The Nora Theatre Company embarks on its 5th year at Central Square Theater this season! Establishing a home in Cambridge and a partnership with our sister company, Underground Railway Theater, was a long-held dream that never dimmed and was realized after the valiant efforts of many people, including our dedicated audience members. You believed in our dream and joined us on this great adventure. We thank you! And the best way we can express our heartfelt thanks is to create theater with you that is powerful, provocative, and meaningful. So I extend to you a very enthusiastic welcome to this performance of Sarah Treem’s illuminating and very timely play, The How and The Why.

For centuries, the form and functioning of the female of the human species has been an unending source of inquiry and fascination for scientists, philosophers, poets, and, yes, politicians. Through research conducted over the years, we have learned much, dispelling many of the outlandish theories of the past. Yet, some appalling ideas still hold sway. Our two passionate—and female—protagonists in The How and The Why are both objects of and participants in this continuing, raging debate. They exhilarate in their scientific discussions while vehemently arguing about what it means to be a woman in science today.

Bringing this smart and important play to life is a no less passionate group of actors, designers, technicians, and stage managers, all working together under the guiding hand of our Associate Director and my good friend, Daniel Gidron. Theater is one of the most illustrative examples of collaboration, and I am very grateful for their individual talents and their collective team spirit. Further, in keeping with this sense of working together, Debra Wise, Artistic Director of Underground Railway Theater, plays one of the characters in our production.

We hope you will continue to be part of this auspicious year! With URT, we are bringing back our co-production of Arabian Nights for the holidays, a story full of hope, humor, and the healing power of love. In the Spring, we will finish our season with a remarkable World Premiere, Operation Epsilon by our Playwright In Residence, Alan Brody. Moreover, with this remarkable play about a bold campaign of the Allied forces at the end of World War II, we happily begin our involvement with the Catalyst Collaborative@MIT program.