If a woman today thinks she’s pregnant, she can buy an over-the-counter pregnancy test and get confirmation within minutes without needing to see anyone.
Less than 50 years ago, women had to make an appointment with a doctor and then have their urine analyzed by a lab to see if it contained higher levels of a pregnancy hormone, potentially waiting weeks for results.
Though home pregnancy tests were first marketed to women in the late 1970s, the technology had existed for decades, restricted by pharmaceutical companies that entrusted it exclusively to doctors — 90% of whom were male at the time.
Getting tests directly into the hands of women — who could then know results within a couple of hours in their own homes — is thanks to Margaret “Meg” Crane, a graphic designer you may never have heard of who worked for a pharmaceutical company in New Jersey in the 1960s and saw that the tests they made for doctors could easily be used by women in private.
Though Crane designed a simple test kit for women in 1967 when she was 26, it took years to get FDA approval for the device before it could be sold to women as Predictor in 1977. And though Crane held patents for the device, the pharmaceutical company she worked for licensed it to other pharma companies, and she never received compensation except for a single dollar for signing away her rights.
Crane was only officially recognized as the inventor of the home pregnancy test in 2012 when she spoke up after a New York Times article about such tests failed to mention her. Now her original prototype design of Predictor sits in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
Jennifer Blackmer tells Crane’s story in her play “Predictor,” but not as a dry biography or historical account. The Garage Theatre, which is currently staging the play, instead describes it as an “absurdist comic romp” that moves fluidly through the past, present and future.
“We take you through the complexities of Meg’s mind as she contemplates a simple patent application, ultimately setting the historical record straight while revealing the tenacity and sacrifice it takes to change the world,” the theater says.
In addition to UC Irvine drama grad Carly Tilson-Lumetta playing Meg Crane, a “chorus” of six other actors — including Garage Theatre co-founder Matt Anderson — bring to life Blackmer’s play, directed by Jessica Variz.
“The story is so beautiful and powerful in and of itself, but the way in which it’s told is so theatrical and fun,” Anderson said. “The audience gets to experience and feel the highs and lows, and everything in between. The show is all heart.”
Anderson credits director Variz’s “clear vision and direction” for bringing out the best in the cast and crew for each performance.
But Variz says she was at first hesitant when the theater asked her to direct this play.
“I had never heard of Meg Crane, and my first instinct was to say ‘no,’” Variz says, adding that she had not worked with the theater for a while and was not sure she could do it — until she read the play.
“Meg’s story demanded telling and Jennifer Blackmer’s weird and wonderful script reminded me of all the things I loved most — and missed most — about theater,” Variz says. “At a time when every odd was stacked against her, Meg said ‘yes’ to curiosity, to creativity, to love and finally to the sacrifice that would ultimately erase her name from history.”
Variz also met with Crane last spring in New York, sitting in “awe” of her while being further inspired to direct the play.
“We spent more time talking about the present than the past, recognizing the battles that we thought long won — for choice, for privacy, for bodily autonomy — were being waged again and against the same insidious forces,” Variz recalls. “Meg reminded me that Predictor wasn’t just about pregnancy, but about power.”
That’s because part of Crane’s battle was convincing male-dominated pharmaceutical and medical industries during sexist and even misogynistic times, which some find continue today, that women should be able to test their own bodies for what’s happening to them.
As Crane’s character says in the play, she’s “Ready to set the record straight, ready to ask for my due and claim my space.”
“Predictor” continues through Oct. 11 at The Garage Theatre, 251 E. Seventh St., with shows Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. Tickets are $28 or $23 for students, seniors, teachers and military members, with two-for-one tickets available on Thursdays. For tickets and information, visit TheGarageTheatre.org.