MACH 33

We are thrilled to announce the winning plays for the 25-26 cycle!

This year’s program features an exciting, multifaceted collection of works-in-progress spanning genre, theme, and scientific focus, showcasing the range of science-driven theater as an art form.

Join us for the MACH 33 Blast Off Party, Saturday, January 17, 6:30-9pm at TACIT House (275 S Hill Ave)! Meet the MACH 33 and Launchpad playwrights and science advisors, hang out with members of the Caltech theater community, and get a sneak peek at the plays in this year’s festival!

And join us for the MACH 33 Festival May 14-16 for readings of the MACH 33 plays and readings of selections from the Launchpad plays!

MACH 33 Winners

The Heat of the Sun’s Rays

by Katherine Vondy

In ancient Greece, Cassandra has visions of what is going to happen during the Trojan War. In 19th-century London, a group of academics gathers to discuss the world’s latest scientific developments. And in 2024 Phoenix, a young woman and her grandmother grapple with a historic Arizonan heat wave. What strange thread unites these faraway people, places, and times? Only the groundbreaking work of early American climatologist Eunice Newton Foote can reveal the connection.

Haunt Me

by James Still

Best-selling horror writer Ellery du Trent begins to disappear into the novel she’s writing, with the unsettling assistance of an AI program called MUSE. Haunt Me is an intimate psychological horror where fiction and reality slowly blur, revealing how memory, identity, and creation can slip away when the stories we tell seem to take on a life of their own.

Sing for Me

by Cris Eli Blak

A rising Black musician is offered stardom, on one condition: her voice will be heard, but her face will be replaced by an AI-generated white avatar. Sing for Me, a new Cris Eli Blak play, interrogates who gets seen, who gets paid, and what survival costs in an industry built on extraction.

Launchpad Winners

River of Night

by Randal K. Jackson

River of Night explores one of the most profound scientific turning points of the twentieth century: the realization that the universe extends far beyond our own galaxy. Set on Mount Wilson Observatory in the 1920s and 30s, the play brings Edwin Hubble, Milton Humason, and Albert Einstein to life against a backdrop of political upheaval and the rise of fascism in Europe.

Parity

by Howard Ho

Parity was a law of physics until a Chinese American woman at Columbia University in the 1950s disproved it against all odds. This is the true story of Chien-Shiung Wu 吴健雄 AKA the First Lady of Physics and the Queen of Nuclear Research. The only ceiling she cared about was our understanding of the universe, but along the way she broke through many more.

Redshift

by Simon Bowler

In the 1920s, Edwin Hubble, an eccentric and brilliant astronomer, challenges mankind’s assumptions about the structure of the universe. Despite fierce opposition, he and Einstein prove that the universe is infinite and is expanding. A tense drama, Redshift explores ambition, doubt, and the courage to overturn—and then question—one’s own truths.

Founded in 2013, MACH 33: The Caltech Festival of New Science-Driven Plays is a one-of-a-kind play development program, culminating in readings of new theatrical works focused on science by playwrights from the Greater Los Angeles area. Over the past decade, MACH 33 has helped nurture the evolution of dozens of exciting new plays focused on the ideas, history, and human drama of science.

MACH 33 energizes the conversations about scientific, mathematical, and technological questions by staging readings of new, unpublished, unproduced plays. Festival playwrights have the unique opportunity to work with science advisors from Caltech and JPL, so we focus on plays that could benefit from this science mentorship. The readings are open to the public and present a discussion with Caltech/JPL scientific panelists after the show. Our casts and crews feature professional actors and directors as well as students and members of the Caltech/JPL community.

Launchpad, the new early-development play lab, seeks to spark creative exchange between playwrights and scientists, serving as a laboratory for new plays focused on scientific, mathematical, and/or technological themes. Operating under the auspices of MACH 33, the new Launchpad initiative is aimed at works-in-progress in the earlier stages of the script writing process. Through this program, playwrights will also have the unique opportunity to work with science advisors from Caltech and JPL to develop their plays.

What’s in a Name?

“Escape velocity” is the speed needed to “break free” from the gravitational attraction of a massive body. On the surface of Earth, escape velocity is about 11.2 kilometers per second, or approximately 33 times the speed of sound: MACH 33.

Our name celebrates the innovative, dynamic breakthroughs that scientists and artists achieve. Through our performances and post-show discussions, MACH 33 strives to:

Strengthen personal connections to the scientists, engineers, and mathematicians who shape our world
Challenge and broaden the view of science, mathematics, and technology in the popular imagination
Make science feel more alive, exciting, and tangible
Deepen our emotional responses to science and scientific inquiries
Activate new ways of imagining the science all around us

Outside of the festival, MACH 33 has also helped develop plays including The New Galileos by Amy Berryman, Rocket Girl and Pasadena Babalon by George D. Morgan, God Particle Complex by Chris Bell and Josh Zeller, and Another Revolution by Jacqueline Bircher (which TACIT toured to Italy in 2023).

Brian Brophy, Director of TACIT, is the Artistic Director of MACH 33.

Arden Thomas serves as the Associate Artistic Director of MACH 33.

Cole Remmen serves as Program Director for Launchpad.

This year’s application period is now closed, but you can check out the application requirements.

For other science-driven theater programs, check out our resource page.