What happens when you pair a geophysicist with a theater director and tell them to put on a show? You can see for yourself on June 25.
In a one-of-a kind presentation, ice scientist Christine McCarthy from Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory will pose as a flight attendant leading a journey through the solar system. As an audience member, you are among the lucky Earthlings who have been chosen to settle an off-world colony. Along the way to your new home—whose location we won’t reveal here—you’ll explore interesting geology, habitable planets, and the weird properties of ice.
The show is directed by David Mendizábal and will include videos, props, audience interaction, and a fair amount of jokes.
McCarthy and Mendizábal were teamed up through the Talks Progress Administration, which bills itself as “a mad science experiment on stage.” Their only rule was to create an educational presentation in a way that’s totally different from usual.
“Parts of the show will take me outside my comfort zone, like trying to follow the blueprint of this flight attendant speech,” says McCarthy. “Then the other part is just talking about the science that I know and love.”
Apart from being a lot of fun, she says the project has been helping her to rethink how she communicates her research, which focuses on the mechanical properties of ice. “Learning to see the places where people start to disengage, and how to pull people back, is going to be invaluable.”
Click here for more info about the show, and to buy your ticket to the off-world colony.
