Director’s Diary: Silent Sky by Lauren Gunderson
Lesley Reed and team transformed an Adelaide church hall into a window to the universe for St Jude’s Players’ production of Silent Sky.
The Beginning
I admired Lauren Gunderson’s Silent Sky from my first reading. As I fell in love with it, I began to believe it is a classic in the making - celebrating the history-making endeavours of Henrietta Leavitt, a brilliant woman who, in the early 1900s, did not receive the kudos from her peers she deserved.
Happily, St Jude’s Players chose it for the August slot in the company’s 75th (Diamond) Anniversary season, 2024.
About the Play
Silent Sky was written by Lauren Gunderson - one of America’s most-produced contemporary playwrights, known for her interest in historical events and strong women.
The play includes a perfect balance of human drama and historical and scientific fact, a stirring story spiced with humour and poignancy.
Synopsis
Now hailed as an early 1900s astronomer ahead of her time, Henrietta Leavitt's status in her first job at Harvard Observatory is far below that of the observatory’s male astronomers. Leavitt was driven by an obsessive work ethic to follow her dream, despite the odds against her succeeding in a historically ‘male’ scientific field. As she catalogues the stars, her immersion in her discoveries impacts her relationships with family, colleagues and a new-found love. At last, Henrietta makes a profound discovery that forever changes scientific understanding of the breadth of the universe.
Director’s Vision
Lauren Gunderson meticulously researched the personal and scientific history of Henrietta Leavitt and the times in which she lived. Whilst the play includes dramatic licence, it never compromises the scientific fact, and yet includes it in a way that is never dry and within a lay person’s understanding. My vision for Silent Sky was to be true to this perspective, and for the characters to be so relatable, the story so ‘real’ and immersive, the planetary effects as well as Jenny Giering’s original music so enveloping, that the awesome ‘against the odds’ achievements by Henrietta Leavitt and her female colleagues would take each consecutive audience’s collective breath away by the final scene.
Informing the vision-an amazing true story
Born in 1868, Henrietta Leavitt graduated from Radcliffe College in 1892. She eventually gained a permanent position at Harvard Observatory as a ‘computer’ in an all-female work room, under the direction of Harvard Observatory’s Professor Edward C. Pickering. Henrietta’s routine work involved cataloguing the thousands of stars captured in vague black dots on glass photographic plates by The Great Refractor telescope.
Henrietta became interested in Cepheid variables (pulsating stars). In the male-dominated field of astronomy, her research was not taken seriously at first. After all, women still hadn’t even gained the right to vote. Against the odds, she devised scientific standards that enabled astronomers such as Edwin Hubble to determine how far away variable stars were and the distances of the star clusters and galaxies in which these stars were observed. The potential breadth of the universe was now revealed to science. It was astonishing and revelatory, stirring the beginnings of new horizons in space endeavour.
Sickly throughout her life and deaf due to this, Henrietta died in 1921. She received little acknowledgement of her work from other astronomers in her lifetime but was nominated after her death for a Nobel Prize.
Settings
The main settings in Silent Sky include an ever-present northern hemisphere starfield, as well as the Harvard Observatory plate room, the Leavitt home in Wisconsin, and Henrietta's house in Cambridge, MA. All of these needed to be present on the small stage throughout, as scenes in the script flow into each other rapidly and sometimes with time periods changing within a single monologue or scene. Other settings are an ocean liner deck, a Harvard lecture theatre and ‘letter-reading’ scenes, which we treated in an abstract way. The set designer Don Oakley created a deceptively simple, excellent set. The workroom was denoted by desks and chairs set in the narrow central space forward of the proscenium arch. Built by Dean Taylor, a member of the set build team, and looming behind the workroom on a raised dais was a replica of the original refractor telescope, The Great Refractor (pictured above).
At one side of the stage, a baby grand (replica) piano and stool represented Henrietta’s Wisconsin home, a cross on the wall above it showing the significance of faith, not science, in this daughter of a Massachusetts minister’s early home life. At the other side, a simple leather armchair, crocheted blanket and a side table denoted Henrietta’s later sickly life in her final residence in Cambridge, MA. The deck of an ocean liner was a position on stage denoted by spot lighting and ocean sound effects, with a Harvard lecture theatre represented front of stage by spot lighting and a lectern. In addition, ‘letter scene’ effects were created by spots for key positions on stage. Projection was used to ‘cradle the stage by stars’.
Projection, Music, Sound, Costumes and Props
Main challenge to the vision-a stage ‘cradled by stars’
Lauren Gunderson makes it clear that the stage on which any Silent Sky season takes place must be ‘cradled by stars’ for the entirety of each performance. Although Silent Sky has mostly been performed in modern venues where ‘surround’ projection can be effectively used to envelop the performance space with a range of astronomical images, we were to perform the play on a small stage in an aging church hall. However, I was not deterred as the St Jude’s Players’ technical team was experienced in such challenges. A screen was suspended above the apron of the stage onto which several moving and still images were projected, all gained from NASA public files, the Harvard Observatory Museum public files, and public images from Unsplash Free Photos. These were repeated on a scrim beyond the large ‘telescope’ prop, as if the telescope was aimed at the stars. The result was stunning, with synchronised projection at both the front and rear of the stage.
Sound and Music
Troubling and persistent sound interference occurred throughout the rehearsal period. Some brilliant forensic detective work by sound operator, Thomas Batten ultimately solved this on the brink of opening night. Jenny Giering’s original piano music files for the play, for which St Jude’s Players had the foresight to purchase the Rights, beautifully complemented the play’s action and it was a treat for amateur actors and the tech team to work with such music throughout, down to the timing of individual notes denoting the blink of a single star.
Costumes and props
Very fine 1900s costumes resulted from meticulous research and skilled work by Rosemary Taylor and her team of Anna Siebert and Jill Wheatley, including very good dressmaking from Anna.
Props were carefully designed to mirror the early 1900s reality, including glass replica scientific plates and Henrietta’s hearing device.
Roles and Casting.
The excellent cast included Brittany Daw in the pivotal role of Henrietta Leavitt, Tianna Cooper as her sister Margaret (a compilation of people in Henrietta’s real family), Deborah Walsh as fiery and sharp-tongued colleague Annie Jump Cannon, with Joanne St Clair as the witty Scots colleague, Williamina Fleming. Josh van’t Padje played astronomer Peter (a character created by the playwright and not based on history). All actors embraced my vision and produced performances of which I was very proud and that generated enthusiastic audiences and excellent critical response.
Audience and Critical Response
In addition to wonderful audience response, with many saying the production was ‘surprising’ in that its science didn’t confuse at all, critics loved the show.
‘Director Reed has gently guided her small cast to tell these great stories so skilfully. They’re supported by another excellent Don Oakley set…’ - Stage Whispers
‘An inspiring, witty, and warm depiction of the challenges women face in following their dreams…’ - What’s the Show
I believe this production of Lauren Gunderson’s Silent Sky achieved my director’s vision to take each consecutive audience’s breath away at the human achievement depicted, the performances and the production values. It certainly remains with me as a favourite directing experience.
