UPDATE 12/5: Yes, you can still join us tonight for the 7pm event - please RSVP directly here:
What if two-time Nobel Prize winning scientist Marie Skłodowska Curie could tell her story?
Princeton Center for Complex Materials invites you to take part in a digital theater screening of HUMANITY NEEDS DREAMERS: A VISIT WITH MARIE CURIE on Saturday, December 5, 2020 from 7pm - 8:30pm (virtual event).
Hosted by Daniel Steinberg, PCCM's Director of Education Outreach, this acclaimed living history performance is 45 minutes followed by an interactive Q & A with scholar/performer Susan Marie Frontczak in character as Marie Skłodowska Curie followed by a panel discussion with filmmaker Jen Myronuk and Nikita Dutta, an Education and Outreach Fellow at PCCM and 5th year Ph.D. student in Mechanical Engineering at Princeton University studying materials for optoelectronic devices. The digital theater event is $8 for general admission (includes all fees) or free for members of the Princeton community with valid email address.
Recommended for adults, families and students ages 9 & older. Tickets are $8 for general admission (online) and free for the Princeton/PCCM community & invited guests. All proceeds benefit STEM on Stage educational programming.
RSVP: https://PCCMCurieDec5.eventbrite.com
PROGRAM INFORMATION:
"Everything a science film should be." - Lisa Randall, Harvard University
As one of the world’s most renowned scientists, two-time Nobel Prize winner Marie Skłodowska Curie is best known for pioneering the field of radioactivity — including early experiments to treat cancer with radium therapy — but few understand the obstacles she faced just to enter the laboratory.
What if she could tell her story?
As a digital theater performance, HUMANITY NEEDS DREAMERS: A VISIT WITH MARIE CURIE (45 mins) invites audiences to meet Marie Curie as she recollects her quest to isolate two elements — polonium and radium. From her childhood in Poland to groundbreaking research in France, Marie Curie shares the struggles, failures and triumphs behind her scientific discoveries and remarkable collaboration with companion scientist & husband Pierre Curie.
Masterfully portrayed by living history scholar & playwright Storysmith® Susan Marie Frontczak, HUMANITY NEEDS DREAMERS is the cinematic version of her acclaimed one-woman show. This unique format breaks the digital fourth wall between live theater and film, scholar and performer, past and present.
Humanity Needs Dreamers: A Visit With Marie Curie is part of an upcoming national digital speaking tour to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Marie Curie’s visit to the United States in 1921 and to promote conversations about science in our local communities.
Testimonials:
“A must see film of one of the truly great heroes of science.” - Roxanne Truhn, Director, Michigan Science Festival
“I came away with a newfound appreciation for Curie's significant accomplishments. I’d consider this required viewing for any student — of science, of history, of humanity itself.” - Maia Weinstock, Science Writer & Creator of LEGO Women of NASA
“Susan Marie Frontczak’s portrait captures Curie’s courage, curiosity, fragility, edge, and passion, and her storytelling transports the audience into the world of her laboratory and life. This film is a rare find.” - Holly Walter Kerby, Executive Director, Fusion Science Theater
About Susan Marie Frontczak, Scholar, Performer & Playwright
Susan Marie Frontczak is a Colorado-based scholar, playwright & performer. Through storysmith.org, she has created and performed Living History portrayals of six historical women across 42 of the United States and abroad. She presents at theaters, conferences, schools, libraries, and festivals internationally — including performing Manya: The Living History of Marie Curie and A Visit with Marie Curie over 450 times to 60,000 people in 34 states and nine countries.
In dramatizing the life of Marie Skłodowska Curie, Susan Marie pays homage to their shared Polish heritage. Marie Curie’s perseverance in purifying a tenth of a gram of radium from a ton of pitchblende, in part, inspired Susan Marie to major in Engineering. She earned a B.S. in Engineering from Swarthmore College and a Masters in Software Engineering from the Wang Institute of Graduate Studies, and worked for fourteen years at Hewlett-Packard Company before pursuing full time writing and performing.
Susan Marie has always viewed both science and art as complimentary outlets for creativity. It is her aim to reveal the human behind the scientist, while placing Dr. Marie Curie’s life and accomplishments in a memorable historical context. storysmith.org
For more information, contact
Jen Myronuk, Producer & Director,
STEM on Stage
Email: jen@stemonstage.org
