Playwrights Foundation is excited about the progress Ms. Wise has made on this project to date. We believe that the work she is creating is both erudite and accessible. To make fun and exciting theater from these controversial ideas is difficult. Ms. Wise brings to bear a lifetime of work weaving important new intellectual, spiritual and social ideas with the performing arts. As a master improvisational artist and skilled writer, I believe she is in an exceptional position to bring these ideas into focus on the stage.

Seeing the first unfinished results of the play during last summer's Bay Area Playwright's Festival has confirmed my belief in Ms. Wise' vision for this piece. Seeing it also confirmed for me the importance of committing to the project's completion, and successful production.

- Amy Mueller, Artistic Director of the Playwright’s Foundation


Nina Wise’s powerful story of Kepler is astoundingly relevant to the issues of today. Inteweaving a contemporary story with the historical one, the play takes us on a journey of discovery. This work is especially riveting for anyone interested in consciousness and the interface between science, religion and the politics that embeds them. The music is striking and wonderful. Known as a fabulous performer, Wise is now on her way to becoming a significant playwright and producer of modern theater.

- Marion Hunt Badiner, philanthropist


I was moved and inspired by this play about a contemporary astronomer and a 17th Century astronomer I knew so little about…. I left the theater radiant with that kind of satisfaction that intelligent, witty, well crafted, and emotionally resonant theater can create in an audience. This play NEEDS to be produced! It is informative without being didactic, funny without being superficial, and deeply human without sacrificing historical accuracy.

- Natalie Goldberg, author


The Kepler Project is riveting and thought-provoking. It illuminates that signal, perspective-changing moment when the earth lost its seat as the center of the universe and the courage that it takes--at any time in history — to be the bearer of a world-changing idea. Wise's fully fleshed and engaging characters, both historical and contemporary, put us in the midst of another such moment right now — a moment when we could move, actually must move, from a linear enlightenment view of the universe to the understanding of its multi-valent, interconnected nature. The radical intellectual shifts explored in The Kepler Project not only change the way we perceive the world outside us, if we are paying attention, they change our very perception of ourselves. It is both thrilling and frightening to be so awake in the world, as we see through the exhilarations and travails of the scientists in The Kepler Project. Ultimately for them (and one hopes for us) living a fully realized life requires the expression of the truth of what they know, even as it threatens the ease of their existence, and possibly their lives.

- Christina Desser, attorney, activist


The Lensic Performing Arts Center was proud to present a workshop production of The Kepler Project as part of its Under Construction: New Works in Progress series. Nina Wise is creating a compelling piece that delves into the complex nature of creativity, spirituality and the sciences. With music and words, her historical characters give profound reference to our contemporary struggles with new ideas and old beliefs. This is a piece that deserves to be nourished and grown into a full production.

- Bob Martin, Executive Director
The Lensic Center for the Performing Arts, Santa Fe

 

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