Matt Letscher’s Gaps in the Fossil Record, now having its world premiere at Chelsea’s Purple Rose Theatre, starts with an awkward paleontology professor, Richard (Mark Colson), giving an introductory class lecture. (We, the audience members, are stand-ins for his students.)

Mark Colson and Aja Brandmeier in “Gaps in the Fossil Record” at the Purple Rose Theatre. (Photo by Sean Carter Photography)

Richard points out that the basic skeletal structure of a human arm is echoed, again and again, in countless animal species, thus demonstrating a common point of origin and prompting questions like: what first motivated our genetic ancestors to leave their watery home and venture onto dry land? And regarding two human, 5,000 year old skeletons, found near Verona, Italy in 2007, who appear locked in an embrace – who were they, and what was their story?

Such questions represent, of course, unfillable gaps in the world’s fossil record; the queries for which there’s no hope for resolution, no matter how many ancient bones we unearth. READ THE REST HERE