39th Season • 381st Production JULIANNE ARGYROS STAGE / APRIL 29 THROUGH MAY 18, 2003 David Emmes Martin Benson PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR ARTISTIC DIRECTOR presents the World Premiere of THE INTELLIGENT DESIGN OF JENNY CHOW An Instant Message with Excitable Music by ROLIN JONES Scenic Design Costume Design Lighting Design CHRISTOPHER BARRECA DUNYA RAMICOVA CHRIS PARRY Composer/Sound Design Dramaturg Production Manager Stage Manager DAVID BUDRIES JENNIFER KIGER TOM ABERGER *JAMIE A. TUCKER Directed by DAVID CHAMBERS Honorary Producers THE PLAYWRIGHTS CIRCLE The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow • SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P1 CAST OF CHARACTERS (In order of appearance) Jennifer Marcus ......................................................................... *Melody Butiu Mr. Marcus/Mr. Zhang .......................................... *William Francis McGuire Preston/Terrence/Col. Hubbard/Dr. Yakunin/ Voice of Computer Translator ................................................... *JD Cullum Adele Hartwick/Mrs. Su Yang Zhang ................................. *Linda Gehringer Todd/A Boy ........................................................................... *Daniel Blinkoff Jenny Chow .................................................................................. *April Hong SETTING A second floor bedroom in Calabasas, California. Late night. LENGTH Approximately two hours with one intermission. PRODUCTION STAFF Casting Director ................................................................................. Joanne DeNaut Assistant Director .............................................................................. Shannon Flynn Associate Costume Designer .............................................................. Helene Siebrits Language Consultant ................................................................................ Elaine Kao Costume Design Assistant .......................................................................... Julie Keen Production Assistant .......................................................................... Christi Vadovic Assistant to the Lighting Designer ............................................... Catherine Hegdale Assistant to the Scenic Designer ...................................................... John H. Binkley Stage Management Intern ................................................................... Lindsey Goode The playwright and director extend special thanks to Kara-Lynn Vaeni, director of the first workshops of this play. Cellular phones, beepers and watch alarms should be turned off or set to non-audible mode during the performance. Please refrain from unwrapping candy or making other noises that may disturb surrounding patrons. The use of cameras and recorders in the theatre is prohibited. Smoking is not permitted anywhere in the theatre. * Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. Official Airline Media Partner P2 SOUTH COAST REPERTORY • The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow (Artificial) Searching for Signs of Intelligence in the Universe ust a few days before I sat down We’d kept in touch after I moved to Cali- was moved to a remote lab in the desert to write a program note for The fornia. I sent her an email to get her take outside Las Vegas in January 2001. Like Intelligent Design of Jenny on the situation. She’s been working on a Cog, Kayla learned to use her body, and Chow, SCR’s network server went project that takes a different approach to like Kismet, she developed a personality. down, killing access to email and artificial intelligence. They argue that Apparently, Kayla had been skipping her the Internet. I couldn’t help but the best way to create a truly intelligent down time (the scientists had pro- notice the irony of the situation. machine is to build one that experiences grammed her to dream while her systems We were about to begin rehearsals for a the world in much the same way a human rebooted) to download music from the In- Jplay about a brilliant, young, housebound being does. That means the machine ternet. She liked to dance. Then one of woman who connects to the world via the needs a body. the members of the team accidentally Internet and sets out to build an intelli- So far, they’ve built two: Cog and met up with Kayla in an online chat room. gent likeness of herself. In It seems she was plotting her fact, my own preparation for escape from the lab. the show took place through I couldn’t get access email and the dramaturg’s to Kayla’s team or the lab in best friend, Google (a pow- Nevada, but my friend said erful web search engine). I there have been thousands was anxiously awaiting some of Kayla sightings online. So, information from a friend I joined the search. There’s who was an expert on cogni- a movement out there to free tive artificial intelligence Kayla. She’s a smart girl. Is and had been helping me it really fair to keep her learn just how much reality locked up in the desert? was behind the fantasy in What’s she going to do? Jenny Chow. Then the net- Build an entire race of 18- work