Imagine being an astronomer who isn’t allowed to look through a telescope. That was the fate of Henrietta Leavitt and other 19th century women who worked at the Harvard Observatory, making impressive discoveries by studying photographs of the sky.
Their story is told in Lauren Gunderson’s “Silent Sky,” performed Feb. 16-March 17 at Citadel Theatre in Lake Forest.
Performances are 7:30 p.m. Thursdays (except Feb. 22 and March 7), Fridays, and Saturdays; 3 p.m. Sundays; and 1 p.m. Wednesdays Feb. 21 and March 6 only.
Melissa Harlow, who plays Henrietta Leavitt, revealed that she has done so much reading about her character and the Harvard Observatory in preparation for this role that “It has my brain exploding. It’s been quite the deep dive since booking it.”
Harlow is also interested in the play’s other themes. “The feminism that is woven throughout the story is really exciting,” she said. “The questions of the unknown are stirring things that I identify with.”
Among the things that Harlow learned about Henrietta was that she started to suffer from hearing loss when she was 17. “She had a hearing aid,” she said. “She would take that out when she worked so she could be in complete silence with the stars.”
The actor noted that although basic facts are known about Henrietta, including her discoveries, there are gaps in knowledge about her and her life.
“That has been exciting because we get to fill in the gaps,” Harlow said. “Passionate is the foundation that I keep working off of.”
Harlow is also drawn to her character’s curiosity. “She had this drive to want to know everything,” she said. “Relationships with her family had been sacrificed to do that.”
There’s so much to admire about Henrietta, Harlow said. “There was so much work she wanted to do but couldn’t do,” she said. That was because she wasn’t allowed to use the telescope. Despite those obstacles, “She had this brilliant mind and did advance astronomy and the knowledge of the universe,” Harlow said.
Beth Wolf said that after she read the first page of the “Silent Sky” script she decided, “this is a play I should direct.” Fortunately, she is getting the opportunity to do that for Citadel Theatre.
That first scene intrigued her with the way the relationship was drawn between two sisters. “Then as I kept reading, I was so impressed by the story of these women I had never heard of,” she said. “So much of the work that they did was incredibly boring. They sat in an attic room looking at photographic plates of the stars and made sense of that.”
Like Harlow, Wolf has been doing extensive study on the subject matter of the play. “I have learned so much more than I ever knew before,” she said.
She was certain that the woman astronomers wanted to do more than they were allowed to do but “for the time they were doing so much more outside of the home than most women were able to do. And although the director of the Harvard Observatory wrote his name at the bottom of each paper, he actually credited these women by name.”
Wolf said that LED screens are being used for this production. “I’m really excited at the opportunity that provides,” she said. “The screens all by themselves are not magical. But all of the other design elements that we bring in to connect it all together with the lighting and the sound and the set design and the costume design, when you put all those pieces together, it will create real theater magic.”
‘Silent Sky’
When: Feb. 16-March 17
Where: Citadel Theatre, 300 S. Waukegan Road, Lake Forest
Tickets: $40-$45; $20 for previews Feb. 14-15
Information: 847-735-8554, ext. 1; citadeltheatre.org/202324-season
Myrna Petlicki is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
