The Play on the Stage

2018

The Salk Institute

An evening devoted to exploring science and its social consequences, generously underwritten by Joan and Irwin Jacobs at The Salk Institute’s Conrad T. Prebys Auditorium in La Jolla, California

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2014

American Physical Society + The Savannah Community Theatre Company

Presented at the American Physical Society’s
Forum on the History of Physics, Science and the Arts

Director: Tom Coleman, Savannah Community Theatre Company
Moderator: Brian Schwartz, Brooklyn College and
The Graduate Center of the City University of New York

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2012

Princeton University

Presented as part of Princeton’s Pi Day (March 14) Celebration
at The Solley Theatre
in the Paul Robeson Center for the Arts

Dr. Frank Niels von Hippel (Princeton physics don, former chairman of the Federation of American Scientists, White House nuclear weapons advisor and author of Advice and Dissent, Basic Books, 1974) led the audience discussion on themes profound and profane. From chasing nature’s deepest secrets to whispering in the ear of the most powerful politicians, Dr. von Hippel’s incomparable insights were a priceless grace note to the evening.

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2010

Beverly Hills Theatre 40

Eric Tucker (Bedlam NYC) directs Ed Asner, Joe Estevez and Beverly Hills Theatre 40’s own David Hunt Stafford in a special staged reading to benefit Theatre 40
at the Reuben Cordova Theatre
on the Beverly Hills High School Campus

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2008

The Doctor Atomic Symposium Series

For its 125th anniversary season, The Metropolitan Opera premiered John Adams’ Doctor Atomic and collaborated with The Graduate Center of the City University of New York
for a season-long series all over Manhattan on all things Manhattan Project.
A special presentation of Uranium + Peaches was produced by Break-a-Leg Productions
at Elebash Recital Hall at Fifth & 34th.

Directed by Christopher Bellis
Starring Phil Garfinkel (Leo), Scott Glascock (Urey), Larry Swansen (Jimmy).

Funded by the National Science Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation with additional support from the American Chemical Society and the American Physical Society

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2005

Hollywood Producers Showcase – The Raven Playhouse-NoHo

Standing: Joe Estevez (Urey), Scott Wilson (Jimmy), Ed Asner (Leo)
Seated: Virginia Morris (Director), Peter Cook

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2004

Hollywood @ The Greenway Court Theatre

The first appearance of the play outside New York was directed by Ayana Cahrr and starred Ed Asner (Leo), Joe Estevez (Urey) and Arnie Weiss (Jimmy) at the home of the storied Actors Studio West. A standing ovation was led from the first row by Theodore Mann, founder of Circle in the Square and Off-Broadway pioneer, whose generous praise and rapier wit delighted all.

Bill and director Ayana Cahrr; Ayan Cahrr; Ed Asner and Peter; Ed Asner and Bill

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2003

13th Street Repertory Company

New Works Reading Series / Sandra Nordgren Presents…

It was indeed a rare treat to be on the same stage as Israel’s Horovitz’ Line–a piece of theatre that would run in this historic basement theatre for FORTY-THREE years and be translated into 35 languages…This beautiful little 75-seat marvel anchors a building that dates to the late 18th century when it was a stop on the Underground Railroad.

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2002

Urban Stages at The New York Mercantile Library

By springtime, Cook & Lanouette, satisfied that the playscript was ready for whatever’s next, sent out a handful of query letters to agents who specifically listed themselves in the Dramatist Guild pages as not interested in new clients. Among them was Fifi Oscard whose roster reaches from George S. Kaufman to Orson Wellles, Art Buchwald and William Shatner. The League of Professional Theatre Women would recognize her that year for a lifetime of achievement. Among those many achievements, notably, was her sucess and delight in plucking a lucky few unknowns now and then and nurturing them into their own.

She read the letter, called and warned, “The script better be as good as the letter.” She signed this oddball pair and by fall the play was on its feet. The first staged reading was brought to life by Urban Stages Artistic Director Frances Hill and three intrepid actors before a hundred hand-picked, gimlet-eyed denizens of Fifi’s Rolodex–plus a few friends and family for the playwrights’ sake.

Seated in the front row was nuclear weapons pioneer Dr. Richard Garwin and his lovely wife Lois. Leo’s niece Ann Costello was there, too. Ann said the play got Leo’s heart, head and humor right, Dr. Garwin said it got Science’s predicament right. Off to a good start, then.

At left: Insert Name (Jimmy), Peter Cook, Ann Costello, William Lanouette; upper right: Bernie Sheredy (Leo), Ann Costello, Peter Cook, William Lanouette; lower right: William Lanouette, Ann Costello, Peter Cook, Frances Hill, director

Years later, Peter and Bill would discover that they had each kept the same little souvenir of the evening: Dr. Garwin’s handwritten congratulations…

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