Caltech students take international stage at Italian Science Theater Festival – Pasadena Now

Gutierrez and Ware perform at the Teatro Meraviglia Festival in Trento. [Photo credit: CALTECH]

Michael Gutierrez, a third-year undergraduate student, and Skylar Ware, a sixth-year graduate student, have a lot in common. Both are avid scientists in astrophysics and chemistry, passionate journalists, and Caltech theater veterans, respectively. Then, in November 2023, the two were blessed with a unique opportunity. Meraviglia Theateror Theater of Wonder (a science theater festival held in Trento, Italy).

The two-person play is led by Theater Arts at California Institute of Technology (TACIT) Director Brian Brophy. another revolutiondepicts two graduate students at Columbia University in 1968. Forced to share a laboratory, the characters, a physicist and an ecologist, navigate interpersonal differences, research struggles, and political tensions during a tumultuous and surprisingly nostalgic era. Masu. After three nights of performances at a packed Beckman Institute Auditorium in November, the cast and crew crossed the Atlantic for the final performance on November 24th at the Sambapolis Theater in Trento.

“It was a great opportunity to represent Caltech and the United States at this theater festival,” said Ware, who played activist and botanist Kat. “It’s great to be trusted as a relatively inexperienced performer, especially in a professional school, and have the support, mentorship and network to do it. It’s something I anticipated would happen in the final year of my PhD. It’s way beyond what I expected.”

Gutierrez, who played nerdy astrophysicist Henry, has a different perspective. He says one of the things I love about Caltech is that it’s such a small school that all kinds of weird and wonderful opportunities pop up out of the blue. You never know what will happen. I mean, that’s why I’m here. If you are dedicated and passionate, opportunities will present themselves. ”

Similar coincidences characterize the story. another revolution I created everything from the script to the Italian stage. Recent alumnus Jake Mattinson (BS ’19), a quantum engineer and scientific dramaturg at Microsoft, was the catalyst for Caltech’s connection with Trent.

Mattinson has been involved with TACIT since his first year at Caltech. In 2018, he was a member of the reading committee for Mach 33, Caltech’s annual festival of new science-based plays. another revolution It was exhibited at the festival. Although he couldn’t reach Mach 33, Mattinson held on to the show.

Mattinson won the Caltech Y’s Studenski Award in 2019, his senior year. The award provides scholarships to undergraduate students who have reached a crossroads in their lives and would benefit from a period of self-discovery. Wanting to learn more about how he could integrate science and theater into his own career, he used the award to travel to Trento, Italy. Meraviglia Theater.

“There are only a handful of people working at the intersection of science and theater,” Mattinson says. “But the cleanest and most dedicated example of this craft that I can think of is this festival in Trento.”

Mattinson met festival director and former physicist Andrea Brunello in Italy. He is a faculty member at the University of Trento and also runs several science theater projects (including one coincidentally called the Jet Propulsion Theater). Mattinson takes a behind-the-scenes look at the festival and finds a new mentor in science communication in Brunello. After the trip, he proposed an official collaboration between TACIT and the festival, bringing Brophy and Brunello together.

Their first joint project was Earth created by humans: When is the Anthropocene?, which consisted of four mini-plays co-written by students from Trento University and Caltech, including Mattinson and Gutierrez.Theater with California Institute of Technology Meraviglia Theater With site-specific cast in 2022.

In 2023, TACIT was invited to submit a science play to the festival, so Mattinson recommended: another revolution This is because the cast is small so it is easy to carry. Brophy recruited Ware and Gutierrez for the roles, and they raised donations from Caltech theater patrons alumnus Jose Hel (BS ’79) and his wife, Katie, to support the show’s trip to Italy. realized.

“I was at TACIT before it was called TACIT under the direction of Shirley Marneus. [the late founding director of the program]” says Hell. “Being part of the show was not only so much fun, but so therapeutic. Shirley has made it a welcoming home for all who wish to participate.”

“When I had the opportunity to give back to Caltech, the theater program was obviously one of the ways I wanted to do it. Enabling creativity is important, sometimes literally. It helps keep the social environment healthy, which in turn helps foster the science we are helping our students move forward with.”

He was joined by Ware, Gutierrez, Mattinson and Brophy for the trip to Italy. another revolution playwright Jacqueline Bircher and Ware’s husband, stage director Sam Engle. In addition to rehearsals, the group spent time enjoying Italian food, hiking the waterfall-filled landscapes around Trento, and taking day trips to Venice.

The Caltech group also participated in other performances. Meraviglia TheaterHowever, Mattinson was the only one who knew enough Italian to understand them. Of the nine works that will be performed during the exhibition, another revolution It was the only program in English.

“It was interesting to perform in front of an Italian audience,” Gutierrez says. “During the performance, there were Italian subtitles scrolling across the top of the projector screen, and it was very interesting to see what they reacted to and what made them laugh.”

“This is a very American-centric play,” Ware added. “The background of the Vietnam War and the draft and everything that was going on in 1968 was not as well understood by the Italian audience as it was by the Caltech audience. But other cultural influences, such as the music of the time, I think a lot of the stuff was easier for them to understand.”

Despite language and cultural barriers, the show reflected current global events and resonated with audiences and actors in both countries. Ware and Gutierrez said the show’s themes of war and movements for social justice struck a chord with them.

“The main thread of the play is about all the turmoil at Columbia University. Students are being expelled for protesting,” Gutierrez says. “I distinctly remember the night of one performance. That same day, someone shared an article with me about MIT. There were many student protests regarding the conflict in the Middle East, and the MIT government He went around to the participants and threatened them with suspension.”

Ware says her character connects with her experience facing sexism as a female scientist.

“Obviously, the challenges today are different than they were in 1968, but in many ways they are the same. This show gives voice to the similarities in the struggles that women in STEM faced then and now. He gave it to me.”

“Jacqueline, the playwright, said this is a play about growing up and coming of age in a time and environment where it feels like the world is constantly falling apart,” Gutierrez says. “Everything is on fire.”

Gutierrez says he empathizes with that emotion and his character’s reaction to it. There’s so much to do that it’s tiring and there’s so much to do. ”

Ware, Gutierrez, and Mattinson not only resonated with the play, but also connected over a shared love of theater, writing, and scientific storytelling.

“Skylar and I were working on TACIT in tandem before this show,” says Gutierrez. “We both worked with Brian and taught his class, Storytelling for Scientists, but at different times.”

“This is where the paths meet,” Ware said.

“Our orbits briefly crossed,” Gutierrez added, recasting a line from the play.

“Working on this show helped me get out of my head and keep myself focused on my lab work and my dissertation,” said Ware, who was rehearsing for the play and finishing her doctoral thesis. Masu. “If you can free up parts of your brain to do some creative processing in the background and start thinking about things in a different way, you become a better scientist overall.”

Ms. Ware will defend her paper on December 13 and work as a science journalist. Gutierrez is the editor-in-chief of Caltech’s student newspaper. california techGoing forward, he said he would focus on balancing “too many promises.”

Mattinson ultimately hopes to pursue a career that combines scientific storytelling, education, and theater.

“There’s a particular humanity to theater, and it’s a very powerful way to actually convince people that scientists are human and care about what they’re doing, and that science is trustworthy.” “I believe it will be a great platform for the future,” Mattinson said. .

“I was very capable of attending Caltech, so it was great to do a little bit of everything behind the scenes and get a general sense of what theater is and what you can do with it. It was very easy. Free access to these resources is just… Hashtag So Caltech. ”

Gutierrez echoed similar sentiments. “This experience feels like the best Caltech to me. I’m really grateful to be here and have this opportunity.”