SC 55th Season • 525th Production JULIANNE ARGYROS STAGE / MARCH 3-24, 2019 David Ivers Paula Tomei ARTISTIC DIRECTOR MANAGING DIRECTOR David Emmes & Martin Benson FOUNDING ARTISTIC DIRECTORS presents PHOTOGRAPH 51 by Anna Ziegler Cameron Anderson Elisa Benzoni Jaymi Lee Smith Cricket Myers SCENIC DESIGN COSTUME DESIGN LIGHTING DESIGN SOUND DESIGN Holly Ahlborn Joanne DeNaut, CSa Alyssa Escalante PRODUCTION MANAGER CASTING STAGE MANAGER Directed by Kimberly Senior Joan & Andy Fimiano Jean & Tim Weiss Honorary Producer Honorary Producer BNY Mellon Wealth Management Corporate Honorary Associate Producer This play is the winner of the 2008 STAGE International Script Competition and was developed, in part, through the University of California, Santa Barbara’s STAGE Project by the Professional Artists Lab (Nancy Kawalek, Director) and the California NanoSystems Institute. PHOTOGRAPH 51 was developed by The Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science and Technology Project and received its New York premiere at the Ensemble Studio Theatre on October 27, 2010. Originally commissioned and produced by Active Cultures,The Vernacular Theatre for Maryland. Opening Night on Sunday, February 10, 2008. PHOTOGRAPH 51 was developed by the Cape Cod Theatre Project. PHOTOGRAPH 51 is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York. Photograph 51 • South CoaSt RepeRtoRy • P1 CAST OF CHARACTERS Don Caspar ..................................................................................... Josh Odsess-Rubin Francis Crick .................................................................................. Anil Margsahayam Rosalind Franklin ..................................................................................... Helen Sadler Ray Gosling ............................................................................................. Riley Neldam James Watson ................................................................................... Giovanni Adams Maurice Wilkins .................................................................................... George Ketsios SETTING 1951-53, various labs and offices in England LENGTH Approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes with no intermission. PRODUCTION STAFF Dramaturg .................................................................................................. Kat Zukaitis Production Assistant .............................................................................. Ruben Bolivar Assistant Director ..................................................................................... Ariella Wolfe Accent Consultant .................................................................................. Ursula Meyer Movement Consultant ................................................................................ Ken Merckx Costume Design Assistant ........................................................... Jaymee Ngernwichit Assistant to the Lighting Designer ......................................................... Avery Reagan Stage Management Intern ..................................................................... Georgi Hughes Light Board Operator .................................................................................. Sean Deuel Sound Board Operator ................................................................................ Jim Busker Dresser ................................................................................................ Lexi Noseworthy Wig and Makeup Technician ............................................................. Gillian Woodson Additional Costume Staff ........................................... Lalena Hutton, Erik Lawrence The Actors and Stage Managers employed in this production are members of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. Please refrain from unwrapping candy or making other noises that may disturb surrounding patrons and the actors. Videotaping and/or recording of this performance by any means whatsoever are strictly prohibited. Electronic devices should be turned off or set to non-audible mode during the performance. Smoking is not permitted anywhere in the theatre. Photos may be taken before and after the show, and during intermission, but not during the performance. Show your appreciation for the play by using the hashtag #SCR51 and tagging the designers listed on P1. P2 • South CoaSt RepeRtoRy • Photograph 51 The Gene Game by Kat Zukaitis hen Rosalind Franklin arrived at King’s Col- lege in London on January 5, 1951, genet- ics was still in its infancy. Scientists knew that cells contained chromosomes and that within chromosomes lay the material respon- Wsible for heredity—called genes—but there was not yet a widespread awareness of what the hereditary mecha- nism was. Biology had taken a backseat to physics for the first half of the 20th century. These were the decades of Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg and Enrico Fermi. New discoveries of rela- tivity, radiation, quantum mechanics and nuclear fission reshaped the known world—and ultimately enabled the development of the atomic bomb, to the chagrin of Photo 51, taken by Raymond Gosling under the supervision of Rosalind Franklin in many of the scientists who had worked on it. It wasn’t May 1952, confirmed the helical structure of DNA and hinted at the presence of a until after World War II that the attention of the world’s double helix. top researchers shifted back to genetics. In 1944, a Viennese Nobel laureate in physics The Biophysics Research Unit at King’s College, named Erwin Schrödinger published a game-changing London, was one of the few groups that took note of an book called What is Life?, in which he argued that the experimental demonstration in the mid-40s that DNA, basic principles of physics could be applied to biology. not protein, was the genetic carrier. The unit’s assistant Experimental instruments and methods had now pro- director, Maurice Wilkins, had obtained a sample of DNA gressed to the point where it was possible to discern with an unusually high molecular weight, which allowed some of the smallest patterns within living beings—and it to be formed into a crystal with rigid, repeating struc- Schrödinger made a compelling case that living organ- tures. He planned to use X-ray crystallography—bom- isms, not just inorganic matter, should be viewed in light barding the crystallized DNA with X-ray particles and of their molecular and atomic structure. Genes, he sug- tracking how the X-rays bounced off of the molecules— gested, held the key to the secret of life and deciphering to deduce the structure of the DNA molecules and thus exactly what they were would pave the way to under- discover how it replicates. standing how they behave. Rosalind Franklin came to King’s in 1951 with the With the publication of Schrödinger’s book, genes understanding that she would be working on proteins became the hottest topic in science. James Watson, research, but her expertise in X-ray crystallography Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, who would share the made her a seemingly perfect fit for the DNA team. Her 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the dis- colleagues in Paris had admired her remarkable skill covery of the structure of DNA, would all credit What Is and “golden hands”; X-ray crystallography pioneer J.D. Life? with awakening their interest in biology—and for Bernal later described her photographs as “among the jumpstarting the new field of biophysics. most beautiful X-ray photographs of any substance ever At the time, relatively little was known about now- taken.” Using X-ray patterns to mathematically calculate basic questions of biology. There wasn’t widespread the structure of a crystal is a complicated, tedious pro- consensus about what genes were made of—let alone cess, but Franklin possessed the kind of experimental how they replicated and transmitted genetic blueprints brilliance and extreme precision that reliably got results. to new cells. Of the two main ingredients in chromo- With Franklin’s arrival, the biophysics unit at King’s somes—proteins and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)— was set to break open one of the great mysteries of the most scientists thought that proteins were a better 20th century. But they weren’t the only team interested candidate for carrying genetic information, as they are in the secret of life. longer molecules with more forms than DNA. The race was on. Photograph 51 • South CoaSt RepeRtoRy • P3 Artist Biographies GIOVANNI ADAMS ful cast and director Kimberly Senior. Thank you to Sha- James Watson ron, Leo and his friends/family for the love and support. is an alumnus of SCR and the Pa- ANIL MARGSAHAYAM cific Playwrights Festival and is Francis Crick excited to return. Last season, he portrayed Colis in the world is making his SCR debut. He is a premiere of Kemp Powers’ Little Bay Area native who attended the Black Shadows at SCR and Neil University of San Francisco and in Donald Margulies’ The Model Apartment at Geffen currently resides in Los Angeles. Playhouse. He was in the world premiere of Kemp Pow- His theatre credits include The ers’ One Night in Miami (Rogue Machine Theatre, LA Clay Cart, The Comedy of Errors, Drama Critics Circle Award and NAACP Theatre Award Our Town, The Music Man, Quixote (Oregon Shake- for Best Ensemble). He has participated in the Bay Area speare Festival), Bombay Dreams (first national Broad- Playwrights Festival, where he worked on Tearrance way tour),