John Guare + Lisa Feldman Barrett

Perfect stranger? The idea of six degrees of separation suggests that that all people are connected to each other through a chain of six or fewer “friend of a friend” relationships. The concept gained popularity in John Guare’s 1990 play, Six Degrees of Separation, in which a wealthy couple helps a charming stranger who claims to be friends with one of their children.

The award-winning play is being revived on Broadway this April. As part of Brainwave, Guare joins psychologist Lisa Feldman Barrett to mark the publication of her new book How Emotions are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain in order to explore the emotional patterns that lead to misperception and deception.

A book signing featuring both speakers will take place after the program.

Brainwave is supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

About the Speaker

John Guare‘s award-winning Six Degrees of Separation, which made its New York premiere in 1990, opens at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre this April. The play received the 1991 New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play, an Obie Award for the playwright, and the 1993 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play. It was a finalist for the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and received a Tony Award nomination for Best Play. The original Broadway cast featured Stockard Channing as Ouisa, John Cunningham as Flan, and Courtney B. Vance as Paul. The new production will be headed by seven-time Emmy Award winner Allison Janney as Ouisa and Tony Award winner John Benjamin Hickey as Flan. The Irish American playwright’s other works include Landscape of the Body, A Free Man Of Color (Pulitzer Prize finalist), House of Blue Leaves (Obie/NY Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play), Two Gentlemen of Verona (NY Drama Critics Circle Award, Tony Award for Best Musical), Muzeeka (Obie), Sweet Smell of Success (Tony nomination for Best Book of a Musical), and Lydie Breeze. This marks John Guare’s second appearance at the Rubin.

Lisa Feldman Barrett PhD, is a University Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University, with appointments at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in Psychiatry and Radiology. She received a NIH Director’s Pioneer Award for her research on emotion in the brain.