The First Man

In a warmly furnished Connecticut living‑room, Curtis Jayson—a tall, thoughtful engineer with a restless curiosity—shares an afternoon with his lively wife Martha and their old friend Edward Bigelow. Their banter reveals Curtis’s unconventional path from mining engineering to geology and finally to the “romance of the rocks,” a pursuit that sets him apart from his banker father’s expectations. Martha’s frank, outdoorsy humor and Bigelow’s easy‑going sarcasm flesh out a domestic scene that feels both intimate and charged with unspoken ambitions.

The play unfolds over four acts, stretching from an early autumn day through the following spring, and follows Curtis as he navigates family pressures, professional setbacks, and the pull of scholarly obsession. As relationships with his siblings, a lawyer, and an aging aunt surface, listeners are drawn into a portrait of a man trying to reconcile his yearning for discovery with the weight of his lineage. The dialogue‑rich drama offers a thoughtful glimpse into early‑20th‑century American life and the timeless tension between personal dreams and duty.