SWEET, SWEET MOTHERHOOD

In “SWEET, SWEET MOTHERHOOD” Shelley McCann (Caroline Cooney) is a bitingly intelligent undergraduate student at a top university. Although Shelley covets a spot in a top graduate program, she would rather party than build up a respectable GPA. Professor Henry Stein (Michael De Nola) is an eminent biotechnology researcher and professor at Shelley’s university. One afternoon, Shelley stumbles into Stein’s office to propose a senior thesis. No ordinary research proposal, Shelley’s ideas lay bare the ethical and moral quandaries associated with biotechnology today.

The play is the hybrid child of its own experiment, the Two-Headed Challenge, where the Guthrie Theater and the Playwrights Center commissioned playwright Jeremy Kareken to collaborate on a play with molecular biologist Lee M. Silver, author of the controversial Challenging Nature and Remaking Eden: How Genetic Engineering and Cloning Will Transform the American Family.