Science In The Arts
Wow! The Minnesota Jewish Theater company starts their new season this weekend with a doozy. Photograph 51 tells the story of Rosalind Franklin, a Jewish female scientist working on the double helix (DNA) project with the much more famous James Watson and Francis Crick.
Read the rest of the synopsis below:
Jewish scientist Rosalind Franklin begins work in 1951 at King’s College in London where she does much of the fundamental research in uncovering the structure of DNA. Maurice Wilkins, James Watson, and Francis Crick are anti-Semitic, sexist, and zealous, and their efforts are rewarded with the Nobel Prize while Rosalind’s contributions go publicly unaccredited and undocumented for years. The discovery of the “double helix” DNA is the single most industrious scientific revelation in modern history. Photograph 51 tells this bittersweet story of ambition, isolation, and the quest for greatness.
Science Schmience. What’s The Big Deal?
It’s an ambitious play to start out what should be an ambitious season for the Minnesota Jewish Theater company, this their 18th season. What?! Yep, you smart people have already probably made the connection. Isn’t 18 somehow significant in Judaism? Why yes it is; it’s Chai, Life, L’chaim! (Note: TC Jewfolk does not mean to imply that by attending the Minnesota Jewish Theater Company will you in any way see anything representative of Fiddler On The Roof.)
On tap for the season are shows: Hanukkah Lights in the Big Sky, Compulsion or the House Behind, and Handle With Care. Those will be explained in due time, but for now keep your focus on DNA, on science, on one woman’s fight in a rigged game.
So What’s In It For Me?
Glad you asked.
If you’ve seen any of the Minnesota Jewish Theater Company’s shows in the past, you know that they always put on a good show. If you haven’t, then now’s your chance! TC Jewfolk has two free tickets to opening weekend, and as much as we’d like to keep them for ourselves, we want to give them to you, our loyal readers!
You know the drill. We have two tickets for one of three shows: the Saturday night show at 8pm. The Sunday afternoon show at 1pm, or the one-time-only Sunday night show at 7pm. You pick! All you need to do to win the tickets is tell us in the comments below what most interests you about this show, or the Minnesota Jewish Theater Company in general. At 4:30pm Friday afternoon we will pick a winner at random.
Here’s a video with one of the stars of the show:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnyTEY3ruLk
