Greetings Indra’s Net Theater fans, followers, and supporters.

I thought I would give you a quick update on plans for Indra’s Net Theater as we work our way through this extraordinary time.    But first, a quick update on where we have come from:

In April, the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle posted their 2020 Awards on their website. The annual “gala” was delayed in February, and then canceled in March. They decided to post the Awards for the 2019 year, and look ahead to returning in 2021.  As part of the awards, Indra’s Net Theater was chosen for one of their four “special awards”. We received the Annette Lust Award, which acknowledges an artist or company that “has demonstrated early in its existence the potential to have a significant impact on Bay Area theatre.” Alexandra and I were allowed to do an at-home video acceptance, which is posted on the BATCC website:

(https://www.criticscircle.org/44th-annual-sfbatcc-awards/).

In addition, our production of Copenhagen  had been nominated for four production awards; Best Principal Actress in a Play, Best Ensemble, Best Overall Production in the East Bay, and Best Overall Production in the Entire Bay Area (Theaters under 100 seats).

When the awards were posted we were winners in three of these categories! Our wonderful Nancy Carlin was awarded Best Principal Actress in a Play, and the whole production won the Best Overall Production in the East Bay and Best Overall Production in the Entire Bay Area (Theaters under 100 seats.)

Congratulations to all who made Copenhagen a production to be remembered. Wonderful work everyone!

 

So where are we now? The Shelter-at-Home orders have essentially brought a halt to all theatre production in the Bay Area.   At this point, as things are slowly starting to open up, we have been following the discussions, particularly in the City of Berkeley, but also in the wider Bay Area.

It seems clear now that the opening up of theaters will be a slow process. The Public Heath Officer of the City of Berkeley is indicating that even activities such as rehearsals will not be allowed until later in the summer, and productions will be allowed later, but with significant restrictions as we try to keep everyone safe.

I expect that larger theaters, especially ones in traditional “proscenium” type theaters (with a separate stage) will open first, as you can close off the first couple of rows and put a significant distance between the performers and the  audience.   But “Intimate” theater, as we tend to do at Indra’s Net Theater, will be  more problematic. We traditionally do theater in small spaces, with audiences in close proximity to the performers (and each other), and this will pose additional challenges.

So, based on this (nothing is for sure, of course), it seems to make sense to us to have Indra’s Net Theater suspend performances for the rest of 2020, and probably into 2021. We were planning to have a new play (a kind of follow-on to  2018’s A Time for Hawking, again about physics and art/poetry/music, this time focusing on quantum entanglement, tentatively entitled Entaglement) in the winter 2020 timeframe, but this will be delayed until the public health crisis subsides and we can produce the play  in a safe and effective way.  At this point, timing is still to be determined.

As disappointing as this is, I trust that live theater will reemerge when this is all over, and Indra’s Net Theater will be there to continue to explore the magical things that can happen in a theater. There is a statement by Joseph Haj, Artistic Director of the Guthrie Theater (in Minneapolis) that is “going around” the “internet theatre community.”  I thought I would share it with you, as I totally agree with its message, and it is well said. Here is a link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ1b8XX0XZA&fea-ture=youtu.be

 

We will not be doing any formal fundraising during this time (although we do have expenses, that we are trying to minimize). Any donations would, of course, be appreciated (and can be made on our website) if you feel able.

 

Thanks for all of your support over the years. I hope everyone is healthy, safe and keeping a good outlook during this challenging time.   I look forward to seeing you all again, when the times permit.

 

All the best to all of you,

Bruce Coughran

Artistic Director, Indra’s Net Theater

Greetings!

This is the first of an occasional series of newsletters to you, the supporting audience of Indra’s Net Theater. I want to thank you for supporting our ongoing mission of bringing rich, complex, science- based plays to Berkeley. I will do these occasionally, just to let you know what is happening and what to expect coming up.

First of all, I wanted to let you know that A Time for Hawking was named the 2018 Best Overall Production of a Play in the East Bay (theaters with fewer than 100 seats) by the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle! Our actors, Alan Coyne (Stephen) and Adrian Deane (Jane), were also nominated for awards in their respective categories. A great way to finish out Indra’s Net Theater’s 6th season. Thanks again to everyone who came and supported the play.

Looking forward, we are very excited to announce that we have obtained the rights to re-produce Michael Frayn’s wonderful, award-winning play Copenhaganen December. Many of you saw our original production at the Osher Studio in 2013. Since then we have often had requests to do the play again, as it is one of those that just gets richer upon each viewing. In 2018, Michael Frayn made some revisions, based on newly released archival material, for a production in London. We are thrilled to produce what I think is the first American production of this new version.

The play masterfully explores the relationship between two of the founders of quantum mechanics, Neils Bohr and Werner Heisenberg. Bohr was the godfather of all modern physicists, having discovered the modern structure of the atom early in the 20th century. Virtually all of the great physicists of the 20th century seemed to study with Bohr, and a few special ones became his assistants. The closest of these was Heisenberg. Bohr and Heisenberg developed the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics— the accepted theory that became the basis for so much of modern technology: everything from all of modern chemistry, to the computer and cell phone, and much more.

In addition, they became personally very close. Heisenberg was like a son to Bohr in the 1920’s. That all changed in one night in late 1941. Bohr, in occupied Denmark, received a visit from Heisenberg, who had stayed at work in Germany even after the Nazi takeover. After that night, their relationship was never the same again. That much is well known. What happened that night? That is the central question explored by Heisenberg, Bohr and his wife, Margethe, during the play, even as they discover that the new physics they developed also shows that an atomic bomb can be built.

The expansive conversations and intense personal moments will ring differently in the intimate space of the Berkeley City Club. And we look forward to exploring the new Margrethe Bohr nuances that the new script might bring. At the core, the play is about the uncertainty we all live with, and how the most important questions might really concern how we are with each other.

Also this fall, we will be presenting a series of play readings. The first of these will be a reading of the play Farm Hall by David Cassidy. For those of you familiar with Copenhagen, there is a reference to the English Country Estate of Farm Hall, where the captured German nuclear scientists were interned at the end of the war. For six months they were kept incommunicado, allowed to roam freely within the house, surrounded by a servant staff. The German scientists joked that “if it were the Gestapo” they would have installed hidden microphones. In fact, British Intelligence was not so far behind, and it was all recorded, including their reaction to dropping the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. These transcripts were declassified in the 1990’s and form the basis for this play. We will be doing a staged reading of the play in the late summer or early fall. Time and location to be announced, so stay tuned.

We also are arranging for a second staged reading later in fall; the play and location are still being finalized. Stay tuned for that announcement as well.

Thanks again for your loyalty and support. We’ll keep trying to bring you what you’ve come to expect: the best in theater.