Nerd Nite - June 6th

Nerd Nite Pittsburgh is a lecture series that’s a mix between a comedy show, TED talk, and a social mixer! Speakers present for 15 minutes on a variety of topics related to science and technology, popular culture, history, and other nerdery with a vibe that’s as entertaining as it is academic! Audience members can ask questions, and beforehand there is an entirely optional social game. If you like alcohol, learning about random and interesting things, and meeting other humans this is for you! Social game starts at 6:30, Doors open for the show at 7:30, show starts at 7:45. If you have a topic you are passionate about and you’d like to be a speaker at a later event get in touch at pittsburgh@nerdnite.com! June 6th will show the following presentations:

How to Unrehearse Shakspeare:

In order to get butts in the seats, Shakespeare's company performed a different play every day, 6 days a week, and never repeat a show in a two-week period unless it was a HUGE hit (think a combination of Hamilton, Phantom of the Opera and Cirque du Soleil on mushrooms) and every two weeks they added a new play to the repertoire. Given that production schedule, when would the actors rehearse? Simple: they didn't. Let's see how Shakespear's players (and The New Renaissance Theatre Company) really prepared for a role... or didn't.

Andy Kirtland is co-founding Artistic Director of The New Renaissance Theatre Company. Pittsburgh acting credits include Pittsburgh Public Theatre, The REP, Unseam’d Shakespeare Company, Prime Stage, Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks and Pittsburgh Playwrights Theater. NYC credits include: The Public Theatre / Amerinda Theatre, Folding Chair Classical Theatre and Raised Spirits Theatre. For NRTC Andy has directed The Tragedie of Romeo and Juliet, The Tragedie of Macbeth, As you Like it, The Life of Henry the Fift, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, A Midsommer Night’s Dreame, and The Tragedie of Othello, The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Richard III.. Other directing credits include work with Prime Stage Theatre, Unseam’d Shakespeare Company, Greensburg Civic Theatre, and Poor Yoricks Players.

website: www.newrentheatre.com

Facebook: The New Renaissance Theatre Company

Instagram: @newrentheatreco

The Sex Lives of Hermaphroditic Land Snails:

Monty Python’s sketch, the Randy Mollusk, is tame compared to the real sex lives of snails. Did you know most land snails are simultaneous hermaphrodites (male and female at the same time)? Join Dr. Tim Pearce (the snail joke guy, Curator of Mollusks at Carnegie Museum of Natural History) describing the wacky behaviors and internal plumbing of these snails and slugs. Some self-fertilize, or when they do mate, they often both get fertilized. Bizarre adaptations in the reproductive tract include a sperm receptacle that is a digestive gland! Considering the biological dogma to pass on your genes, why would some banana slugs chew off their penis after mating, and some sea slugs give received sperm during a subsequent mating? Hint: if you can choose sex role, be the one who controls mating.

Choices for Voting Systems:

This talk will focus on ranked choice voting, but possibly talk about other voting systems as well.

Andrew Somerville is a Software Engineer who has spent most of his 20 year career writing software for Robotics projects, but has dabbled in teaching English and tech leadership. He is currently working on prediction systems inside of autonomous driver assistance for Ford vehicles at Latitude AI. In the past he was involved in the Darpa robotics challenge, and was the CTO of a small legal tech company Hire an Esquire. He's interested in just about everything, but not baseball so don't ask him anything about baseball if you don't want to be disappointed. For some reason, even though he has no business talking about voting, he decided to do so.

Social game:

Our social game will take place before the show from 6:30-7:30. Similar to ‘Speed Dating’ or ‘Speed Networking’ our game is ‘Speed Friending’! Whether you are new to the city and hoping to make friends or trying to expand your professional network with other nerds, the game is just about meeting new people! We have a system in place to rotate everyone around to meet someone new every 5 minutes, then you can fill out an online form with which conversations you enjoyed and we’ll email you your matches! You are welcome to join late, but if you want to get the most of it arrive at 6:15 to register and the first round will start at 6:30.

If you haven’t been here before, check what this is about with videos from our youtube channel.

This event is 21+ and requires ID. The venue has limited space and there may not be door sales if we sell out, which happens regularly. Be sure to get a ticket before heading over.