*Between 1942 and 1945, J. Robert Oppenheimer gathered the most brilliant minds of the age at Los Alamos, New Mexico to create something awesome and terrible. The Manhattan Project - Cleveland Lab seeks to do the same for the Cleveland stage.* Announcing the First Ever Manhattan Project Leap Play! The Manhattan Project is thrilled to announce a project that could outlive us, our first Leap Play! Six of our favorite playwrights will each write a short play this March and upon turning them in, those plays will be sealed in an envelope, not to be performed until next Leap Day, February 29, 2020! Let's hope Nuclear Armageddon can wait! A Day Like No Other! What could be more rare and special than a day that comes but once every four years; a day that blips in and out of existence like exotic quantum particles in the Large Hadron Collider? We at the Manhattan Project are apt to celebrate things that are rare and strange, things as rare and strange as when on Leap Day the reigning Punxsutawney Phil is sacrificed to the Leap Gods to ensure four more years of good television. The people of Western PA have their traditions, and we have ours. Less bloody, but just as terrifying, we at the Manhattan Project make the following offerings to the Leap Gods! Three new plays that promise to be AWESOME and TERRIBLE: - *Ripcord* by Tom Hayes - *Al, Why Haven't I Leaped?* by Rachel Baird Rudisill - *X Marks the Spot* by Arwen Mitchell Please join us Tonight at 8:00pm <http://facebook.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=24718b1d6d5f7c398165fdc7b&id=3e4a7e8ccb&e=c3ea71f0f7> at Mahall's 20 Lanes <http://facebook.us8.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=24718b1d6d5f7c398165fdc7b&id=205bb36c03&e=c3ea71f0f7> 13200 Madison Ave. Lakewood, OH 44107 <http://facebook.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=24718b1d6d5f7c398165fdc7b&id=ac502df777&e=c3ea71f0f7> for this quadrennial spectacle! The Origins of Leap Day from Manhattan Project Leap Day Historian, Les Hunter: *Leap Day celebrates the pagan festival of hlupe (archaic: Anglico Absurdium Latinslaximus), a holiday wherein men would compete in various games of leaping (the long leap, the really, really big leap and leap of faith) as a way to show off to ladies and also is considered to figure into the religious rites of pre-Christian peoples--as a truly big leap would surely land a good man on the sun, or better yet, on the moon--and would thereby make him Very High Up, Indeed. The term "long-legged" supposedly is derived from this ancient tradition. * *We all know that on Leap Day women propose to men and that you can murder someone without it being a crime, but did you know these fun Leap Day facts?* - If a bachelor sees his shadow on Leap Day, he'll have four more years of eating Hot Pockets over the kitchen sink. - Internet comment sections are filled with hugs instead of vitriol. - In Philadelphia, if you order a cheese steak and say "put some leap on it" they'll punch you in the face. - The Freemasons invent a new color and hide it from the world. - If you lose your virginity on Leap Day, you're obligated to marry that person, or send them a nickel every Leap Day for the rest of your life. *Thank you Andy Kopas and Rob Anton for your steadfast Leap Day Research!* *Save the Date!* The Manhattan Project's next Meet & Greet <http://facebook.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=24718b1d6d5f7c398165fdc7b&id=67df0c4b0c&e=c3ea71f0f7> will be on April 6. The following Performance <http://facebook.us8.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=24718b1d6d5f7c398165fdc7b&id=7686a2f704&e=c3ea71f0f7> will be on April 25.