Dark Matter

Read the 1st 10 Pages || Development History Below

Dark Matter Synopsis
Maxine Clerk is a physicist chasing after the mysterious dark matter and energy that make up 95% of our known universe. As a rival colleague undermines her efforts, her personal life also begins to unravel. Facing the illness of her daughter and father, the distance of her lover and mentor, and the dangers of her own darkness, Maxine’s struggle to understand the universe becomes a matter of personal survival.

Characters:
Maxine Clerk, 48, a theoretical physicist, white.
Winny Franklin, 42, her partner, a Jungian scholar, African-American.
Marie Clerk, 16, Maxine’s daughter, terminally ill with cancer, white.
Donald Dyson, 23, Marie’s second cousin and care-taker, any ethnicity.
Jimmy Clerk, 78, Maxine’s father, retired, white.
Nikolay Cherenkov, 62, Maxine’s mentor and boss, Ukranian-American. The actor playing Nikolay will also play JUNG and FREUD in Winny’s dream.
Afruz Sen, 34, a physicist with popular appeal, Bengali-American.

Time: 2009
Locations: A conference hall. A hotel room. Maxine’s living room in her home near Princeton. Marie’s bedroom.The physics department at Princeton. Donny’s backyard and basement. A hotel room and apartment in Switzerland.

Development History:

• Received an EST/Sloan Grant, read by EST on 2/12/13.
• Read as part of Penobscot Theatre’s Northern Writes Festival on June 30th, 2011 at Bangor Opera House, directed by Allen Adams, Stage Managed by Meredith Perry, Featuring Marcie Bramucci, Eleanor Kipping, Alice Philbrick, Alba Briggs, John Greenman, Steve Estey, Josh Schmearsal, Roland Dube
• Winner of Reverie Productions 2011 Next Generation Playwriting Contest, Reading June 27th, 2011 at ART/NY. Directed by David Hilder, Featuring Vandit Bhatt, Antoinette Broderick, Ken Glickfeld, Alisha Spielmann, Ryan Andes, Erika Rolfsrud
• Workshop reading at Decades Out as part of The Launch Pad, January 2010 || Directed by Zack Calhoon || Featuring Ryan Andes*, Antoniette Broderick*, Susan Ferrara*, Ken Glickfield*, Debargo Sanyal*, Alisha Spielmann, and Richard Watson*
• Workshopped by Flux Theatre Ensemble at Flux Sunday, 2009
• Finalist for the 2011 Phoenix Theatre Hormel New Works Festival
• Semi-finalist for the Firehouse Festival of New American Plays
• Semi-Finalist for 2011 O’Neill National Playwrights Conference