Join the Conversation
Curious for more? Let us know if Silent Sky left you with other questions that you want considered. Also, feel free to respond to the production or the following discussion questions, and if you have insight into the astronomical topics of the play, let us know below!
Silent Sky Discussion Topics:
Are any of the scientific elements discussed in the play shocking or revelatory to you? What astronomical concepts did you discover? Are there any concepts introduced that you felt you couldn’t understand?
What moments of the play were you most connected with? Was it the love story (or lack thereof)? The science? The strength of the women? The necessity of family? What spoke and resonated with you most?
Silence and sound. How did you experience silence during the production? In what ways are the characters silent? How is the sky silent? But also, where is the sound? When and how is silence destroyed?
When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide,
and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with
much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
Walt Whitman, 1819-1892