ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — Later this week, the University of North Carolina Asheville Department of Mathematics and Statistics will hold its annual Parsons Lecture, bringing Middlebury College professor Stephen Abbott to campus for a lecture examining the intersection of theatre and math.

Abbott’s lecture, “The Mathematical Heart of Tom Stoppard,” will be held at 7 p.m., Thursday, April 2 in the Blue Ridge Room of Highsmith Student Union at UNC Asheville. The event is free and open to the public.

During the lecture, with the help of local actors, Abbott will examine the recurring mathematical themes in the plays of Tom Stoppard.

“From ‘Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,’ which famously opens with an improbable sequence of coin flips, to later works including ‘Arcadia’ and ‘Leopoldstadt,’ Stoppard frequently incorporated mathematical ideas to examine questions of truth, logic, and the human experience,” UNC Asheville wrote in a press release.

“The lecture highlights Stoppard’s belief in mathematics as a powerful tool for telling human stories and explores the creative possibilities at the intersection of mathematics and theater.

For more information about the lecture, visit go.unca.edu/math/parsons-lecture.

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