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CCS to Celebrate Life of Rachel Carson - 9/21/2004

CCS is bringing the nationally-renown play A Sense of Wonder, based on the life of Rachel Carson, to the Provincetown Theater on November 20 and 21. 

Hailed by Time Magazine as one of its most influential people of the century, Rachel Carson (1907 – 1964) was a junior biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1936 when few women worked in government civil service jobs.  Eventually she became editor-in-chief of all materials the agency distributed for public consumption.  While working for the government she found time to write the first of three influential books about the sea, Under the Sea Wind (1941). 
 
She resigned from government service in 1952 to write full time.  Her next books were The Sea Around Us (1951) and The Edge of the Sea (1955).  Her love of nature did not end at the shore.  In 1957 Ms. Carson began work on Silent Spring, her most noteworthy book which focused on the dangers of pesticides.  While its 1962 publication raised the ire of the chemical industry, the book recruited a new generation of environmentalists including President John F. Kennedy.

Rachel Carson died of breast cancer in 1964 in the midst of defending Silent Spring.  A year later, The Sense of Wonder was published posthumously and provided inspiration for this play. 

“Silent Spring was a clarion call, sounded well before Earth Day and her congressional testimony, which led to the banning of DDT, helped define the role of the citizen-scientist’” says Peter Borrelli, CCS executive director.  “I think it is accurate to say that she almost single-handedly focused national attention on the proliferation of toxic chemicals,” Borrelli adds.

Bringing the essence of Carson to stage is actress and playwright Kaiulani Lee.  She has appeared in numerous on and off-Broadway productions and in well-known television series such as The Waltons, Tales from the DarkSide, and Law & Order.  Lee’s motion picture credits include The World According to Garp, Cujo, The Fan, The Seduction of Joe Tynan, and Compromising Positions.  Act one of this one-woman play is set in Carson’s beloved Maine coastal cottage in 1962 as she packs for a trip to Maryland to defend Silent Spring.  The second act portrays Carson in failing health in her Maryland home, reflecting on the writing of Silent Spring while battling thunderous criticism of its content. 

Performances of A Sense of Wonder are at 8 p.m. on Saturday, November 21, and Sunday, November 22 at 3

Kaiulani Lee

p.m.  Tickets are $50 per person and proceeds benefit the Center for Coastal Studies.  A limited number of priority seats are available for $150 per person and include a post-show reception with Ms. Lee after Saturday’s performance.  The reception will be held at Fanizzi’s, 539 Commercial Street, a five-minute walk from the theater.

Phone the Provincetown Theater at (508) 487-9793 to order tickets from Noon to 5 p.m., 7 days per week, or go on-line to ptowntix.com.  The Provincetown Theater is located at 238 Bradford Street in the East End.  Four of Ms. Carson's books, Silent Spring, Under the Sea Wind, The Sea Around Us, and Edge of the Sea, are available through the CCS gift shop and will be available for sale following the play.

Since 1976, scientists at the Provincetown-based Center for Coastal Studies have researched marine mammals of the western North Atlantic, and coastal and marine habitats and resources of the Gulf of Maine.  CCS promotes stewardship of coastal and marine ecosystems, including Cape Cod Bay.  The Center’s public policy program, Coastal Solutions Initiative (CSI,) examines issues and conflicts affecting the coastal and marine environment and seeks creative solutions based on the principles of conservation biology, sustainability, and ecosystem based management.

Bringing A Sense of Wonder to its hometown of Provincetown enables the Center for Coastal Studies to balance art and science while fulfilling its mission statement to educate and encourage responsible use and conservation of coastal and marine ecosystems.