Productions

Can a True Scientist Believe in God?

In The Hard Problem, Hilary is a young psychologist who struggles with questions of faith. She is mocked by fellow scientists for her beliefs, from her nightly prayers to her attempts to meld her scientific research with her faith.

Do You Identify with Hilary?

Considering the intellectual complexity of this play, The Hard Problem artistic team was extremely grateful to work with faculty members that bring a diverse range of expertise to the rehearsal process. We took a moment to ask these scholars about whether or not they identify with the play’s protagonist, Hilary.

Q&A: Tom Stoppard

A brief Q&A with playwright Tom Stoppard about consciousness, the financial crisis, and altruism.

Charles Newell on Directing Stoppard

Court staff member Shelby Krick sat down with The Hard Problem director Charles Newell to chat about his relationship to Stoppard's work.

The Hard Problem: Where Life and Art Intersect

For much of his life, Tom Stoppard knew relatively little about his family’s origins and the events of his early childhood. The established details of his biography began when he was eight years old, in 1946, the year he moved from India to England with his Czechoslovakian mother, Martha, a Catholic. Martha recently had married a British Army officer, Major Kenneth Stoppard. She brought two sons from a previous marriage to this new union, eager for her children to start life in a new country.

Resident Artist Ron OJ Parson has the Blues

As director of Court’s current production, Blues for an Alabama Sky, Ron has spent the last few months immersed in the Harlem Renaissance, exploring the lives of African American artists in the 1930s, and examining the social and cultural atmosphere that surrounds the play.

In Conversation with Playwright Pearl Cleage & Director Ron OJ Parson

Best-selling novels, plays, and poetry—Pearl Cleage has written it all. Her 1995 play Blues for an Alabama Sky thrusts audiences into the creative ferment of the Harlem Renaissance, just as the problems of the Great Depression begin to overshadow artistic triumphs and creep into characters lives. While set in the past, her work sends echoes to us in the present that are impossible to ignore. Court staff member Shelby Krick enjoyed a fascinating conversation with Cleage and Resident Artist and Director Ron OJ Parson.