Margot Lasher is the Flynn Center Winter/Spring N.A.S.A. Grant Awardee

Margot Lasher, writer and licensed psychologist specializing in the human-dog relationship, is the recipient of the Flynn’s Winter/Spring N.A.S.A. Grant Award. Lasher draws on her background as an experimental theater writer, actor, and dog lover to create and develop Other Minds—a play exploring the close connection shared between humans and canines. Her work-in-progress will be presented on Sunday, August 9 at 7 pm in FlynnSpace.

As part of her work, Margot will contribute weekly blog entries discussing the process of creating Other Minds. Here is the first in her series of posts about her ongoing creative process.

Cast of Other Minds:

From left to right: Shiro, dog; Irene Facciolo, Director; David Klein, Dog; Naomi Flanders, Human; Newton Baker, Stranger and dog trainer. Not pictured: Charlie, David’s dog; Soren Pfeffer, a second dog

Wednesday, May 13 - "The presence of the dogs is crucial. If you think about dogs and cats in the theater, they are almost always cute and stupid. I want to show them as they are for us in our lives—wise, noble, perceptive, and maybe sometimes cute and stupid. In our private lives, which is what modern theater is about, dogs are deeply important. We are exploring the human-dog relationship."

The next N.A.S.A. application deadline will be Monday, August 24. Visit the Flynn website at www.flynncenter.org/nasa.html for more information and an application.