Catalyst Collaborative @ MIT (CC@MIT) presents QED at new Central Square Theater

About CC@MIT

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 was also presented at the World Science Festival in New York City in May 2008. 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.

About Central Square Theater

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.