Silent Sky

Silent Sky tells the story of pioneering astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt and explores a woman’s place in society during a time of immense scientific and heart-bound discoveries. A decade before women gained the right to vote, Henrietta Leavitt and her fellow women “computers” transformed the science of astronomy. With music and math bursting forth onstage, Henrietta and her peers change how we understand the heavens and Earth.

In the early 1900s, Leavitt worked as a computer at the Harvard Observatory. Because Harvard did not allow her to use the telescope because she was a woman, she analyzed the glass plate images taken with it. Leavitt found 2,400 new variable stars and made important discoveries about their fluctuating brightness, enabling fellow scientists to map the Milky Way and beyond. Her analysis is the foundation for the first system for measuring the size of the universe.

She wrote textbooks that every astronomer must read. Hubble came about ten years after her and much of his work is based on hers. But, of course, there are no telescopes named after her because…

This inspiring drama explores the determination, passion, and sacrifice of the women who redefined our understanding of the cosmos. Join us as we celebrate her life and legacy with this intimate and magical play performed inside the Kendall Planetarium.