TEACHING SCIENCE CLASS.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Writer

These days, nobody should need to convince producers that mathematics, science and their practitioners can be dramatically sexy. Not after Michael Frayn's ``Copenhagen'' and David Auburn's ``Proof'' both had successful Broadway runs.

Still, how funny it would be to have been a fly on the wall in the meeting where somebody had to pitch ``QED,'' the story of Nobel Prize- winning physicist Richard P. Feynman.

Pitch person: ``I've got this can't-miss subject for a play about an inspirational teacher, a wacky physicist who plays the drums. True story.''

Pitch receiver: ``My eyes are drooping here.''

PP: ``No, wait! The guy's one of the greatest scientific minds of the 20th century. Forty years after he helps build the A-bomb, he stands on a podium and explains why the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion using a glass of ice-water and a rubber ring.''

PR: ``The guy's a physicist?''

PP: ``But he's a cool physicist. He learned to play the bongos and juggle all while trying to get to some tiny backwater Asian country called Tannu Tuva where they do throat singing.''

PR: ``Tuva throat singers? Uh huh. We're done here.''

Of course, when you put a little star wattage behind it, the outlook for a green light gets sunnier. The man looking to put the life of Cal Tech professor Richard Feynman on stage was actor Alan Alda of ``M*A*S*H'' fame, who wanted to play Feynman to such an extent that he studied the bongos with the same instructor who taught Feynman's become conversant on the subject of physics.

It didn't hurt that the person on the other end of the pitch was both a friend of Alda's as well as arguably the most powerful man on the Los Angeles theater scene: Gordon Davidson, artistic director of the Mark Taper Forum and Ahmanson theaters.

Davidson, who studied electrical engineering before he turned to the arts, happens to like plays about science and scientists, having directed ``In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer'' in 1968 and, as recently as 1998, allowed the Taper to produce ``Space,'' a play about astronomers looking for extra-terrestrial intelligence. And he wanted to handle this project himself.

Besides, the subject of ``QED,'' which opens Thursday at the Taper, isn't just any physicist. This is Feynman, the much-loved author of several best sellers and a man renowned for making his subject palatable for those of us who don't have a Nobel Prize-winning brain. This is the guy who attributed some of his most significant work to ``piddling around with (a) wobbling plate'' being thrown around in a Cornell cafeteria.

Already the subject of a movie (the failed 1996 flick ``Infinity,'' which starred Matthew Broderick), Feynman was the kind of guy who had his hand in so many pots, many people thought they knew him, even when they didn't.

Davidson knew him, briefly. He even invited Feynman to a play about a physicist who comes up with a brilliant scientific theory that the CIA and the military want to get their hands on.

``He panics and flees to England and winds up teaching in the Midlands somewhere,'' Davidson recalls. ``One of his students is an 18-year-old girl, and he realizes that she's going to come up with the same solution at some point that he was trying to hide. Part of the point is that you can't turn off knowledge.''

After the play was over, Davidson asked Feynman what he thought of the play. Feynman had questions about the accuracy of the material and other aspects.

``One thing he did say: 'You know, they'll (expletive) you every time.' '' Davidson said, ``It was this feeling he had. After the bomb, he stopped doing physics. Once Hiroshima happened, it changed a lot of people.''

Feynman's attitude changed following his encounter with the wobbling plate in the Cornell cafeteria. Feynman's desire to investigate the spinning of electrons was undertaken ``for fun.''

And that, say people who knew him, was Feynman: the scientist who couldn't take anything - himself included - too seriously.

``There's something about him being a maverick, of being true to his principles and not fooling yourself because you're the easiest person to fool,'' said Ralph Leighton, Feynman's longtime friend, and the author of ``Tuva or Bust!'' on which ``QED'' is partially based. ``He was able to apply his approach to science to everyday life as well. That can resonate with people.'' Alda had read ``Tuva'' - which chronicled the efforts of Leighton and Feynman during the last years of Feynman's life to reach the Siberian country - and suggested to Davidson that the story would make an interesting play.

It wasn't simply the prospect of playing a famously wacky scientist that hooked Alda. The Tuva story, which features an optimistic and energetic Feynman on a new quest as his life is winding down, contained some poignant metaphors.

``I thought there was an image of all of us, that the best of humanity, keeps finding its way and keeps surviving by exploring it,'' said Alda. ``It was an interesting image to me of this kind of particularly human ability to search and never be satisfied by your curiosity.''

``I first brought the book to Gordon six years ago. Little did I know that by the time we produced it, I would be exactly the right age to play Feynman,'' added Alda, who turned 65 in January. ( Feynman died in 1988 at the age of 70.

The two men brought in Peter Parnell, the writer and story editor for the TV show ``The West Wing,'' with whom Davidson had worked during the Taper's production of John Irving's ``The Cider House Rules.''

And the evolution began. In the six years that the three men worked and tinkered, a multicharacter play that once featured shamans and Tuvan throat singers eventually ended up changing titles (from ``Tuva or Bust!'' to ``QED''), changing focus, having its production postponed for a year, and losing every character except Feynman, a series of recorded voices and one young university student (played by Alison Smith).

``Peter literally went through 10 different plays,'' said Alda. ``We had all agreed in the beginning that this wouldn't be a one-man play. I didn't want to do a one-man play, and Peter didn't want to write one. Then the one that works turns out to be almost a one-man play.''

Added Davidson: ``I think it's an honest portrayal of the man, yet it's not a documentary, so it's objective in its own way. There may be some people who there who will say, 'That's not Feynman. Feynman would never have done that,' although we discover more and more that Feynman would do anything.''

``QED''

Where: Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 2:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; through May 13.

Tickets: $30 to $44. Call [phone].

CAPTION(S):

5 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- cover -- color) A fine man

Alan Alda brings free-spirited physicist Richard Feynman to life in the new play `QED'

(3 -- 4) Alan Alda, above, enjoys a moment of song as Richard Feynman, with Allison Smith as Feynman's student. Left, Alda juggles atomic particles while giving a lecture.

(5) Alda discusses the play ``QED'' with its director, Gordon Davidson, who knew the play's subject, Richard Feynman.

John McCoy/Staff Photographer