Silent Sky

A new play about Henrietta Swan Leavitt and the real women "computers" working at the dawn of modern astronomy. A celestial romance and true story of discovery. Now published by DramatistsPlay Service.

[silentskyplay]

https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/unexplainable/22547100/henrietta-leavitt-cosmic-ruler-podcast?__twitter_impression=true

Edwin Hubble’s name is everywhere in astronomy. Henrietta Leavitt’s should be too.

How scientists discovered the universe is really freaking huge

How scientists discovered the universe is really freaking huge

[silentskyplay]

Remembering the power of live theater: My night of rapture under a 'Silent Sky' - DC Metro Theater Arts

For the first time in his life, the author is overwrought by a play—in the theater where Lincoln saw his last.

[silentskyplay]

Forgotten Faces of Science: The Women Who Classified The Stars

The Harvard Computers were pioneering women in the field of astronomy, in a time when women couldn't actually use the equipment.

Comics of all our characters!

[silentskyplay]

Fun pictures of SILENT SKY productions from instagram ;) 

[silentskyplay]

Correction! Declination!

The last line on page 20 of the published version of my dear Silent Sky contains an error. Please correct in your productions!

Williamina’s line should read:

WILLIAMINA: Five degrees declination. 

not “ninety-five degrees declination. 

Declination is only measure in -/+90 degrees. 

Merci!

[silentskyplay]

The Habits of Light

This extraordinary poem is about my dear Henrietta Leavitt! #SilentSky

THE HABITS OF LIGHT

by Anna Leahy

After Henrietta Leavitt, astronomer

The difference between luminosity and brightness

is the difference between being

and being perceived, between the energy emitted

and the apparent magnitude. O, to be

significant! To have some scope and scale!

Size and heat. Why not make that obvious,

ostensible, stretch it out for all the world to see?

Distance makes a world of difference.

The universe is made of distance and of dust.

More dust than star out there,

more crimson than cobalt from here, looking,

our eyes telling the truth slant

through the almost-nothing

of the universe’s finely grained mattering.

Link here: https://www.brainpickings.org/2018/04/03/the-habits-of-light-anna-leahy-henrietta-leavitt-ann-hamilton/?utm_source=Brain+Pickings&utm_campaign=b5b2fcc486-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_04_05&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_179ffa2629-b5b2fcc486-238907373&mc_cid=b5b2fcc486&mc_eid=23c087943f

[silentskyplay]

'Hidden Figures' Of Astronomy At Harvard Take Center Stage In Play About Women 'Computers'

Women “computers” are having a pop-culture moment with the Hollywood movie, “Hidden Figures,” a new book, and a locally-produced play about pioneering female astronomers at the Harvard College Observatory.

[silentskyplay]

In ‘Silent Sky,’ a pioneer claims her place among astronomy’s stars - The Boston Globe

Lauren Gunderson’s play, presented by Flat Earth Theatre, depicts the life and career of Cambridge’s Henrietta Leavitt.

“It was a breakthrough discovery by Leavitt that enabled astronomers — including Edwin Hubble — to calculate the distance between Earth and remote galaxies and stars. During her career at the Harvard College Observatory, Leavitt also discovered more than 2,400 variable stars, approximately half of those known during her lifetime.“Silent Sky’’ ranges from 1900, when Henrietta leaves her home in rural Wisconsin and heads east (the real-life Leavitt arrived in Cambridge a bit earlier), to 1920, a year before she died of cancer at the age of 53. Henrietta’s departure from Wisconsin and her determination to have a career trigger consternation in her sister Margaret (Brenna Sweet), a gentle, music-minded homebody.Once at the observatory, Henrietta throws herself into her work as a “computer,’’ the term referring then to the task of scrutinizing square, windowpane-like photographic plates to measure and record variations in the brightness of stars. What animates Henrietta is a belief that there are galaxies beyond our own — a belief that defies the consensus among her male superiors.Henrietta’s colleagues at the observatory, also both based on historical characters, are two very different women: Williamina Fleming, played by the delightful Juliet Bowler with a Scottish accent and an air of hearty bonhomie, and Annie Cannon, portrayed by Cassandra Meyer with an intensity of focus that conveys the character’s no-nonsense approach to her work. (Later, in a development that connects the trio’s professional striving and struggles for equality to similar struggles going on in the wider world, Annie becomes a suffragette, marching for women’s right to vote.) The camaraderie among the three actresses, and their characters, is a pleasure to behold.More problematic is a fictional male character named Peter Shaw, the head astronomer’s apprentice. Though Marcus Hunter delivers a nicely shaded performance as Peter, the character is too bumbling and good-natured to adequately represent the repressive male power structure. Moreover, Peter’s attraction to Henrietta, and hers to him, pushes “Silent Sky’’ into more conventional channels. Soon, she is coping with work-life tension and tradeoffs, the stuff of countless rom-coms.These detours into overly familiar territory don’t seriously weaken the play because playwright Gunderson’s touch is so sure and so lyrically expressive in capturing the other love of Henrietta’s life: the sky and all its riches. Early in “Silent Sky,’’ before she begins work at the observatory, she exclaims: “I have questions, I have fundamental problems with the state of human knowledge! Who are we, why are we — where are we?’’That last one, at least, Henrietta Leavitt helped humanity answer.”

[silentskyplay]

Silent Sky in Albania. What a gorgeous trailer.And how stunning to hear my lines in another language. Wish I could have seen this production. Bravo to Teatri Metropol!

[silentskyplay]

Beautiful images of the final moments of of Know Theatre’s SILENT SKY.

Photos by Dan Winter

[silentskyplay]

[explore-blog]

Trailblazing astronomer Vera Rubin, who confirmed the existence of dark matter, on women in science and our never-ending quest to know the universe.

[silentskyplay]

Wonderful tribute to Henrietta Leavitt by @barackobama! #SilentSky #WomeninStem

[silentskyplay]

Pictures from the CNU production of #SilentSky! Gorgeous! 

[silentskyplay]

Gorgeous photos from Taproot Theatre's SILENT SKY in Seattle. 🌌✨🔭

[silentskyplay]

SILENT SKY at Taproot Theatre - http://taproottheatre.org/silent-sky/

[silentskyplay]

Quite proud of this talk I gave a few months back at the Wisconsin Science Festival called "Survival of the Storied" about the science of storytelling. I sang, I quoted Hamlet and Chekhov, I threw down some evolutionary psychology and neurology, and the fabulous folks at Forward Theatre presented a scene from SILENT SKY. Biology, empathy, art and science. Happy playwright :) --- LaurenGunderson.com