Silent Sky

Henrietta Leavitt has questions about deep space and Earth's place and role in the universe, so she gets a job at the Harvard Observatory in hopes of finding satisfying answers. Instead, she's confronted by the unsatisfactory reality that women aren't allowed to use the telescope. Her dream job turns out to be grunt work, as she's expected to catalog all the stars revealed on the telescope's photographic plates while men pursue the business of discovery. Yet women are capable of seeing what men cannot, and in those plates Leavitt finds something no one else has noticed, breaking new ground in astronomy. Lauren Gunderson's play Silent Sky charts the lives and work of early-twentieth-century female astronomers and how they defied the odds to do great work in an age when society mostly demanded they stay out of the way and procreate. Insight Theatre Company closes its current season with Silent Sky. Performances are at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday (October 19 to November 4) at the Kranzberg Arts Center (501 North Grand Boulevard; www.insighttheatrecompany.com). Tickets are $15 to $35.