Written & Performed by Susan Marie Frontczak

Select clips from the living history film Humanity Needs Dreamers: A Visit With Marie Curie (15 mins).

Followed by a discussion with living history scholars Susan Marie Frontczak and Brian "Fox" Ellis on their respective portrayals of Marie Skłodowska Curie and Charles Darwin and the art of bringing fact-based science to the stage.

Sponsored by:
WQPT, The Butterworth Center Deere -Wiman Home, and STEM On Stage
Two-time Nobel Prize winner Marie Skłodowska Curie is best known for pioneering the field of radioactivity — but few understand the obstacles she faced just to enter the laboratory. What if she could tell her story?

Humanity Needs Dreamers: A Visit With Marie Curie is a digital theater presentation of living history scholar & performer Susan Marie Frontczak's acclaimed portrayal.

This session will feature select clips from Humanity Needs Dreamers and an interactive conversation between Brian "Fox" Ellis and Susan Marie Frontczak on performing historic scientists on stage.

  • 8:00PM (CST) Humanity Needs Dreamers: A Visit With Marie Curie (Select Clips - 15 mins)
  • 8:15PM (CST) Q & A: Brian "Fox" Ellis & Susan Marie Frontczak
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    Living History Scholar & Performer
    Susan Marie Frontczak is a scholar, playwright & performer. Through storysmith.org, she has created and performed Living History portrayals of six historical women across 42 of the United States and abroad. She presents at theaters, conferences, schools, libraries, and festivals internationally — including performing Manya: The Living History of Marie Curie and A Visit with Marie Curie over 450 times to 60,000 people in 34 states and nine countries. Humanity Needs Dreamers: A Visit With Marie Curie, the digital theater production of her work produced by STEM on Stage, was included in an NSF-funded outreach program through Princeton Center for Complex Materials. A digital speaking tour for Humanity Needs Dreamers is being planned for Spring of 2021 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Marie Curie's visit to the U.S. in 1921.

    In dramatizing the life of Marie Skłodowska Curie, Susan Marie pays homage to their shared Polish heritage. She earned a B.S. in Engineering from Swarthmore College and a Masters in Software Engineering from the Wang Institute of Graduate Studies, and worked for fourteen years at Hewlett-Packard Company before pursuing full time writing and performing.