The New Age: Exploring Creative Tensions Surrounding the Manhattan Project

Bellegante, Annamarie

The New Age: Exploring Creative Tensions Surrounding the Manhattan Project

File

BelleganteAnnamarie.pdf (470.25 KB)

Date

2014-04-15

Authors

Bellegante, Annamarie

Organizational Units

Organizational Unit

Music and Theatre

The Department of Music and Theatre is committed to a philosophy of education that draws its goals from the larger purposes of liberal arts education and from the guidelines of its accrediting agency, the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM). The primary aims of the department are to prepare students for a variety of professions in music, theatre, and the performing arts, to provide all students with educational experiences that will enhance their understanding of and aesthetic sensitivity to music, theatre, and the performing arts, and to serve as a vital force in the cultural life of the university, the community, and throughout the state and nation. The activities of the department reflect the university's commitment to excellence in teaching, creativity, and service.

Series

Symposium on Undergraduate Research and Creative Expression

Iowa State University Conferences and Symposia

The Symposium provides undergraduates from all academic disciplines with an opportunity to share their research with the university community and other guests through conference-style oral presentations. The Symposium represents part of a larger effort of Iowa State University to enhance, support, and celebrate undergraduate research activity.

Though coordinated by the University Honors Program, all undergraduate students are eligible and encouraged to participate in the Symposium. Undergraduates conducting research but not yet ready to present their work are encouraged to attend the Symposium to learn about the presentation process and students not currently involved in research are encouraged to attend the Symposium to learn about the broad range of undergraduate research activities that are taking place at ISU.

The first Symposium was held in April 2007. The 39 students who presented research and their mentors collectively represented all of ISU's Colleges: Agriculture and Life Sciences, Business, Design, Engineering, Human Sciences, Liberal Arts and Sciences, Veterinary Medicine, and the Graduate College. The event has grown to regularly include more than 100 students presenting on topics that span the broad range of disciplines studied at ISU.

Department

Music and Theatre

Abstract

What would a conversation be like with people who changed the course of history and scientific discovery? This original play, The New Age, attempts to explore that very question by delving into the events and people surrounding the Manhattan Project. The purpose of this play is not to provide answers; rather, it offers even more questions inspired by this morally ambiguous time in history. Because of Ames Laboratory's involvement with the Manhattan Project, The New Age has a special relationship with and relevance to the Iowa State community. A product of research, collaboration, and creative expression, The New Age presents thought-provoking themes such as the tension between knowledge and experience, invention and ethics, and how today we must cope with the consequences imposed by those who came before us.