Cold Fusion book and lyrics by Alanah Fitch, Music by Kyra Leigh

In 1989 Jerry Soames discovers the secret to the world’s energy needs.  He bets all that his results are true.  Are they?  What if they are not?  His scientific community responds to his discovery with excitement and skepticism.   His gyrations are watched by Diane, his only woman mentee.  What are the consequences for Jerry, Diane, and for the world of science?  Do women in science as embodied by Diane react to the news differently than men? Margaret Mead turns her trained cultural anthropological eye on the field and interprets the science and politics for the audience while events unfold.  In this dark comedic musical dancing molecules provide a backdrop, a Greek chorus, to the action.  The audience soon discovers that a science community is no different than small towns where individuals are filled with envy, jealousy and rigidity. 

In The Beginning:

I began the play Cold Fusion because of my own sense of being an alien, an outsider in my chosen profession.  I was a chemist with no degree in the field, no mentor to push me forward, in a field with few women. I watched at small conferences where people pushed themselves forward and grabbed the spotlight.  Some of these people had few redeeming features other than their ability to do superb science.  This raises from the age-old question about artists and geniuses: how empathetic do they have to be?

What surprised me in writing this play, which was in rather bad rhyme, how hard it was to write compared to science.  The difference, I imagine now, is training.  To write I found I needed to really listen to the spoken word, the work as I read it out loud.  My gauge was only: did it sound right?

After this play had its first round of being the “finished” project I find unresolved many of the same issues that were there in the beginning.  Do the same things irritate me?  If not, how do I keep the voice of the play true while softening up some of the characters.  I notice the difficulty I have in keeping characters’ emotions in front of the play.  This is particularly true as the genre has changed from play to musical.