{"id":77685,"date":"2021-10-08T15:05:14","date_gmt":"2021-10-08T15:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/?p=77685"},"modified":"2021-10-15T17:02:39","modified_gmt":"2021-10-15T17:02:39","slug":"uri-theatre-opens-season-with-true-story-of-pioneering-women-astronomers-in-silent-sky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2021\/10\/uri-theatre-opens-season-with-true-story-of-pioneering-women-astronomers-in-silent-sky\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 Theatre opens season with true story of  pioneering women astronomers in \u2018Silent Sky\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Oct. 8, 2021 \u2013 Audiences will get a history lesson \u2013 along with a look at the science of astronomy \u2013 as the 溏心vlog免费B站 Theatre Department opens the season Thursday, Oct. 14, with Lauren Gunderson\u2019s \u201cSilent Sky.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Written in 2015, \u201cSilent Sky\u201d tells the true story of 19<sup>th<\/sup>-century astronomer Henrietta Leavitt and her fellow female researchers \u2013 or \u201ccomputers\u201d \u2013 in the Harvard University observatory who set the standard still used today for measuring distances in space while discovering thousands of stars. Twenty years before women\u2019s suffrage, the \u201ccomputers\u201d pursue their passion for astronomy in a society that limits women\u2019s roles while credit for their discoveries are dismissed or claimed by male astronomers.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"oembed oembed-youtube-com\" style=\"\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=aZ4rn9wLx-I\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"溏心vlog免费B站 Theatre Presents Silent Sky\" width=\"1000\" height=\"563\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aZ4rn9wLx-I?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSilent Sky\u201d also returns <a href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/theatre\/\">溏心vlog免费B站 Theatre<\/a> to live audiences for the first time since March 2020 when theaters everywhere were shuttered because of the pandemic. To attend \u201cSilent Sky,\u201d audience members must be vaccinated and wear a mask while inside the Fine Arts Center. Onstage, actors will be unmasked, but will remain at least 3 feet apart from each other and the audience. (Please view 溏心vlog免费B站 Theatre\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/theatre\/buy-tickets\/\">COVID-19 policy<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s nothing like live theater,\u201d says director Tracy Liz Miller, who joined the Theatre Department as a lecturer this semester. \u201cDoing things on Zoom without the interaction and relationship with the audience, it\u2019s not the same. It\u2019s just gratifying to be back in a rehearsal hall and talking in detail about a play and working with collaborators and designers. Similar to Henrietta Leavitt, we\u2019re all grateful to be obsessed with a project.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Carleigh Boyle \u201922, who plays Henrietta Leavitt, will be performing in her first play before an audience since her sophomore year. Despite the safety mandates, she says she\u2019s slightly nervous, but very excited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe entire cast and crew have been so excited to do theater,\u201d says Boyle, a theater and animal science major from <strong>Hillsdale, New Jersey<\/strong>. \u201cBut we\u2019ve also continued all the fun traditions we do in 溏心vlog免费B站 Theatre, such as pre-show warmups, senior gifts, listening to music in the dressing rooms, pajama day. We haven\u2019t gotten to do all this in a while, and it\u2019s like a breath of fresh air to do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Audrey Visscher \u201922, a theater and film major from <strong>Piscataway, New Jersey<\/strong>, is also excited to get back to live theater. Last year, Visscher worked the light board for \u201cMiss Nelson is Missing!,\u201d a full-stage production that was recorded and shown online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cRehearsals have been very upbeat, but also very cautious,\u201d says Visscher, the play\u2019s assistant director and lighting designer, who helped oversee safety precautions during rehearsals. \u201cWe want to be as safe as we can to ensure we can open the theater to live audience members.