“TESLA VS. EDISON” returns to the Center for Puppetry Arts for a limited three-week run, Aug. 5 through Aug. 23. Written, directed and designed by Artistic Director Jason Hines, the puppet spectacle reimagines the War of the Currents, the late 1800s clash between Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla over how to power the country.
The show first premiered at the Center for Puppetry Arts in 2023. From there, it won three Suzi Bass Awards, Atlanta’s top theater honor, along with a Citation of Excellence from UNIMA-USA, puppetry’s highest honor.
A Tesla coil sparked the idea early
Hines traces his fascination with the rivalry back to junior high. “I learned about Tesla in junior high. I built a Tesla coil for the science fair,” he said.
He grew up knowing Edison as a standard piece of American history, but researching Tesla for that project planted an idea that stuck with him for years before it became “TESLA VS. EDISON”.
Hines’ research took him beyond books. “I went up and visited Edison’s lab, which is now up in Michigan,” he said, describing how Henry Ford, “a huge fan of Edison,” relocated and reconstructed the inventor’s original New Jersey laboratory at his museum in Dearborn. The trip, Hines said, fed directly into the show’s design.
