Great Men of Science nos. 21 & 22
Great Men of Science nos. 21 & 22
Glen Berger
Battling obstacles both grand and trivial in eighteenth century France, two little-known scientists strive mightily to advance humanity’s understanding of life and the universe in “Great Men of Science nos. 21 & 22”.
In 1738, at the heady height of the Age of Enlightenment, the Royal Academy of Sciences has announced its annual contest – to prove or refute that behind the seemingly randomness of all creation, there is God’s wisdom and design. Jacques de Vaucanson attempts to prove the assertion, and thereby win the love of the woman he adores, by constructing the first biologically accurate automata – a clockwork duck that flaps its wings, eats and excretes just like a duck. Years later, during the blackest months of the Reign of Terror, a bitter and elderly Lazarro Spallanzani studies mating frogs to understand once and for all how life is conceived, and discovers instead the significance his longtime housekeeper has played in his life.
Available
2007
0-88145-291-2
Drama
Broadway Play Publishing Inc.
Glen Berger
Glen Berger launched his playwriting career in earnest as a member of Annex Theatre in Seattle. His plays include: “Underneath the Lintel” (Over 450 performances Off-Broadway, 2001 Ovation Award (Los Angeles) and 2003 Sterling Award (Edmonton) for Best Play, and one of Time Out New York’s Ten Best Plays of 2001, productions in over 55 cities in 8 countries), “The Wooden Breeks” (nominated for Best Writing by the L.A. Weekly, 2001), “O Lovely Glowworm” (2005 Portland Drammy Award Winner for Best Script; 2002 BugNBub Primary Stages Award), the musical “A Night In The Old Marketplace”, (Loewe Award), “Great Men Of Science, Nos. 21 & 22” (1998 Ovation Award and 1998 L.A. Weekly Award for Best Play), “I Will Go…I Will Go” (published in Applause Book’s 2001 Best Short Plays Anthology), and “On Words And Onwards” (Manhattan Theatre Club/Sloan Foundation Fellowship).
Berger has received commissions from the Children’s Theatre of Minneapolis and the Lookingglass Theatre, was selected for the 2003 Old Vic/New Voices program, participated in the 2001 A.S.K. Playwrights Retreat, and was playwright-in-residence at New York Stage & Film. He has written several episodes for the PBS children’s series Arthur, (for which he was nominated for two Emmys), its spin-off Postcards From Buster (Emmy nomination), Time Warp Trio (NBC), Peep (The Learning Channel), and is the head writer for Fetch (PBS).
He is the co-author of 2010’s “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark”, a musical based on the character “Spider-Man”, directed by Julie Taymor and with song and lyrics by U2’s Bono and The Edge. The show’s troubled production was the theme for Berger’s “Song of Spider-Man – The Inside Story of the Most Controversial Musical in Broadway History”, written in 2013.