For The Science in Theatre Festival playwright Alexis Roblan teamed up with Dr. Heidi Boisvert to write Affinity, which is a story inspired by Dr. Boisvert’s studies into how we react to narrative and our biological responses.

Dr. Boisvert is an interdisciplinary artist, experience designer, creative technologist, and academic researcher who interrogates the neurobiological and socio-cultural effects of media and technology. In a nutshell, she studies the role of the body, the senses, and emotion play in human perception and social change. She is also the Director of Emerging Media Technology at CUNY and an MIT research affiliate. She has previously been a TED Resident and is a New Inc member currently developing the first media genome: an open-source biometric lab and AI system to isolate the narrative ingredients that move us to act.

Affinity is set in the not-too-distant future, where technology has made it possible to share your stories clearly in someone else’s emotional language. It tells the story of a young woman named Netta, who is beginning to question whether translating experiences can genuinely create understanding. Especially if none of the details of the experience remain intact. It is a story of empathy, compassion, and connection and how the things we do to create these connections can leave us feeling even more isolated and alone.

The collaboration between Art and Science is an interesting one and the festival manages to bring unique pieces to the stage focusing on how we can, not only use science in theatre but also how we can enhance theatre with science and technology. When asked about how science is already incorporated into theatre, Heidi had this to say,

“One of the ways we do incorporate it is thinking about maybe redefining performance so this idea of the performative and performance we also use when we talk about scientific measures, how is the body perform (athlete for example)”.

But Heidi believe that we can consider the theatre as a laboratory. To be used to study and understand certain human emotions and interactions.

Affinity leans heavily on Heidi’s research and, though it is s a somewhat dystopic caricature of her research it is interwoven with humor. When asked about working together, Heidi said,

Alexis did a wonderful job of integrating all of the different types of work I do. Her piece is about whether or not these devices can actually tap into your neurological response and whether or not what they present back is actually is a mirror reflection of you.

The production asks many of the same questions that Heidi asks about ethical debates social change, or rather how we “pathologize” social change since the emergence of the NGO industrial complex, “We think we have positive intentions around moving society but it’s still a form of propaganda to a degree… It was interesting for me to see all the internal tensions and questions I have inside me reflecting back in a kind of hyper caricatured form so I can laugh at them.” Affinity, and indeed the Science in Theatre Festival itself, asks fascinating questions of humanity and reminds us of C.P. Snow’s 1956 book “The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution.” The book, and its preceding lecture, were about how science and the humanities, representing "the intellectual life of the whole of western society" had split into "two cultures" and that this split had become a handicapped both cultures in solving the world's problems. Heidi added to this,

We can have this collaboration between science and art, that creates this third culture.
We are not there yet.

As the festival brings science and theatre together, it is interesting to think about how they might work together to create Heidi’s idea of “the third culture”. In an ideal world, we could create experimental labs and incubators that would allow us to co-create. Science and art already share a commonality in lighting design and sound production are already great examples of how the scientific process is incorporated. Those scientific processes add to the magic in theatres, or at shows, but they are often forgotten about because they are behind the scenes.

Affinity is written by Alexis Roblan, a playwright and WGA Award-nominated screenwriter. She is a graduate of the University of Southern California’s MFA in Dramatic Writing program and is a 2020 Audrey Resident at New Georges, and a 2020 recipient of funding from the NYC Women’s Fund for Media, Music, and Theatre.

Affinity is scheduled to open the festival's evening program on the 12th of November with a panel including Dr. Moran Cerf, Daanish Masood, Dr. Heidi Boisvert, Alexis Roblan, and Karen Ingram.

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