Flat Earth Theatre Presents Melodious Historical Drama Steeped in Boston History – SILENT SKY by Lauren Gunderson

This March, Flat Earth Theatre smashes the glass ceiling and expands the universe with the melodious, evocative Silent Sky by Lauren Gunderson, the most popular living playwright of 2016. Silent Sky will run March 10th – 25th at the Mosesian Center for the Arts (formerly known as the Arsenal Center for the Arts), 321 Arsenal Street in Watertown, MA. Tickets can be purchased at https://flatearth.ticketleap.com/silent-sky/ for $25 in advance or at the door, or $10 student rush.

Exploding preconceptions of gender, family, and our very universe, Silent Sky tells the story of real-life Cambridge astronomer Henrietta Leavitt and her female colleagues at the Harvard Observatory. Like the women in 2016’s box office smash Hidden Figures, the “Harvard Computers” use math and measurement to chart the heavens without being allowed to touch a telescope, a task prohibited to women at the turn of the 20th century. Leavitt studies celestial bodies just out of reach while balancing the needs of love and family close at hand, and ultimately discovers the method to measure the distances of faraway galaxies, paving the way for modern astronomy.

“Silent Sky tackles issues such as women not being seen as equals in the workplace, choosing between love and work, and science versus religion,” says director Dori A. Robinson, who serves as Stoneham Theatre’s Director of Education. “Although it takes place between 1900–1920, the play resonates easily with us today.”

At this critical moment for the arts, the country, and the world, Flat Earth Theatre believes in the power of representation in theatre, and is proud to produce a play featuring a majority female cast and written by a female playwright. “Not only is gender parity a timely issue both nationwide and here in Boston, these particular women were extraordinary,” adds director Robinson. “Despite their work ethic, brilliant minds, and concrete discoveries, they could not break the glass ceiling. If ever there was a time to tell their stories, it’s now."

Silent Sky kicks off Flat Earth’s 2016–17 season, “The Underside Exposed,” featuring true-to-life accounts that reveal the darker truths in society, past and present. These productions defiantly expose the prejudice and corruption buried in human nature, addressing potent themes from gender equality at the turn of the century in the March 2017 production of Silent Sky, to the effects of body image standards on individuals of all types in June 2017’s Fat Pig. Silent Sky is supported in part by a grant from the Watertown Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.

STAFF & CAST
Helmed by Director Dori A. Robinson, Stoneham Theatre’s Director of Education, Silent Sky’s design team includes Debra Reich (Set Design), Cara Chiaramonte (Costume Design), PJ Strachman (Lighting Design), E. Rosser (Props Design), and Kyle Lampe (Sound Design). The Producer is Caitlin Mason, the Stage Manager is Amy Lehrmitt, the Technical Director is Leigh Downes, the Dialect Coach is Lizzie Milanovich, and the Dramaturgs are Joshua Platt and Elizabeth Singer Goldman. The cast features Erin Eva Butcher as Henrietta Leavitt, Brenna Sweet as Margaret Leavitt, Marcus Hunter as Peter Shaw, Juliet Bowler as Williamina Fleming, and Cassandra Meyer as Annie Cannon.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Lauren M. Gunderson is the most produced living playwright in America of 2016, the winner of the Lanford Wilson Award and the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award, a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and John Gassner Award for Playwriting, and a recipient of the Mellon Foundation’s 3-Year Residency with Marin Theatre Company. She studied Southern Literature and Drama at Emory University, and Dramatic Writing at NYU’s Tisch School where she was a Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship. Her work has been commissioned, produced and developed at companies across the US including South Coast Rep (Emilie, Silent Sky), The Kennedy Center (The Amazing Adventures of Dr. Wonderful And Her Dog!), The O’Neill, The Denver Center, San Francisco Playhouse, Marin Theatre, Synchronicity, Olney Theatre, Berkeley Rep, Shotgun Players, TheatreWorks, Crowded Fire and more. She co-authored Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley with Margot Melcon. Her work is published at Playscripts (I and You, Exit Pursued By A Bear, The Taming, and Toil And Trouble), Dramatists (Silent Sky, Bauer, Miss Bennet) and Samuel French (Emilie). Her picture book Dr Wonderful: Blast Off to the Moon will be released from Two Lions / Amazon in May 2017. LaurenGunderson.com and @LalaTellsAStory

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Dori A. Robinson is an educator, director, dramaturg and playwright. Dori holds a Masters from New York University’s Educational Theatre program, having focused on applied theatre, devised work with youth, and Shakespeare. Dori has worked at the New Victory Theatre, Steppenwolf, the Park Avenue Armory, the Theatre Development Fund, Trusty Sidekick, Timeline Theatre, Shattered Globe, the Massachusetts Center for Renaissance Studies, and the New York Student Shakespeare Festival. Directing credits include: The Merchant of Venice, Die Kleinen, The Lion in Winter, Extremities, Picnic, Into the Woods, The Pajama Game, Flight, and James and the Giant Peach (2016). Assistant Director credits include: Meet John Doe, Judgement at Nuremberg, The Chosen, Love’s Labour’s Lost, and The Three Sisters. Dramaturgy: Christmas on the Air (Stoneham Theatre), A Season in the Congo (Timeline Theatre), Macbeth (Looking for Shakespeare, NYU). Eleven of Dori’s original plays have been produced in New York, Chicago, and Boston, including: The Great Harvest, The Principal Stream, Name of a Woman, and Six Wings to One.