A Staged Reading of "Legacy of Light" by Karen Zacarías

Monday, March 11, 2024, 7:30 p.m. - 10 p.m.

NAS Building, 2101 Constitution Ave., N.W., Fred Kavli Auditorium

Free and open to the public. Registration and photo ID required.

Join Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences and the Shakespeare Theatre Company for a staged reading of Karen Zacarías's "Legacy of Light." Two female scientists, living hundreds of years apart, explore the meaning of love, motherhood, family, art and science in this contemporary comedy. "Legacy of Light" juxtaposes the story of Émilie du Châtelet, a mathematician, scientist, and lover of the great 18th-century philosopher Voltaire, who became unexpectedly pregnant at 42, with that of a 21st-century physicist desperately trying to conceive a child. The performance is directed by Samantha Wyer Bello, Senior Director of Learning, Shakespeare Theatre Company.

A discussion moderated by Samantha Wyer Bello with playwright Karen Zacarías and Katie Wullert, Program Officer, Committee on Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine (CWSEM) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, follows the reading.

Katie Wullert joined the National Academies in January of 2023. Currently, Dr. Wullert is leading a report on supporting caregivers in academic STEMM and is assisting with the development of new projects in the CWSEM portfolio on burnout and women in leadership. Prior to joining the academies, she worked for two years at a start-up where she conducted research on hiring and worked with talent acquisition teams to make their hiring processes more effective, efficient, and equitable. Dr. Wullert received her PhD in sociology in 2021 from Stanford University. Her academic work focused on gender and the labor market, and her dissertation examined the ways in which experiences during the course of a job search shaped people’s perceptions of belonging and fit in an occupation and their intentions for their careers down the line.

Karen Zacarías (playwright) is hailed by American Theater Magazine as one of the most produced playwrights in the US. She recently had premieres of her adaptations of The Age of Innocence at The Old Globe Theater and SHANE at The Guthrie Theater and Cincinnati Playhouse in The Park. She currently has four Broadway-bound musicals, including Destiny of Desire and Five Notes with composer/super-star Gloria Estefan. Her comedy Native Gardens continues to be one of the most produced plays in the nation. Other award-winning plays include Legacy of Light, The Book Club Play, The Copper Children, Mariela in the Desert, The Sins of Sor Juana, and adaptations of Just Like Us, Into the Beautiful North, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents and a bilingual Romeo y Juliet. She is core founder of the Latino Theatre Commons- a large national organization of artists seeking to update the American narrative with the stories of Latinos-, and the founder of the award-winning Young Playwrights’ Theater. Karen was voted a 2019 Washingtonian of the Year and awarded the 2019 Sine Fellowship at the American University School of Public Policy, 2019 Lee-Reynolds-Award for “social, cultural, or political change with theater” and the 2019 Medallion by the Children’s Theater Foundation. She is a 2021 recipient of the United Artists Fellowship. Karen lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband Rett, their three children, and two dogs. Represented by the Gersh Agency and published by Concord Theatricals, Dramatic Publishing and has a collection of plays with Oberon Books.

Legacy of Light is presented by special arrangement with CONCORD THEATRICALS.