I love the theater. I love all of it from the high end, extraordinary Broadway productions to the smallest community theater. When I was in grad. school, I fell in love with writing plays, and I still putter around, although finding time to write between grants, teaching, and papers is no small thing.

Theater is a phenomenal gift for a scientist. It provides an opportunity to find one’s voice, learn to tell stories, and to be part of a community. It can be extraordinarily lonely when one feels different, but in theater, there was an incredible sense of belonging. One can take public speaking and learn to present and write papers, but why not do it as part of a world that embraces story telling and community?

Science can be a great gift for theater. Science brings a wealth of stories that are yet to be told with characters, dramas, and perspectives on the nature of things and the people therein that can lead to not only new kinds of stories but new ways of telling stories. Want drama? Look no further than science demonstrations. Want more drama? Tell the story of the scientist doing the demo.