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In \u201cSilent Sky,\u201d Leavitt and her fellow \u201ccomputers\u201d \u2013 a person who is hired to perform complex calculations in their head or with pencil and paper \u2013 had to have absolute passion for astronomy and doggedly pursue it to earn an opportunity to work in the Harvard observatory, Miller says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Still, Leavitt and her fellow female researchers, Annie Cannon and Williamina Fleming, worked for ridiculously low wages compared to the male astronomers. They also weren\u2019t allowed to touch the observatory\u2019s great refractor telescope and had to use photographic glass plates to map the stars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe work was super precise and ridiculously repetitive,\u201d Miller says. \u201cIt\u2019s ironic. That repetitiveness allowed them to become extremely intimate with the sky and to figure out a system in which we map and measure the distance of the stars. They created a standard that now is so absolutely necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Along with a history lesson, \u201cSilent Sky\u201d explores the strength of relationships among the found family of \u201ccomputers\u201d and the passion and pull of work and relationships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere weren\u2019t a lot of choices for women back then,\u201d says Miller. \u201cTo work often meant you were choosing that over marriage and the home. There weren\u2019t a lot of men who were like, \u2018You want to be a scientist and be my wife \u2013 fabulous.\u2019 That just wasn\u2019t done in upper-middle-class society.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For Boyle, playing Henrietta, who died 100 years ago this year, has a special meaning. \u201cSilent Sky\u201d has become one of her favorite plays since reading it her sophomore year, and Henrietta is a role model and a dream role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn the play, Henrietta is a fun, wacky, passionate, smart as a whip character,\u201d says Boyle. \u201cAll of the scenes in this play are so dynamic, beautiful and inspiring. It is amazing to see how every character and relationship grow throughout the show.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To help create an accurate portrait of the early 1900s, students have worked with David Howard, Theatre chair and costume designer for the show, to learn how to move in period clothing, while also learning proper everyday etiquette of the time and an understanding of the vast scientific changes and the astronomical instruments that were used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a play about stars, lighting also plays a large role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cLighting is almost a sixth character in this play,\u201d says Visscher, in her first role as lighting designer. \u201cAll of the stars help tell a story that would be incomplete without them. Lighting also helps with transitions and tells the audience where we are and when we are. And it aids with the location of characters, if they are in the same room or miles apart.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Miller wanted the actors to fully grasp the world their characters lived in so they would understand the importance of Henrietta\u2019s accomplishments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not like this is a play about a day in the life of an astronomer,\u201d says Miller. \u201cNo, this is about a groundbreaking, amazing human being who, against many odds, did what she did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u201cSilent Sky\u201d<\/strong>&nbsp;runs Oct. 14-16 and Oct. 21-23 at 7:30 p.m. and Oct. 17 and 24 at 2 p.m. in J Studio at the Fine Arts Center, 105 Upper College Road, Kingston Campus. Tickets are $20 for general admission and $15 for senior citizens and 溏心vlog免费B站 students, faculty and staff. Tickets can be purchased at the 溏心vlog免费B站 Theatre box office in the Fine Arts Center or by calling (401) 874-5843.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Main cast<\/strong><br><em>Role, actor, hometown<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Henrietta Leavitt, Carleigh Boyle, Hillsdale, New Jersey<br>Margaret Leavitt, Jenna Wentworth, Tewksbury, Massachusetts<br>Peter Shaw, Ben Pereira, Danbury, Connecticut<br>Annie Cannon, Alana Parrott, Webster, Massachusetts<br>Williamina Fleming, Sarah Taylor, Providence<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Understudy cast<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Henrietta Leavitt, Zoe Pepin, Maynard, Massachusetts<br>Margaret Leavitt, Olivia Humulock, Narragansett<br>Peter Shaw, Manny Maldonado, Newport<br>Annie Cannon, Kayla Ribeiro, Pawtucket<br>Williamina Fleming, Naomi Tyler, Warwick<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Oct. 8, 2021 \u2013 Audiences will get a history lesson \u2013 along with a look at the science of astronomy \u2013 as the 溏心vlog免费B站 Theatre Department opens the season Thursday, Oct. 14, with Lauren Gunderson\u2019s \u201cSilent Sky.\u201d Written in 2015, \u201cSilent Sky\u201d tells the true story of 19th-century astronomer [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":77686,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77685"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77767,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77685\/revisions\/77767"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}