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 George Judy
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.
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