The Improbable Research Cabaret Plays 5/2 At Central Square Theater

Is Coca-Cola an effective spermicide? Why do people dislike the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard? Why do sheets wrinkle? Find out at The Improbable Research Cabaret on Saturday, May 2 at 3 PM at the Central Square Theater! Join the scientists and creators of the Ig Nobel Prizes for the wildly hilarious performance during the Cambridge Science Festival.

Featuring Marc Abrahams, Ig Nobel Prize winners Mahadevan (The Physics Of How Sheets Wrinkle), Lynn Halpern (Why People Dislike the Sound of Fingernails on a Blackboard), and Deborah J. Anderson (Is Coca-Cola an Effective Spermicide?), the performance also includes "Studmuffins of Science" calendar creator Karen Hopkin, Michael Ricca performing songs from the Ig Nobel Operas, the Performing Scientists from Harvard and MIT, and more. The Improbable Research Cabaret is a Cambridge Science Festival event and also a fundraiser for the Central Square Theater, where The Life of Galileo is playing April 10 - May 17.

Improbable Research is an organization that collects (and sometimes conducts) improbable research, research that makes people laugh and then think. They publish a magazine called the Annals of Improbable Research, and administer the Ig Nobel Prizes, which honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think. The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative - and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology. The 2008 Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded on October 2 at the 18th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, at Harvard's Sanders Theatre.

The Improbable Research Cabaret takes place Saturday, May 2 at 3 PM at the Central Square Theater. Tickets, which include a post-performance reception with Cabaret scientists, are priced at $35; $20 for students. To reserve tickets, call KC Forcier at 617.576.9278 x 208, or email kcf@centralsquaretheater.org.

At Central Square Theater, a new state-of-the-art community-based theatrical arts facility, audiences will find, under one roof, the distinctive repertoires of two award-winning non-profit professional companies, The Nora Theatre Company and Underground Railway Theater, as well as collaborative projects drawing on their creative synergy. Schools, families and community groups will benefit from outreach and educational programs, and local businesses will enjoy increased foot traffic and new customers. As the first permanent home for these two theater companies, Central Square Theater will be a vibrant hub of theatrical, educational and social activity, where artists and audiences come together to create theater vital to our communities.
The seeds of Central Square Theater (CST) were sown in 1997, with a partnership between The Nora Theatre Company, Underground Railway Theater, and the Community Development Department of the City of Cambridge, which brokered a relationship with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). MIT constructed the building and provided an extraordinary 20-year lease commitment at under $5 per square foot -- a contribution valued at more than $2 million over time.

For more information, please call 617-576-9278 or go to www.centralsquaretheater.org.