You have probably heard of Theodore Melfi’s recent film Hidden Figures (2016) which focuses on the stories of Katherine Goble, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan – African American “computers” who helped NASA put a man into space. Henrietta Leavitt, the main character of Silent Sky and an astronomer herself, would be proud of the determination of these women, who in the 1960s forged their way against the prejudices of both gender and race. Playwright Lauren Gunderson would argue that such stories of female empowerment, inequality, and discovery are the stories we need to be telling. 

 

Gunderson is a writer from Atlanta, GA with a BA in English/Creative Writing from Emory University and a MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU Tisch School, where she studied as a Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship. In 2017, American Theatre Magazine named her the most-produced playwright, and she has been commissioned by many US companies including South Coast Rep, The Kennedy Center, Oregon Shakespeare Festival. The O’Neill, The Denver Center, San Francisco Playhouse, Marin Theatre, Synchronicity, Berkley Rep, Shotgun Players, TheatreWorks, Crowded Fire, among others.  Her science-inspired work includes Ada and the Engine, The Amazing Adventures of Dr. Wonderful (and her dog!), Emilie: La Marquise Du Chatelet Defends Her Life Tonight, and By and By. She also writes short stories and articles for The Huffington Post and The Wall Street Journal. She speaks passionately about science and arts activism and shares her expertise by teaching playwriting in San Francisco and curating the website HowToPlaywright.com. 

 

Gunderson enjoys telling the stories of science because science and art have a shared “wow” factor. At the heart of both science and art, there seems to be a curiosity about our world. She says that science asks why and how, and storytelling shares these questions and their answers with the public in order to commemorate and inspire. This is why her character Henrietta Leavitt states, “Wonder will always get us there…Those of us who insist that there is much more beyond ourselves” (62). 

 

Gunderson finds theatre to be a low-cost and low-risk way for us to partake in a surrogate experience, in which we explore each other’s points of view and strengthen our ability to empathize. She argues that theatre teaches us in a vivid, visceral way. In her keynote “Survival of the Storied” at the Wisconsin Science Festival, she discussed the science of theatre. Aristotle, she points out, has said that good theatre holds a mirror up to society, and modern science has proven that mirror neurons are generated in us as we watch the struggle of the protagonist in the theatre. Gunderson then includes a detailed list of the similarities between theatre and science: 

   - Storytelling requires rehearsal as science requires experiment.

   - Great plays are based on a complicated hero with a clear goal, and scientists too often have something that they are seeking to prove while their situation is complicated by cultural prejudice and the complexities of nature.

   - Stories involve a climactic moment the same way scientists usually come to a dramatic discovery in their work, an “a-ha” moment. 

With these examples, the playwright argues that the work of scientists follows the Aristotelian paradigm for exemplary storytelling.  In her writing, she therefore seeks to humanize the work of scientists by putting their stories on the stage.

 

In addition to being inspired by science, Gunderson is also inspired by the stories of women. Like the scientific field, there is a lack of female playwrights and directors in the theatre, which has been saturated and controlled by men for centuries. As of 2015, only 30% of roles in plays were female, and in 2014, only 24% of plays were written by women. The facts show that there is also a lack of women in the artistic administration and leadership of theatre companies across the country. In a 2016 study, it was reported that of the 74 members of the League of Resident Theatres 80% were led by a male artistic director. As Gloria Steinem said at the 2016 Lilly Awards, which honors achievements of women in the theatre, “It feels as if this is the ultimate campfire. That’s what we’re really doing, right? Telling stories. Sitting around a campfire for the last ten thousand years. Unfortunately, some folks have been excluded from the campfire, [but] you are making it complete” (Fierberg). 

 

In Silent Sky, Henrietta speaks to the same gender imbalance when she encourages her colleague Annie to demand a faculty position, “The boys need your work to keep their titles. And eventually one of us has to be a…Mighty oak! You deserve it. I want a model, Miss Cannon, if they won’t give you what you deserve, they’re never going to give it to any of us. [I want] a chance. To show them what we can do” (26). The perseverance and persistence of these female “computers” from Harvard during the early twentieth century is what Gunderson seeks to highlight and encourage in other women. To do that, she admits to some “fudging” of history in order to clarify her story and message. Henrietta’s sister, Margaret, actually died in childhood, so Gunderson has reimagined Margaret as a combination of Henrietta’s actual sister and mother. Margaret endorses family responsibility and religious doctrine, oppositions and obstacles to Henrietta’s objective, that heighten Henrietta’s conflict. Peter Shaw is also a fictional character in Henrietta’s story. Not much is known about Leavitt’s personal life, so we don’t know if she had an admirer. Gunderson, however, thinks that Henrietta deserves at least one love story. Though she admits to some historical inaccuracies, Gunderson says that she never wants to be inaccurate about the science and does a lot of research to ensure that she presents the scientific facts correctly. 

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 Silent Sky’s discussion of gender inequalities in the workplace in the early 1900s strongly supports today’s “Time’s Up” movement and women’s march for social acceptance and empowerment. The time to completely break the glass ceiling is now and only the sky is the limit! As we move forward in reforming the political system, let’s remember and celebrate those innovative and persistent women, the science’s “mighty oaks”, who helped pave the way.