2026 LSU SciArts New Play Festival
Louisiana State University (LSU) is proud to announce the return of the SciArts New Play Festival, taking place in the Fall of 2026. Co-sponsored by the LSU College of Science, the LSU School of Theatre & Film, and the LSU Office of Research and Economic Development, this groundbreaking festival will showcase staged readings of new accurate science plays selected from submissions across the nation. This groundbreaking festival will showcase three staged readings of new accurate science plays selected from over 246 submissions across the nation.
Performances
Dates: November 9, 16, and 23 at 7:30pm in the Music and Dramatic Arts Building, Studio
Theater
And Yet It Moves written by Katie Ganem, directed by Dr. Shannon Walsh
November 9 at 7:30 pm in the MDA Studio Theatre
Synopsis: Straddling two time lines, And Yet It Moves follows the lives of two scientists and their daughters. In 1633, Galileo goes on trial for his heretical views on planetary motion, while almost 400 years later, Ammar Nouhan, a leading climatologist, must defend his work against an administration who wants to silence any mention of climate change. Meanwhile, their daughters must find ways to pick up the pieces, keep their families united at all costs, and deal with their own questions of self-worth
Hello, World written by Margot Connolly, directed by Rachel Aker
November 16 at 7:30 pm in the MDA Studio Theatre
Synopsis: Hello, World is explores the story of a two groups of teenaged girls and non-binary students competing in a coding competition aimed at letting underrepresented genders find a place to stand in a male-dominated field, trying to create an app that can change the world for the better. But as these students compete, we have to ask: who decides which worlds are worth bettering? Hello, World instead focuses on the possibilities of technology as an avenue for social change, shows the ways that these new languages offer opportunities to be heard by young people the world has previously ignored and to connect groups of people who may not otherwise have met. However, the play also examines the ways in which competitions and STEM organizations pit underrepresented people in STEM against one another to achieve success.
Fisson written by Cindy Lou Johnson, directed by Barrett Hileman
November 23rd at 7:30 pm in the MDA Studio Theatre
Fission play examines the partnership of Lise Meitner, an Austrian Jewish physicist and Otto Hahn, a German chemist, who worked together at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin for thirty years until the abrupt Nazi takeover of their lab in 1938. Meitner, who was nominated forty-nine times for a Nobel prize but never won, was forced to abandon her lab and undertake a dramatic escape from Germany just as she made the world-changing discovery of fission. In her absence, Hahn, her lifelong scientific partner and closest friend, falsely claimed the discovery was his and in 1945 won the Nobel.
SciArts 2026 Playwrights
Katie Ganem (she/her) is a performer, playwright, indie bookseller, and teaching artist based in Baltimore. Her plays have been read and performed at Baltimore Centerstage, Avant Bard, Open Space Arts, and the International Youth Arts Festival in London among others. In addition to developing And Yet It Moves, her recent playwrighting projects include a devised piece entitled Maid Wife Widow, which expands on Juliet and the Nurse's relationship in Romeo and Juliet. Acting credits include Wish You Were Here (Studio Theatre), Puppet Nutcracker (the Puppet Co), Macbeth (Chesapeake Shakespeare Co), 19 the Musical (Through the Fourth Wall), As You Like It (Devil's Isle Shakespeare), Twelfth Night the Musical (STC Academy). Education: MFA, STC Academy at George Washington University. Follow her on New Play Exchange to see more of her work. katieganem.com
Margot Connolly is a playwright and librettist whose plays include Belfast Kind (2x Winner, JPP's Jewish Playwriting Contest, Patty Abramson Prize Finalist), Havurah (JPP Finalist), Quiz Out (Princess Grace Finalist, 2019 Kilroy’s Honorable Mention), The Twitch (Princess Grace Finalist), and Tough (Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival Finalist). Her work has been produced and developed through Hope Repertory Theatre, The Jungle, Repertory St. Louis, Primary Stages, Williamstown Theatre Festival, the Playwrights Center, the Jewish Plays Project, and The Juilliard School, among others. She's previously been commissioned by the Juilliard School, the Big Bridge Theatre Consortium, and the EST/Sloan commission. She's a Playwrights Center Affiliated Writer and has been a finalist for the Jerome Fellowship, the Emerald Prize, and the Princess Grace Award. She received her BA from Bennington College, her MFA from the University of Iowa’s Playwrights Workshop, and is a graduate of the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights’ Program at Juilliard.
Cindy Lou Johnson is an award winning playwright and screenwriter. Her critically acclaimed Off-Broadway hit Brilliant Traces continues to receive numerous productions around the world. Her new play Fission, which was commissioned by Seattle Rep, sponsored by The Lost Women of Science podcast and supported by the Sloan Foundation, tells the story of Lise Meitner who, despite making one of the most groundbreaking scientific discoveries of the twentieth century, is largely forgotten. Other plays include Plunder and Lightning, The Years, The New Americans, Emeralds, Blessé and The Person I Once Was. Her plays have appeared at Manhattan Theatre Club, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Duke Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Alliance Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe, Cherry Lane, San Francisco Playhouse, South Carolina New Play Festival and Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. She has received commissions from Seattle Rep, Jujamcyn Theatres, Naked Angels and The Actors Theatre of Louisville. She has twice been a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. In television, Johnson won an Emmy (Cable Ace) Award for her work with HBO on The Vietnam War Stories and has had film commissions from HBO, Francis Coppola’s Zoetrope Studio, Anthony Minghella’s Mirage Enterprises and the De Laurentiis Company, among others. Johnson is the recipient of a National Endowment Award, Open Society Archives Fellowship, and Huntington Library Fellowship. She has also served as a guest artist at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and the University of California, Berkeley, Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies.
Past SciArts Festival Winners
2025
Five Degrees Above Polaris by Karen Howes
Better Living by Rich Rubin
Alice Wareham and the Fabulation of Time by Catherine Yu
2019
Another Revolution by Jacqueline Bircher
The Surest Poison by Kristin Idaszak
Maize by Judith Pratt