A new play about Jack Parsons, titled appropriately enough Pasadena Babalon premieres this weekend at Cal Tech. Sounds interesting. How many stage plays can you name that feature L Ron Hubbard, Aleister Crowley and the Biblical Whore of Babalon? Doesn’t sound much like a Neill SImon comedy to me:

Pasadena Babalon is a new stage play dealing with the life of rocket pioneer Jack Parsons, co-founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the Aerojet General Corporation..

Babalon takes the audience on a journey through mid-1930s Pasadena up until Jack’s untimely death in 1952. Surrounded by a gallery of characters from Aleister Crowley, L.Ron Hubbard, Theordore Von Karman, and many others, the play examines the nature of genius with its unintended consequences, black magic, military contracts, and the formation of JPL.

TACIT casts feature Caltech undergraduates, graduate students, staff members, and JPL engineers.

The play will also be presented on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon, and the following weekend on Friday and Saturday.

More information here.

Here’s a link to my own essay, John Whitesides Parsons: Anti-Christ Superstar, originally written for 21.C magazine and later published in my Book of Lies anthology.

Thank you Xeni Jardin!