Life of Marie Curie to be Staged at McCormick

She is perhaps the most well-known woman in science: Marie Curie, born Maria Sklodowska and nicknamed Manya, pioneered the field of radio activity and became the first person to receive two Nobel prizes.

Now, a new outreach program at Northwestern University is dramatizing Curie's lifelong journey in an attempt to show the woman behind the myth.

Manya: A Living History of Marie Curie by playwright Susan Marie Frontczak will be performed Oct. 15 — 17 in the Technological Institute, home to Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science. The one-woman drama shows the struggles and triumphs of Curie — an academically impassioned, vehemently private, fervently Polish scientist, mother, and teacher. The play traces Curie's story from the political oppression of her childhood to scientific realization and fame to the tragedy that forced her into single motherhood. The role of Manya will be performed by Frontczak.

The performance, which is free and open to the public, is part of ETOPiA: Engineering Transdisciplinary Outreach Project in the Arts, which is designed to foster interdisciplinary dialogue between university and community exploring the role of science in society. The project's first play, Copenhagen, was performed at Northwestern last year to great success.

Performances will take place in the Ryan Auditorium of the Technological Institute, 2145 Sheridan Road, on the University's Evanston campus, at 8 p.m. all three nights. All ages are welcome, but the performance is best suited to adults and students ages 12 and up.

The production is supported by the Materials Research Center, the International Institute for Nanotechnology, alumni of Northwestern University, and The Graduate School, and the National Science Foundation Division of Materials Research.

For more information on the play:
www.manya.northwestern.edu