“I have questions,” declares Henrietta Leavitt (Lizzi Albert) in Perisphere Theater’s production of Silent Sky, now playing at the Writer’s Center in Bethesda. “I have fundamental problems with the state of human knowledge. Who are we, why are we — where are we?”
This insatiable curiosity draws Henrietta away from her family’s farm and church in rural Wisconsin to the Harvard College Observatory near the turn of the 20th century, where she works as a “computer” examining photographs of the stars taken by the observatory’s legendary “Great Refractor” telescope and recording data on the position, brightness, and classification of each star. Henrietta and her female colleagues at the Harvard Observatory are not permitted to use the Great Refractor; they may only collect and categorize data from it. Yet as the play progresses, they reckon with their place in a society that is rapidly changing — and in a universe vast beyond human comprehension.
Silent Sky, Lauren Gunderson’s dramatization of the life of Henrietta Leavitt and her fellow “Harvard Computers,” is a natural fit for Perisphere Theater’s mission to “produce plays that examine the notion of history, focusing especially on the events, people, and points of view that often get left out.” Likewise, Lizzi Albert, Perisphere’s co-artistic director, is a natural in the lead role of Henrietta Leavitt. Hungry to discover the secrets of the universe and life beyond rural Wisconsin, Albert’s Henrietta jumps at the chance to work at the Harvard Observatory, yet bristles at the expectation that the female computers will spend all of their time collecting data and doing mathematical calculations in a small room as constricting as their place in society and their heavy skirts (Jessica Utz, costume designer).
Henrietta’s fellow computers have found their own ways to navigate their male-dominated society and workplace. Annie Cannon (Rocelyn Frisco) is meticulous in enforcing the standards she expects in the observatory, brusque toward the newcomer Henrietta, and contemptuous toward Peter Shaw (Hanlon Smith-Dorsey), the apprentice to observatory director Edward Pickering. While Pickering (the real-life Harvard Observatory director from 1877 to 1919) is frequently referenced by the cast, in Gunderson’s script, he (and his telescope) never appear on stage, leaving his fictional assistant Shaw as the only male character in the play. Smith-Dorsey plays Shaw as bumbling, comically awkward, and easily unsettled — by Einstein’s theory of relativity shaking the Newtonian foundations of physics he’d always known, by rumblings of change in society as Annie joins the women’s suffrage movement, and by his female colleagues. Williamina Fleming (Martina Schabron) delights in making Shaw squirm and her fellow computers laugh with her constant stream of one-liners, delivered in a spot-on Scottish accent (Perisphere co-artistic director Gerrad Alex Taylor serves as the dialect coach).
Where Albert’s Henrietta eagerly leaves the confines of home for the chance to study the stars, her sister Margaret (Madeline Marie) remains behind in Wisconsin, playing the organ at church and dutifully caring for her husband, son, and aging minister father, all of whom appear only as references in letters and conversations between the sisters. As Henrietta immerses herself in her work and her letters become fewer and farther between, Marie’s Margaret appears at stage right or left, delivering her lines (in the form of letters to her sister) with increasing exasperation and pointed barbs (“Wish you’d be here for Thanksgiving. Daddy’s planning a marvelous sermon on family!”)
Although Margaret in many ways plays the more traditional foil to Henrietta and is far less likely to question her place in her family and in society, she too has dreams beyond domesticity. She dreams of being a composer — and in a poignant scene when the sisters reunite midway through the play, her musical compositions lead Henrietta to see the patterns in the stars.
Dean Leong’s lighting design evokes the starry night with pendant lights that flicker like the variable stars that Henrietta tracks. Tyler Brust’s simple scenic design features antique wooden tables and chairs that are covered with cloths to create the dining table and Margaret’s piano in the Leavitt family home, uncovered and rearranged to create the workstations in the observatory, surrounded by boxes and boxes of glass plates representing the astronomical photographs that Henrietta and her colleagues analyze (Enzo J. Leone, properties designer).
The 19th-century hymn “For the Beauty of the Earth,” sung in snatches by Marie’s Margaret in a vibrato soprano throughout the play, blends with piano music (Mark Kent Navarro, sound designer) to create a recurring aural motif that grounds the play:
For the beauty of the earth/For the glory of the skies/For the love which from our birth/Over and around us lies…For the wonder of each hour/Of the day and of the night/Hill and vale and tree and flower/Sun and moon and stars of light…
The real Henrietta Leavitt died of cancer at age 53 in 1921, not living long enough to see Edwin Hubble and others use the technique she discovered to measure distances beyond our galaxy. Over 100 years later, Harvard’s Center for Astrophysics notes that “Leavitt’s legacy shines brighter today than in her lifetime.” Gunderson’s Silent Sky, brought to life by Perisphere’s talented cast and crew under Susan Stroupe’s direction, illuminates the legacy of this little-known scientific trailblazer — and invites audiences to contemplate the glory of the skies, the vastness of the universe, and our place within it.
Running Time: Two hours, including a 10-minute intermission.
Silent Sky plays through February 14, 2026, presented by Perisphere Theater performing at The Writer’s Center, 4508 Walsh St, Bethesda, MD. Purchase tickets ($35, general; $30, seniors 55+; $20, student, plus fees) online.
The program is online here.
Silent Sky
By Lauren Gunderson
Directed by Susan Stroupe
CAST
Henrietta Leavitt: Lizzi Albert
Margaret Leavitt: Madeline Marie
Peter Shaw: Hanlon Smith-Dorsey
Williamina Fleming: Martina Schabron
Annie Cannon: Rocelyn Frisco
Understudies: Gabriel Alejandro (Peter), Rachel Johns (Margaret), Danielle Taylor (Williamina/Annie)
PRODUCTION TEAM
Director: Susan Stroupe
Stage Manager: Daniel Nie
Assistant Stage Manager: La’Trelle Jamez
Resident Dramaturg: Shana Laski
Scenic Design/Technical Direction: Tyler Brust
Costume Design: Jessica Utz
Lighting Design: Dean Leong
Sound Design: Mark Kent Navarro
Intimacy and Dialects: Gerrad Alex Taylor
Properties Design: Enzo J. Leone
