Theatre and physics will unite this week in Marshall University’s Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center when Marshall’s theatre department helps a lecturer “magically” appear on stage.

The Marshall theatre department will help make Luis Orozco, a University of Maryland physics professor, “magically” appear before he lectures about quantum physics Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center.

“Theater is all about staging and presentation,” said James Morris-Smith, Marshall’s director of theater facilities. “This is a way we can show our abilities and provide an interesting way for a person to make a stage appearance. Anything is possible in theatre with a little rehearsal.”

Smith said this magic trick has been done in the past, but members of the theatre department are using a different format to help bring out the science characteristic.

Orozco, a native of Mexico and graduate of University of Texas at Austin, is a fellow of the Joint Quantum Institute in addition to a professor of physics. Quantum physics describes nature at the smallest scales of energy levels of atoms and subatomic particles.

Orozco’s lecture for Wednesday is entitled “From Imaginary Experiments to Quantum Information.” He will also give a second presentation, entitled “The Weak Interaction,” Thursday at 7 p.m. in Room 2E28 of the Memorial Student Center. This lecture will not include the magic trick.

These events are sponsored by Marshall’s department of physics and College of Science.

Emily Phipps can be contacted at [email protected].