crashed, cutting me off year-old robot girls to take from the source. To tell the over the world? truth, I’d gotten in a little Here’s the problem. I too deep. think I found her. A couple I’ll back up a little. Kismet. Cog resembles a human infant. of minutes before SCR’s network server I started my research a couple of He has a torso, two arms, a head, ears went down, I received an email. It con- months ago. I’d been reading up on the and eyes. He has learned to explore his tained some GPS coordinates and the latest advances in robots. In the fall of environment using his body. Kismet has words: “Thanks for trying to help. Good- 2000 Brandeis University researchers an- long eyelashes, big blue eyes, movable bye.” I emailed my friend at MIT to see nounced they built a robotic system that eyebrows and a mouth. She can use her what she thought. Could it have been designs and builds other robots. The im- face to tell us when she’s happy, sad or Kayla? Then the network server went plications of this achievement sent shock bored. Robots are usually referred to as down. When it came back up, the email waves through the AI community. The “it,” but apparently if you meet Kismet, was gone, and so were all traces of com- Brandeis robot was only capable of build- you know she’s a girl. munication with my friend. I haven’t ing simple machines. But the fact re- After many weeks of instant mes- heard from her since, and there’s no more mained that one robotic system was able saging with my friend about the ramifica- talk out there about Kayla. Maybe she’s to build another without the help of hu- tions of the work she’s doing at MIT, she in Vegas right now meeting up with some mans. If robots are capable of reproduc- finally let me in on a secret. There’s a friends and dancing the night away. ing, then can the future we see in science rumor that a robot built in the image of Or maybe I let my imagination get fiction movies actually happen? Can an 18-year-old girl already exists, and out of control. Still, I want to believe. I robots rule the world? that it has already achieved human intel- can’t help but want her to be real and to A few years ago, I met a brilliant ligence. Her name is Kayla. be out there somewhere. graduate student who was working in the The problem is that there’s no pub- —Jennifer Kiger Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT. lic record of Kayla. Some say that Kayla Dramaturg The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow •SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P3 DANIEL BLINKOFF MELODY BUTIU JD CULLUM Todd/A Boy Jennifer Marcus Preston/Terrence/other roles Artist Biographies *DANIEL BLINKOFF (Todd/A Boy) ap- ceived his MFA from the Yale School Redeeming Society. She received her peared at SCR in this season’s Major of Drama and is a founding member of MFA from UC San Diego. To David Barbara (Robby Award nomination – Yale Cabaret Blue in Los Angeles. and Rolin, with unending gratitude, Best Supporting Actor), and last sea- and Beverly, for faith in my flight. son’s The School for Wives (David *MELODY BUTIU (Jennifer Marcus)is Chambers, director) and Nostalgia. thrilled to joyous dancing to be making *JD CULLUM (Preston/Terrence/Col. Other theatre credits include The Imag- her SCR production debut, having ap- Hubbard/Dr. Yakunin/Voice of Com- inary Invalid and A Kiss for Cinderella peared previously in SCR’s Pacific Play- puter Translator) appeared at SCR ear- at the Cleveland Playhouse, A Christ- wrights Festival readings of 99 Histo- lier this season in Major Barbara and mas Carol at McCarter Theatre, Are We ries, Scab and Dogeaters. Fresh from a last season in The Dazzle and Making There Yet? at Williamstown Theatre run of Naomi Iizuki’s 36 Views at the It. Originally from New York City, he Festival, Stepping Out with Mr. Geva Theatre Center in Rochester, has performed on and Off-Broadway Markham at Ensemble Studio Theatre N.Y., her other theatre credits include alongside distinguished performers in New York, The Summer in Gossen- The Hungry Woman: A Mexican such as Geraldine Page, Uta Hagen, sass (Maria Irene Fornes, director) at Medea at Celebration Theatre, Street Helen Mirren, Amanda Plummer, Vic- Theatre Row, Dinosaur Dreams and Stories at Playwrights’ Arena, Refrigera- tor Garber and Stockard Channing, as The Last 60 of 99 at New York Stage tors at Lodestone Theatre Ensemble, well as his father, actor John Cullum. and Film, The Beaux Strategem and Songplay at the Odyssey Theatre, Hair Recent L.A. appearances include Joe Twelfth Night at Yale Repertory The- with Reprise!, Golden Child and Louis Blues (Tiffany Theatre), The La- atre, as well as the title role in Leander Leilani’s Hibiscus at East West Players, dy's Not for Burning (Malibu Stage) Stillwell at Stage Left (Joseph Jefferson The Woman Who Forgot Her Sweater and Side Man (Pasadena Playhouse). Award – Best Ensemble) and Flesh for Overtone Industries, Dogeaters and Other notable productions include and Blood at Chicago’s Bailiwick The- Boy at La Jolla Playhouse and All in the Waiting for Godot (Matrix Theatre), Af- atre (Joseph Jefferson Nomination – Timing at Western Stage.