My first play, written while I was a graduate student. About Russian poet Alexander Pushkin and French Mathematician Evariste Galois. Winner annual playwriting competition at Oxford University, England.
My second play, about Greek mathematician Archimedes. Written in the style of a Greek tragedy. Staged reading Harvard, 1995. Freeman Dyson's review: “Seriously, I think your play is a lot better than Brecht’s Galileo and almost as good as Eliot’s Becket.”
Written 2018-2019 and based on Louis Moreau Gottschalk's travel memoirs. The first American musical superstar's reminiscences and opinions about everything during the Civil War years.
My seventh play, about the great mathematical feud between Girolamo Cardano and Niccolo Tartaglia. I wrote several versions of this play and have uploaded two. In the first, the character Melancholia is silent; in the second, she speaks. See my article The Great Feud Goes Supernatural for the Mathematical Intelligencer under Articles on this site. (It is the second article in the file.)
About the creation of Debussy's opera Pelleas and Melisande and his friendship with Erik Satie. Reading directed by Tom O'Horgan with F. Murray Abraham as Satie. First of three related plays, including Plausibilty and The Fiery Angel, below. Abraham's review: "Ever since we read it...I've been hopeful about the threatre again, and God knows the theatre could use some of the size and weight of this important piece."
Written in 1998, it is a comedy concerning the now-famous invention of Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil. Reading directed by Tom O'Horgan. Features music by George Antheil. See my related article Random Paths to Frequency Hopping in American Scientist.
Concerns an extraordinary early twentieth love triangle that transmogrifies into Prokofiev's opera The Fiery Angel.
From 2014, about the lost generation of repressed Soviet composers. Focuses on an extraordinary family of composers, musicians and actresses, including composer-spy Lev Knipper, his Russian-German movie-star sister, Olga Chekova, and his aunt, Olga Knipper-Chekova, one of Russia's most famous actresses and Anton Chekov's widow. Guest appearance by Dmitri Shostakovich.