At Plays for New Audiences, we believe theatre isn’t just about entertainment—it’s a powerful way to educate, challenge, and inspire young people and their communities. Theatre experience serves not only as entertainment but is a powerful tool for learning. Each script in our catalogue is carefully designed to spark curiosity, challenge perspectives, and encourage empathy. By exploring a variety of stories, cultures, and themes, these scripts provide young audiences with the chance to see the world through different lenses, helping them grow as individuals.
Using Storytelling to Spark Curiosity and Educate the Next Generation About Science
There has been a notable increase in new scripts with science themes featured on stages around the world. This trend reflects a growing interest in blending the world of theatre for young people with the exciting realms of learning science and science history!
Theatre has the power to ignite curiosity and spark learning in ways that traditional methods often can’t. By blending science with storytelling, we create a space where young audiences can explore scientific concepts, question the world around them, and discover the wonders of the universe—all while being entertained.
Suzanne Maynard Miller, Playwright of Mesmerized: A Ben Franklin Science and History Mystery
Through fabulous storytelling and face-paced comedy, Ben Franklin and his want-to-be-inventor niece, Sarah, travel to France where they use the Scientific Method to test a mystical man's magical cure.
What Inspired You to Write a Science-Based Play for Kids?
A play that explores S.T.E.M., women in science, the scientific method, and Ben Franklin checks a lot of boxes. When Jacqui Russell (Artistic Director of Chicago Children’s Theatre) and I began discussing this project in 2019, we were struck by this beautiful book (Mesmerized: How Ben Franklin Solved a Mystery that Baffled All of France) and how Mara Rockliff’s dynamic story, with Iacopo Bruno’s rich illustrations, combines history and science in a picture book for kids in grades 3-5. We were also mesmerized (for lack of a better word) by the historical events depicted in the book, as well as the story’s magical combination of science, truth, and mystery.
In early drafts, the play felt very “one side vs. the other” (Ben Franklin vs. Franz Mesmer). And while Mesmerized does end with these two celebrities squaring off, the character Sarah also acknowledges the importance of asking questions and considering all sides, saying to Ben at one point, “How are we going to learn anything if we are not learning anything?” In other words, the play recognizes that few issues or problems are black and white; we must also explore the “gray area” before deciding what we think.
Given the timing of developing this project, an enormous influence on the piece was, of course, the pandemic. Working on the script in 2020, I became acutely aware of the different ways people were discussing the term science. I paid attention to how fear of the unknown led to blame and mania and chaos— and I was struck by how the reaction to new discoveries (be that a disease or a remedy) was quickly met with extreme, and often staunch, reactions. All these observations and reflections gave more urgency to the script – and changed it wildly from the light-hearted story I was shaping in 2019 to something much deeper and much more pertinent to the times we are now living in (while still being full slap-stick humor, quick costume changes, and silly puns).
During early script-development workshops, I discovered that farce was an excellent medium to convey the many layers the play explores. Scientific discovery, the historical context of 18th century France, Ben Franklin, Franz Mesmer, Marie Antoinette, King Louis XVI, and six actors playing 17 characters… the play was ripe for pandemonium! In addition, as we began rehearsals, I knew it was essential to let the actors explore the macro and micro questions of the play. How do we weave in the birth of the nation with a play that’s not really about that? How do we vamp as the actor playing the King gets offstage and returns as a doctor? Do you think Mesmer should enter on roller skates? (Obviously, yes.)
Robin Pullen, Playwright of Caro's Comet: The Celestial Cinderella
Robin Pullen's Caro's Comet: The Celestial Cinderella is all about Caroline Herschel, the trailblazing astronomer who defied societal norms to leave her mark among the stars. in this play, Caroline's extraordinary journey comes to life, celebrating her achievements as the first woman to discover a comet and her indomitable spirit. Blending history, empowerment, and creativity, Robin Pullen showcases a figure whose legacy continues to inspire.
What inspired you to write a science-based play for kids?
Teaching gifted children challenges me to uncover exciting ways to highlight science in our everyday lives. When this educator learned about a famous historical female who discovered eight comets, I thrilled to the idea of presenting Caroline Herschel’s monumentally amazing accomplishments in not just a lesson, but a musical, and a book. I imagined the Telescope demonstrating their viewing abilities center stage, while the elusive and Comet flitted, teasing us with ideas about Newton, astronomy, and brilliant constellations. Caroline Herschel was a girl who defied expectations, as each of us can dare to do. Her thrill of recording data by cataloguing nebulae led her to be awarded the Gold Medal of Science. CARO was not only the first female to receive a salary, but she also was lucky to work alongside her brother William, discoverer of the planet Uranus. A science-based play for kids shows us that by searching for her comet and herself, she overcame others’ limits to reach her dreams.
What is the importance of using theater as a tool for science education, compared to traditional methods?
Theatrical elements ignite the imagination. The vision of ten-year old Caroline Herschel’s 1760 plight to be an astronomer despite her stunted opportunities can be researched or magically explored on stage through dance, song, light, and setting. The audience identifies with star gazers Papa and William who sneakily teach CARO astronomy through music. When science is presented visually, memorably---when one can sing about science-then scientific concepts and characters literally come to life.
A telescope is an extraordinary instrument that enables us to view the constellations. In a science-based musical, the audience “sees” the stars with the actors. Students identify with what the telescope does, and what they want to achieve. The Comet, elusive, sings “Catch Me If You Can.” CARO strives to “Reach Her Dreams.” The theatrical Telescope reminds her that “The Sky’s The Limit.” Music and choreography can transcend the scientific terms to remarkable actions. Theater’s altered presence engages students to thrill to science.
Mary Hall Surface, Playwright of Apollo To the Moon
Apollo To The Moon is an exciting look at the breathtaking risks and unforgettable heroism of the American Space program. Told through the lens of one young man’s dream to become an astronaut, this thrilling story takes you on the journey that gripped the nation.
While visiting the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C., Mary Hall Surface was inspired to make a historically accurate, fact-filled play about America in space. She was a kid when the world's first moon landing happened, and she wanted to tell a story that would show children today what an exciting time it was. Apollo to the Moon was created and first-presented by California Theatre Center and the Smithsonian's Discovery Theatre and has since been performed more than 1,600 times across the world!