Among time analysts in the world scientific community, the Allan variance is a household phrase, an international standard for measuring clock performance. The Allan variance is an algorithm, a mathematical procedure for solving a problem. The most accurate clock in the United States, an atomic clock, is found in Boulder, Colorado, at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), where David Allan works and where he has made his mark in the international scientific community.īrother Allan, who spent his childhood on a farm in Mapleton, Utah, is known internationally for the Allan variance, the subject of his graduate thesis at the University of Colorado. These become the pendulum of ultra-precise clocks. Whereas time was formerly measured in relation to the earth’s rotation, time is measured today in relation to things as tiny as a cesium atom or as large as pulsars-stars spinning far out in our galaxy. He explains that the more precisely time is measured, the more accurate navigation can be-whether it is used for guiding a ship at sea, sending a spacecraft out into the solar system, or measuring the electromagnetic quantum from an atom. “We are now capable of splitting a second into a trillion parts, which is more precise than most anyone would need,” muses Brother Allan. Thanks to him and the team of scientists he works with, the accuracy with which time can be measured has increased more than three orders of magnitude-or one thousand times. Allan brings a new twist to making every single second count. Gail Obenreder is an arts professional, writer and producer living in Wilmington.Internationally known physicist David W. Martin and his crew do it all with style and verve, and they are, all of them, very funny indeed. Then they must take a leap off the high board. Mounting a play like this requires that the director and actors have skill, impeccable timing and the courage of their convictions. Playwright Ludwig defines comedy as “not just happy endings” but “a way of creating a world where happy endings are inevitable.” So it’s not giving anything away to say that here, all ends well.įarce by its nature demands suspension of disbelief on the part of the audience and suspension of gravity (physical and emotional) on the part of the actors, and both parties were willing partners in this performance. The audience enters to an opera aria (ever so slightly misaligned) playing in the background, and when the sound designer John Stovicek slides the music from the house speakers to the onstage radio and the sly lights of designer Jim Leitner bump up, the audience has a good idea of what’s in store for them.ĭirector and producer Bud Martin chose this play because, as he says, “We need comedy now more than ever.” Along with Michael Frayn’s backstage farce “Noises Off,” “Lend Me a Tenor” is one of the two most widely produced American farces in the world. Lots of doors are a prerequisite for any farce, and in their spot-on costumes by Alisa Kleckner, the company takes delight in slamming them with gusto and frequency. The 1930s set by Dirk Durossette – managing to be both elegant and witty – has six doors.
Set in an upscale hotel suite in Cleveland in 1934, the play opens as self-centered world-famous divo Tito Merelli, aka “Il Stupendo” (John Plumpis), arrives from Italy to sing a make-or-break performance of Verdi’s “Otello” with the local opera company.Īccompanied by his fiery wife (Tracie Higgins), the famous singer is welcomed by a star-besotted group, led by the opera’s Machiavellian producer Saunders (Tony Braithwaite), along with his innocent daughter Maggie (Eileen Cella) and his factotum and dogsbody Max (Jonathan Silver). It’s no accident that playwright Ken Ludwig places his raucous Tony-winning work in the period of the great film farces like the Marx Brothers movies.
#Split second timing series
The zany cast falls all over the furniture, and themselves, catching one another in a series of hilarious pratfalls that starts with the first slamming door and doesn’t stop until the wacky curtain call. It’s become a pop-psychology cliché, but in the new offering at the Delaware Theatre Co., “Lend Me a Tenor,” it’s literally true.
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