Students are piling into the PAC. Rows upon rows of seats are filled as more students stream in. A low murmur of chatter reverberates around the padded room as students begin to become rowdy in their wait for their show to begin. As the last seats are filled in, the chatter picks up into a clamor, but it is all stopped as the lights begin to dim. Eerily quiet in comparison to the previous clatter, the play begins for the students to watch a musical, on calculus. There will be two plays based on calculus and chemistry, Calculus the Musical and Curie Me Away!, respectively, they will be in the PAC on Feb. 12 and 13 at 6:30 PM.
“We want students to be enthusiastic about science and math and to realize it is not some mountain you have to climb. For people in STEM careers it is a part of life. So, we want them to see the artistic side of it too,” said Jason Crump, Science Department head.
The two plays are comedic musicals with original and parody songs ranging from Lady Gaga to Eminem. They are both two person plays, one man and one woman, and are put on by a theater troupe, Matheater.
“The performance is a fantastic performance to show people that when you associate music with learning it is a lot easier to do,” said Lauri Crestani, Math Department head. “We want to lighten what happens in calculus and to bring some levity to a very tough subject, they come in.”
The troupe has three plays, Calculus the Musical, Tesla Ex Machina and Curie Me Away!. They are all designed to make and bring some artistic light to the subjects. They showcase how the subjects are fun and how they work, themselves and together.
“Math and science work a lot together, Ms. Crestani, the math department chair, and I want to make sure that students know that math and the sciences are a partnership,” said Crump.
The two plays will likely bring in some small form of revenue.
“We should have a little excess funds, all of that will go to the Valerie Memorial Scholarship Fund. It is a scholarship given to a senior pursuing certain careers that is campus based. We will pay the fees at the Performing Arts Center, we will pay the fees of the performers, then everything leftover goes to the scholarship,” said Crump.
