Award-Winning Playwright, Diana Burbano to write Science Play

For Immediate Release

February 10, 2021

Contact: Katie Marcel

Katie@LivermoreShakes.org

925-443-2273

Award-Winning Playwright, Diana Burbano to write Science Play

Polish-British mathematician and historian, Jacob Bronowski said that “Nations in their great ages have not been great in art or science, but in art and science.” Livermore Shakespeare Festival has created Science@Play, a social justice initiative at the intersection of storytelling and science. The program will use artistic voices to champion scientific discovery and truth-telling. Science@Play is the company’s active commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and focuses on artists and scientists of color. Science@Play commissions plays that center scientific principles and scientists of color in the story.

Program Director, Michael Wayne Rice states, “Diversity is nothing that can ever be wished away, driven away, or washed away. It is baked into the very nature of our nation and the world. We are at a point in history where taking a stand and moving into action is the answer to creating a more just, empathetic and representative world.”

The company has partnered with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and is currently working with local scientists on choosing additional plays to be produced for the Science@Play public reading series that accompanies the development of the new work. The culminating program will be the premiere of an original play about the COVID pandemic and the scientists behind the scenes working to find solutions. Livermore Shakespeare Festival has chosen award-winning playwright Diana Burbano for the first commission. Burbano’s goal is to create diverse, three-dimensional characters on the page and on the stage to inject the play with science that is real and truthful.

Burbano identifies closely as an immigrant minority living in the United States. Originally from Columbia, she moved to the US at the age of three. She devotes much of her work to the mental and spiritual betterment of BIPOC populations and uses her skill set as a playwright/educator to help bring their stories to life. Burbano is known for her dedication to helping young artists move positively with self-dignity and self-respect in a world that historically has stripped them of their ability to see themselves in such a light. Diana states, "I spend a lot of time with writers/performers trying to undo harm. It is different to be BIPOC in this world and artform. I want them to know that they don't have to shoulder their struggles alone. There is so much institutionalized racism coming from the university system in the arts. These institutions are focused on quantifying the tragedies of the BIPOC population, focusing only on stories that reiterate racial injustices and violence that BIPOC people face, when in fact I have so many students who have other stories to tell." Burbano’s original play will premier locally in October 2021.

Next up for Livermore Shakespeare Festival is Life SPARC: the Victory of Spirit, a series of monthly theatrical events that honor our struggles and celebrate our victories in the fight to create a more just and joyful world. For more information visit LivermoreShakes.org or call (925) 443-BARD.

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