Silent Sky Celebrates St Jude’s Players’ Diamond Anniversary

Image: Brittany Daw who plays Henrietta Leavitt, in rehearsal. Photo by Kaila Barton.

St Jude’s Players’ 2024 Diamond Anniversary year (75^th) has been a busy one, with one major show and the hosting of a recent very successful One Act Play Festival already under the company’s belt. Next up, in August, is the South Australian Premiere of Silent Sky, Lauren Gunderson’s dramatisation of the life and work of early 1900s American astronomer Henrietta Leavitt.

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 male astronomers there. To follow her dream, Henrietta is driven by an obsessive work ethic, even though this impacts her relationships with family, colleagues and a new-found love. At last, Henrietta makes a profound scientific discovery that changes human understanding of the breadth of the universe.

‘It’s a warm, not at all technical or dry, and often very funny story of amazing human achievement,’ said Director, Lesley Reed. ‘I loved it from the moment I first read it.’

Dramatisation aside, Henrietta Leavitt was born in Lancaster, Massachusetts in 1868. She graduated from Radcliffe College in 1892 and after volunteering at Harvard Observatory for a time, she gained a permanent position there. In her work under the direction of Harvard Observatory’s professor of astronomy, Edward C. Pickering, her colleagues were Annie Jump Cannon and Williamina Fleming, who were already well known in their field. From her routine work in cataloguing stars, particularly Cepheid variables (pulsating stars), Henrietta devised new standards that enabled astronomers such as Edwin Hubble to determine the distances away of these stars and consequently, also the star clusters and galaxies in which they were observed. Many astronomers of the time believed our Milky Way was the extent of the universe and so this new enlightenment was astonishing.

Sickly throughout her life and deaf due to this, Henrietta died in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1921, soon after being promoted to Head of the photographic stellar photometry department at the observatory. Though she received little acknowledgement of her work from other astronomers at the time, she was nominated after her death for a Nobel prize.

Silent Sky’s original music by Jenny Giering features throughout St Jude’s Players’ production, along with lighting and projection. A starfield ‘shines and cradles the set’- as expected by the playwright for productions of this play.

Settings are diverse and include a Northern Hemisphere star field, The Harvard Observatory second floor offices, the Leavitt home in Wisconsin, an ocean liner on the Atlantic and Henrietta’s home in Cambridge. MA.

‘Needless to say, on the small St Jude’s Hall stage, set designer Don Oakley has used his magic touch, once again, and this time to create a rather abstract feel to the total setting,’ said director, Lesley Reed. ‘This makes sense in a play where time is fluid and often moves across years within a single scene.’

The production stars Brittany Daw as Henrietta Leavitt. Cast includes Tianna Cooper as Margaret, Josh van’t Padje as Peter, Deborah Walsh as Annie Cannon and Joanne St Clair as Williamina Fleming.

A board member of The Playwrights Foundation, Lauren Gunderson is an American playwright, screenwriter and musical book writer (collaborating with co-writers on The Time Travellers Wife and other works). She is also a children’s author. She is considered one of the most-produced American playwrights of the past ten years, topping the list three times. Gunderson is a two-time winner of the Steinberg/ATCA New Play award and has many other awards to her name. She is also a Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship. Her plays include I and You, Exit Pursued by a Bear, The Revolutionists, The Book of Will, Silent Sky, Bauer, Natural Shocks, Emilie, The Wickhams and Miss Bennet. Lauren Gunderson’s most recent play (2021) is Catastrophist, about her virologist husband.

Production dates and times: Thursday August 8 and 15 & Friday August 9 and 16, 7.30 pm. Matinees Saturday August 10 and 17, 2pm. Tickets $25 and concessions do apply.

Venue is St Jude’s Hall, 444 Brighton Road, Brighton, SA.

Bookings from July 18 at https://www.trybooking.com/CSKLU

Alternatively, call 0436 262 628 or email bookings@stjudesplayers.asn.au

Images (from top):  Brittany Daw - Photographer: Kaila Barton; The Great Refractor - Harvard Observatory archives; Henrietta Leavitt - Public domain.