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2/6/07 News Release
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Medical school co-sponsors new plays that confront biomedical issues
STANFORD, Calif. — Art often imitates life, but can it imitate medicine? The School of Medicine and the National Center for New Plays at Stanford University will present readings of two new plays with biomedical themes in an effort to cast a different light on such issues as genetics, ethics and identity.
The staged readings will take place at the Clark Center auditorium on the Stanford campus. Reinventing Eden will be performed at 8 p.m. Feb. 22, and Echoes of Another Man will be performed at 7:30 p.m. March 15.
Both readings are free and open to the public, and audience members will be seated on a first-come, first-served basis. A panel discussion with the playwright, actors and director will follow each performance.
“It is not surprising that there is a strong association between medicine and the humanities that is often depicted in literature, art and theater,” said Philip Pizzo, MD, dean of the medical school. “The boundaries of medicine rise from its fundamental underpinnings in basic science and extend to the ethereal limits of humanity and spirituality. In that spirit, I am pleased that the School of Medicine is partnering with the National Center for New Plays at Stanford to host a series of exciting and thoughtful performances for our community.”
David Goldman, executive director of the National Center for New Plays at Stanford, said the plays combine very human issues with medical issues, which he hopes will spur the audience to consider the subject matter from other points of view. “The plays will pose questions in a dramatic form that make it easier for the audience to understand and see the breakthroughs that are emerging in medicine and science,” he said.
Seth Rozin’s Reinventing Eden focuses on the topic of biotechnology, particularly genetic manipulation, and questions the moral and political implications of such research.
“I am fascinated by how people come to believe what they believe, and what would directly challenge or topple those beliefs,” said Rozin. “Manipulating our genes seems to be a line that most people simply don’t want to cross. It provokes visceral disgust and moral outrage, even though tremendous good could come from this arm of science.”
The second play, Echoes of Another Man by Mia McCullough, uses a situation involving a brain transplant to explore the inner workings of memory and the question of whether people have souls.
“During the development of the play, a lot of people said to me, ‘It’s ridiculous. It’s not possible.’ To me, it doesn’t matter if it’s impossible,” McCullough said. “When I started working on this play, cloning was not yet a reality. But here we are, and I no longer believe in ‘impossible.’ It’s made me think we should call science fiction, ‘science not-yet-happened’ instead.”
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The Stanford University School of Medicine consistently ranks among the nation’s top 10 medical schools, integrating research, medical education, patient care and community service. For more news about the school, please visit http://mednews.stanford.edu. The medical school is part of Stanford Medicine, which includes Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. For information about all three, please visit http://stanfordmedicine.org/about/news.html.
