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Coming Soon: MACH 33 Festival
The Caltech Festival of New Science-Driven Plays
May 2-3, Frautschi Hall, Hameetman Center
MACH 33: The Caltech Festival of New Science-Driven Plays returns for its 13th year with two provocative new works exploring the frontiers of artificial intelligence. In The Null Test by Ashley Quach, a fatal crash involving an AI-powered vehicle leads to a courtroom reckoning over algorithmic intent. In The Dementia Doula by Tom Lavagnino, a family faces difficult choices when a lifelike caregiving robot enters the picture. Each staged reading is followed by a public discussion with science advisors—an invitation to think critically and collaboratively about the future we're shaping. The festival also features Storytelling for the Future, an interdisciplinary symposium on AI, ethics, and playwriting, bringing together artists and Caltech/JPL scientists for a lively conversation about creativity and responsibility in an age of accelerating technology.
Schedule:
The Null Test – Friday, May 2 at 7pm
Storytelling for the Future: A Symposium on AI, Ethics, and Playwriting – Saturday, May 3 from 3–5pm
The Dementia Doula – Saturday, May 3 at 7pm
All events take place in Frautschi Hall (2nd Floor), Hameetman Center, Caltech.
No reservations necessary. Suggested donation: $10
Questions? Contact Brian Brophy, Director of Theater at Caltech, brophy@caltech.edu
Dementia Doula
by Tom Lavagnino
Synopsis:
An elderly woman suffers from escalating memory loss. But when her adult son formulates a technological means by which to address the problem (in general), installing an AI creation within her midst (in particular), her adult daughter violently pushes back on the idea – inadvertently igniting a future that bespeaks radical familial (and health-related) challenges for all concerned.
The Null Test
by Ashley Quach
Synopsis:
A critical malfunction of a company's AI program leads to a number of consumer deaths, including the CFO of the company at an executive retreat. The engineer who created the program is charged with murder, and the court struggles to decipher malicious intent when it comes to artificial intelligence design.
Our fall musical was a new original work, inspired by real, emerging JPL climate research!
EARTH DATA / THE MUSICAL is an original science-driven show created by Theater Arts at Caltech and performed by a team of engineers, technologists, researchers, and local artists. Inspired by JPL's "Blended Worlds" for the Getty's PST ART: Art and Science Collide, EARTH DATA / THE MUSICAL is informed by the real-life research of NASA JPL climate scientists, Dr. Kimberley Rain Miner and Dr. Bradley Gay.
This musical follows a young postdoc, Mab, and her uncle, JJ: scientists working at the prestigious research lab, the Consilience Institute to understand the changing climate and its effects. As they pursue their research and learn to understand one another, they face off against the Balsurab Energy corporation. When Mab's groundbreaking research implicates Balsurab, Mab is called before Congress to testify about climate change and defend her laboratory's crucial work, testing her convictions. Will the team at Consilience risk their lab's funding to bring their research to the public's attention? Will they be able to communicate their discoveries to a fractured public, plagued by misinformation? Can they come together to fight for the earth's survival and celebrate science as a human endeavor?
Welcome! Theater Arts at Caltech (TACIT) is many things:
- It's a family of dedicated, creative, passionate individuals.
- It's a learning environment in both formal and informal ways, from both instructors, their peers, and JPLers.
- It's a showcase for playwrights, via MACH 33: The Festival of New Science-Driven Plays.
- It's a window into the lives of Caltech scholars and researchers. Participants in Storytelling for Scientists reveal their personal and research journeys, opening windows through which audience members see what makes a human a scientist...and are reminded that scientists are human.
- It's drama. It's comedy. It's an escape...for audience members and for the cast and crew.
Join us! Sign up for our email list, sign up to participate, attend our performances.
Watch the world premiere of Boldly Go!, an original musical based upon Star Trek that premiered with TACIT in 2016!
