Silver screen siren Hedy Lamarr was proclaimed by Hollywood as the most beautiful woman in the world, but did you know she invented frequency hopping and spread spectrum technology? Her invention is used today in cell phones, WiFi, CDMA, GPS, Bluetooth, military satellites, and a myriad of other wireless systems! Her adventures from Austria to Hollywood tell an amazing story!

 

HEDY! The Life & Inventions of Hedy Lamarr explores the life, inventions and person of Hedy Lamarr, Viennese-born Hollywood film star of the 1930s-1950s. Known as “The Most Beautiful Woman in the World”, Hedy Lamarr stored away knowledge of munitions while married to Austrian arms dealer, Fritz Mandl. She employed this knowledge to support the US Navy’s war effort during WWII by inventing The Secret Communication System with composer George Antheil, to make torpedoes more accurate; this was referred to as Frequency Hopping or Spread Spectrum Technology. Today that technology helps fuel the ever-growing world of wireless communications technology.  

 

 “In Lily Tomlin-esque fashion … Massie channels the iconic star … vividly yet matter-of-factly, and often very humorously … In a balance of high energy and poise, Heather Massie is no less than captivating.” – Jed Ryan, The Huffington Post

“Richly realized … Both convincingly real and larger than life … she has us thoroughly swept up.” – Jon Sobel, Blogcritics Magazine

Ms. Massie has recently announced that a portion of the proceeds for her production will be donated to Intrepid Museum’s GOAL for Girls https://www.intrepidmuseum.org/GOALSforGirls

Ms. Massie received the Outstanding Actress in a Staged Reading Award at last year’s Planet Connections Theatre Festivity in New York City for HEDY! The Life & Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, which was the springboard to an illustrious national tour. The premiere was on Hedy Lamarr’s 102nd birthday in the United Solo Festival in NYC, and was named a Festival Bestseller. Ms. Massie was also Best Actress in the 2017 SaraSolo Festival in Sarasota, FL, and the Audience Choice Award for the 2017 Shenandoah Fringe in Staunton, VA. It was developed in the Artist-in-Residence program in 2016 at the Grange Hall Cultural Center in Waterbury Center, VT, and performed there in March 2017. It was presented in DivaFest 2017 in Indianapolis in March 2017; and is slated to perform at Gamut Classic Theatre in Harrisburg, PA July 7-9; in a special invited performance in Dublin, Ireland on July 17; in the 2017 Galway Fringe in Galway Ireland, July 21-29; and in IndyFringe 2017 in Indianapolis, IN, Aug 23-27. Plans are underway for further production in international festivals, regional theatres, universities, museums, libraries, schools, and scientific and cultural organizations. This project is recommended, and supported in part, by the Austrian Cultural Forum New York.

Let’s hear what Heather thinks of the art and the industry!

I am inspired by genius, by the unexpected, and by science. That is why Hedy Lamarr is a perfect subject. I was looking for a woman in science to feature theatrically and found Hedy, an actress with a secret penchant for inventing in her spare time. She enjoyed evenings sitting at her drafting table inventing things to make the world a better place, more than she enjoyed spending time at fancy Hollywood parties. She was disturbed by children being killed by torpedoes while being shipped to safety during WWII, and decided to do something about it. She drew on knowledge she had gleaned while married to an Austrian arms dealer to design a foolproof communication system for torpedoes. This technology is used in the majority of our wireless systems today – cell phones, WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, military satellite systems, barcode scanning, mobile health care systems, CDMA and more. The world of today would not be as we know it without Hedy Lamarr having dreamed it. It is exactly because her genius is so unexpected, that her story is so compelling.

… and why independent theater?

Indie theatre gives artists the freedom to create art as they want it to be. As an artist I am not held to anyone else’s idea of what my art should be. This has given me the gift of finding my voice and finding Hedy’s voice. Such that I can celebrate her story and bring it to audiences which may never have learned about her otherwise. It is a great joy to discover that audiences are enamored by Hedy’s mind and by her sly humor. In creating this piece I am able to highlight the areas of her life which fascinate me, and to give voice to her and to the many characters in her life. I have such joy in stepping into her life and into the many other voices in the play to illuminate the story of this incredibly talented woman. She calls us all to find ways each day to make the world a better place. And through this, I wish to inspire young female scientists and artists to dream big and become all that they desire.

WHERE TO GET TICKETS? RIGHT HERE: https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/27385