by Jennifer Blackmer

On Wednesday, March 6^th, fifteen theatre and dance students boarded a plane headed for Washington D.C., where they performed a staged reading of The Human Faustus Project as the opening presentation for the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) bi-annual Dialogues conference.  In attendance were faculty from universities around the world, legislators, and program officers from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.  Following the performance, the audience of more than 200 stood in line to meet and congratulate the playwright and performers, and discuss their work.

The Human Faustus Project was developed by Assistant Professor Jennifer Blackmer and her students at the Virginia Ball Center for Creative Inquiry (VBC) during spring semester 2006.  The play explores The Human Genome Project and the ethical gray areas of genetic research through the story of a modern-day Dr. Faust (played by Dustin Spence) who works in research and development for Mephisto Pharmaceuticals.  "How far are you willing to go?" asks Mephistopheles (Ethan Mathias) as he presents Dr. Faust with the genetic code, the cookbook of life on planet Earth.  As the story unfolds, Faust finds himself pushed to the very edge of knowledge, forced to make life and death decisions with earth-shattering consequences.

Fifteen theatre and telecommunications students collaboratively researched, wrote, workshopped and performed the play as part of the VBC seminar.  The students also developed multimedia and animation pieces to accompany the production, composed original music, created set and costume designs and produced several short films documenting the play's developmental process.  The Human Faustus Project premiered in a staged reading at the Indiana Repertory Theatre on May 3^rd, 2006.  Following the premiere, CUR conference organizers heard about the play and invited the students to perform it a second time in Washington.

"The Washington D.C. performance gave us a unique opportunity to test the play in front of a new audience, an audience of mainly scientists and researchers," said recent graduate Kyle Jean Fisher, a member of the writing team who also performed the role of Lydia.  "We received overwhelmingly positive feedback on both the story and the science in the play.  It was so exciting to see our research and hard work validated by scientists and professors working in the fields of genetics and biology." 

The Human Faustus Project will receive its first full production in November, as part of Ball State's 2007-2008 theatre and dance main stage season.