Preview
Production Season
Fall 2021
Dates of Performance
November 18-20 at 7:30 pm; November 21 at 3 pm
Production Staff
Written by Lauren Gunderson, Directed by Susan Anderson
Recommended Citation
Theatre, DePauw, "Silent Sky" (2021). Past DePauw Theatre Seasons. 77, Scholarly and Creative Work from DePauw University.
https://scholarship.depauw.edu/commtheatre_past/77
Keywords
undergraduate theatre
Play Summary
Meet the fierce and funny women who charted the stars! DePauw Theatre, in conjunction with the Department of Physics and Astronomy and DePauw Women’s Center, present Silent Sky, an award-winning play by Lauren Gunderson that celebrates the profound contributions of the first women “astronomers” at the Harvard Observatory. The play explores the lives and discoveries of three brilliant women, Henrietta Leavitt, Annie Cannon, and Williamina Fleming who worked at the Harvard Observatory as “human computers” in the early 1900s. As women, they were expected to “resist the temptation to analyze” and simply log discoveries made by men. Their work was measured in “girl hours,” and they were not permitted to touch the “Great Refractor” telescope. Despite such restrictions, Henrietta, Annie, and Williamina chart thousands of stars, and their exciting discoveries set the standard still used today for measuring distances in space. However, their success comes at a cost to their personal lives. Based on the real-life contributions of these three historical figures, Silent Sky celebrates these remarkable women, who, through their humor and perseverance, fought for professional recognition--and respect--in a man’s world.