Silent Sky

'''Gunderson, Lauren. Silent Sky.''' Bill Hurlbut, dir. Silver Spring Stage, "Performance Art Theatre in Silver Spring, Maryland," 13 Jan.-4 Feb. 2017.

Realistic historical stage play.

The play's primary thrust is political and feminist, recovering the story of Henrietta Leavitt and her "singular passion to answer the question 'Where are we'?" and how her work "produced the foundational science that allowed others--men, of course--to measure the universe." Relevant here, the image on stage of women at astronomical devices that are definitely old-fashioned but elegant, the antithesis of much Steampunk. According to Hurlbut, the devices are "viewers for photographic star plates. The base has a mirrored surface to reflect available light through the photographic plate. The women, called 'calculators,' used a glass plate with dots corresponding to specific magnitudes to categorize the stars. The viewers are similar to the old hand-held slide viewers," and can be seen as an interface between these women and both the physical universe they are helping to measure and the social world of the (still male-dominated) sciences.

RDE, 2Feb17.