EST/Sloan Project presents a Reading of
Pleasure Never Lies
WRITTEN BY Noah Brody, Marshall Hagins, & Brad Moranz
Dr. Samantha Williams is a brilliant but insecure ornithologist working as a post doc in Dr. Mackenzie’s lab at Carlyle University. Ideas bubble up inside her - radical, slightly feminist ideas about evolution. However, when she tries to express them, Dr. Mackenzie, with whom she's having a secret affair, advises her to remain silent in order to move up the ladder of academia. When Mackenzie derails her career because he disagrees with her scientific ideas, Sam drops off the grid and moves to Papua New Guinea. There, deep in the jungle, at the 500-acre Biosphere Reserve, Sam finds a rag-tag group of fellow bird scientists who become her new family. Just as Sam is discovering the freedom to pursue ideas that give her pleasure, Mackenzie shows up at the Reserve. He’s come to be the narrator of a nature documentary, but when the producers see Sam describe bird behavior through a new lens, they offer her the job instead. Sam struggles to find the courage to stand up and describe the physical world as she knows it - to be a scientist. Sam’s idea that the pursuit of pleasure by females is the second great engine of evolution, perhaps equal to survival of the fittest, changes the conversation of biologists all over the world.
This Reading is private and by invitation only.
Noah Brody is an actor, director, teacher, writer, and co-artistic director of Fiasco Theater. For Fiasco he has directed Merrily We Roll Along and co-directed The Imaginary Invalid, Into the Woods, Measure for Measure, Twelfth Night and Cymbeline. His work has been seen at the Roundabout Theatre, Theatre for a New Audience, Classic Stage Company, New Victory Theatre, McCarter Theatre, The Folger Theatre, the Old Globe, the Long Wharf, and London’s Menier Chocolate Factory among others. With collaborators Jessie Austrian and the Kilbanes, Noah is the recipient of Theatre Latte Da’s NEXT GENERATION Commission for the creation of an original musical, and, of course, an EST/Sloan commission with Marshall Hagins.
Dr. Hagins danced on Broadway (Mame) and in several national tours (A Chorus Line, Oklahoma, Grease) before earning a BS in physical therapy and PhD in biomechanics from New York University. Dr. Hagins is an Emeritus Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at Long Island University and a Senior Research Associate at Harkness Center for Dance Injuries in Manhattan. Dr. Hagins has worked as a physical therapist for New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, and the Mark Morris Dance Group. He has published over 40 papers in peer reviewed journals and has received research funding from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Hagins is a member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop.
Brad Moranz performed on Broadway in Singin’ in the Rain (Cosmo), A Day in Hollywood (Groucho), Off Broadway in Little Shop of Horrors (Seymour), and in the National tours of Me and My Girl (U/S Gerald), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (suitor) and A Chorus Line (Zach). He has directed numerous regional productions of musicals (Annie, Guys and Dolls, I Do I Do, Nunsense, Unsinkable Molly Brown, Kiss Me Kate, Secret Garden-to name a few) Along with his wife Jennifer, he has choreographed for Film and TV including: “The Righteous Gemstones”, Radioland Murders(Academy Award nomination), The Road to Wellville, “Young Indiana Jones Chronicles” (George Lucas), and more. Currently, (again with his wife!), he writes, directs, choreographs and produces musical variety shows in Charleston, SC.