THEATRE THROUGH A MICROSCOPE
Writing a science-based play is aim of interdisciplinary research team

When science finds its way into the realm of theatre, it is often in the well-known form of science fiction. But the days of aluminum-clad spacemen and ray guns are making way for another kind of theatrical work, one that lives in the realm of actual science. In an unusual experiment, scientists, writers, and directors are working together to create a new play to be performed at LSU.

Known as Cocktail, this new play explores issues surrounding the medication and treatment of HIV/AIDS in both scientific and social perspectives. The team that will be working on the production of Cocktail is diverse and includes not only participants from the LSU Department of Theatre and Swine Palace, but also from LSU's Departments of Communication Studies and Biological Sciences, and a New York-based theatre. Co-authored by Vince LiCata, an LSU associate professor of biological sciences, and Ping Chong, a performance and installation artist, the play is an experimental venture that seeks to create a collaborative work pleasing to artists, scientists, and theatre goers.

The basis for Cocktail may sound like creative fiction at first, but the subject matter is based on the actual work of Thai pharmaceutical scientist Krisana Kraisintu.

"We are not talking about science in science fiction. We are talking about fiction concerned with, or portrayed within, the context of real science," says LiCata, an expert on protein-DNA interactions.

Kraisintu is largely responsible for the production of a generic version of zidovudine, commonly known as AZT, originally without the approval of the Thai government. Her work greatly reduced the cost of the drug, which is often used in the treatment of HIV/AIDS. She continued her work to better the treatment of HIV/AIDS despite years of dispute with Bristol-Myers Squibb, and eventually created a "cocktail" that combines three different treatment drugs into one pill that needs to be taken twice per day. This is a drastic change from the usual pill intake of between six and twenty-two pills per day that many HIV patients take.

To further the development of this complex production, LSU awarded a Faculty Research Grant (FRG) to support production meetings, the development of a plan for continued collaborative research, a presentation by Ping Chong, and a mini-tutorial lab on enzyme kinetics and inhibition to help the production team understand the fundamental aspects of HIV treatment.

"This grant will go a long way in helping us prepare to produce the world premiere of Ping and Vince's compelling script," says Michael Tick, chair of the LSU Department of Theatre and artistic director of Swine Palace.

LiCata and Chong's Cocktail is somewhat conceptually unique when compared to the bulk of science-based plays thus far. A contemporary list of such plays, compiled by the Graduate Center at the City University of New York, shows that, of the science-based plays listed, the majority were written by playwrights with an interest in a scientific issue and only a handful were written by scientists. There were no plays by a scientist-artist team such as the one used in the creation of Cocktail. True to its name, Cocktail is slated to be a grand mixture on many levels.

Cocktail is scheduled to be performed in April 2007 at Swine Palace, the professional company associated with LSU's Department of Theatre in Baton Rouge.

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from Summer/Fall 2005