History may be under attack, but art is helping us preserve it.
Few works of art are a better example of this than “Predictor,” the play that wrapped up in Urbana last week after opening the season for Station Theatre, and that will debut off-Broadway Dec. 5.
“Predictor” tells the story of Meg Crane, the inventor of the at-home pregnancy test. The play gives Crane her due and also shows how her world-changing invention was hampered by sexism and corporate structure. It’s packed with not only history, but also jokes and frustration.
Above, Kirby Toalson portrays Meg Crane, inventor of the at-home pregnancy test, in Station Theatre’s production of “Predictor” that ended last week. Other cast members include Tiphaine Kouadou, Mary Ellison, Michaela Kruse, Nathan Bohannon, Trent Sherman and Aaron Clark.
Before the at-home pregnancy test, women would have to wait for weeks to receive results of pregnancy tests held only by doctors and clinics.
While Crane’s name is on the patents for her invention, the at-home pregnancy test was originally licensed only to pharmaceutical companies, leaving Crane to receive neither money nor recognition for her invention. She only received public credit in 2012, 45 years later.
Humor, frustration, history come through in “Predictor”
“Predictor” packs a ton of history, jokes and frustration into just over two hours. In fact, the non-stop sarcastic and critical jokes are the highlight of the play. Its sharp comedy helps illuminate the harm and the frustrations experienced by women, particularly professional women, in the mid 1900s.
A good example was a faux TV segment of male doctors, speaking about “feminine emotionality” from an oblivious, sexist man’s perspective, about how their feminine hygiene products would help women. The segment shows men talking about how women need to conform to beauty standards, and how their products help women attract men.
The fact that this scene takes place near a scene with Crane and her future longtime partner, Ira Sturtevant, further helps demonstrate the difference between patriarchal standards and Crane’s more real burgeoning relationship.
Written by Ball State University theater professor Jennifer Blackmer, “Predictor” develops its main character well. Blackmer shows us not only how, but why, Crane created the at-home pregnancy test. We see her mother becoming pregnant at a young age, and the sexism she also dealt with.
We also see how Crane’s mother and supportive father mold her. Where her mother is beaten down by the patriarchy and wants her daughter to conform, her father encourages her to pursue her career goals. We also imagine Crane’s future impact through a co-worker who needs the test before it’s released.
A constant stream of exasperated dismay is also a key quality of “Predictor.” Crane, highly intelligent and a strong self-advocate, also works as a freelance designer for Organon, the pharmaceutical company that would go on to take credit for her invention. Early in the play, she invites herself to a meeting of men discussing prototypes, where she frequently rails against her freelance status and consistently pushes against sidelining by a sexist superior.
Eventually, she is discouraged enough to almost scrap her invention and give up, but is encouraged by a friend about the importance of the test.
“Predictor” moves at lightning speed, which actually works for people like me with ADHD. Station Theatre used a rapidly rotating set to portray flashbacks from an Organon office, to a lab, to a game show set that is part of Crane’s childhood flashbacks.
The play also features a chorus with members who change characters frequently. In fact, I believe the chorus in this play deserves due credit as the foundation. I also admired Kirby Toalson, who portrayed Meg Crane. Toalson seemed to be directly channeling Crane, rather than acting at being creative, frustrated or ambitious.
Off-Broadway premiere in December takes “Predictor” back to where it happened
“Predictor” earned praise from Meg Crane herself, who is now 84. “Thanks, Jen, for telling my story in a way that is fast-moving, funny, and true,” Crane told Broadway World last year.
Crane said Blackmer had “masterfully captured the reality of a young woman striving to advance an idea in a male-dominated corporate environment – an idea that promised immense benefits for women’s health and autonomy. The play powerfully illustrates how, in many respects, we haven’t moved far beyond the challenges women faced in the 1960s.”
The play’s New York premier Dec. 5 follows its showing nationwide since 2019 at smaller theaters like the Station Theatre in Urbana. They include the Garage Theater in Long Beach, Ca. where it’s showing now; the Williamston Theatre in Michigan; the Lied Center for the Performing Arts in Lincoln, Neb.; and the Phoenix Theatre in Indianapolis.
“Predictor” was a finalist at the 2019 O’Neill Playwrights Conference. and Blackmer has been recognized before and after “Predictor” for her work. Last year, her one-woman play “I Carry Your Heart” was named “Best New American Play” of the year. In 2015, Blackmer was named the “Emerging American Playwright” by the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation.
Blackmer has said she’s especially excited to bring “Predictor” to New York City, Crane’s former home town, this December.
“Bringing this story to New York, where Meg lived, loved, and fought to make change, feels like a homecoming. In a time when hard-won rights are being rolled back, Predictor is a hopeful, urgent reminder that persistence, truth, and community still matter—and that women are capable of extraordinary things.”
If you missed “Predictor” in Urbana and want to experience another tale on stage of women transcending, check out “Fade” at Station Theatre, premiering Oct. 23. Watch for my advance, and review of opening night, right here in MainStream.
