RETURN TO TESLA'S LETTERS HOMEPAGE     March/April 1999

ON STAGE

Break a Leg If you've been missing a dash of science in your Broadway fare, whet your appetite at First Light, a science theater festival.  The directors of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation think the way the arts represent science is often boring or simply wrong. So they have given the Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York City more than half a million dollars to promote credible and compelling dramatic works.  The festival, which will run from March 26 through April 26, will feature a full production of a play by Jeffrey Stanley, titled TESLA'S LETTERS, as well as between twenty and thirty staged readings of other science related works at various stages of development.

In TESLA'S LETTERS, a young graduate student obsessed with the electrical engineer Nikola Tesla travels to Serbia to track down the eccentric man's letters.  Tesla was a visionary:  when people were still getting used to the idea of wires and telephones coming into their homes, Tesla was already workin on wireless electronics.  In 1883, with the invention of an induction motor that used alternating current, Tesla set off what came to be known as "the current wars."  Thomas Edison had already adopted direct current as a standard. "It's very analogous to some of the things that are going on with the Internet, say, between Bill Gates and Steve Jobs," Stanley says.

For information about the schedule of performances call 212/247-4982.