, and the development of new inter-disciplinary curriculum across all grade levels designed to deepen understanding about both science and the humanities (late-breaking news about awards in both of these areas to be announced in late March/early April).

MIT and URT, with its partner The Nora Theatre Company (The Nora), are also involved in a collaboration to create the new Central Square Theater, which will be the permanent home of CC@MIT and a rich array of other programs.

At Central Square Theater, a new state-of-the-art community-based theatrical arts facility, audiences will find, under one roof, the distinctive repertoires of two award-winning non-profit professional companies, The Nora and URT, as well as collaborative projects drawing on their creative synergy. Schools, families and community groups will benefit from outreach and educational programs, and local businesses will enjoy increased foot traffic and new customers. As the first permanent home for professional theater companies, Central Square Theater will be a vibrant hub of theatrical, educational and social activity, where artists and audiences come together to create theater vital to our communities.

The seeds of the Central Square Theater (CST) were sown in 1997, with a partnership between The Nora Theatre Company, Underground Railway Theater, and the Community Development Department of the City of Cambridge, which brokered a relationship with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). MIT is constructing the building and providing an extraordinary 20-year lease commitment at under $5 per square foot -- a contribution valued at more than $2 million over time. The theater companies are responsible for the design, construction and fit-up of the theater interior and are in the final phase of the Capital Campaign.

Central Square Theater is undergoing its final phases of construction and anticipates opening its doors to the public in summer 2008. The new theater will be located at 450 Massachusetts Avenue.

For more information, please contact Underground Railway Theater at (617) 491-2346 or visit www.undergroundrailwaytheater.org.