The University of Mississippi’s Department of Theatre and Film opened its first spring productions, “Silent Sky,” directed by adjunct professor of theater arts Sarah Flanagan on Feb. 23. in Meek Auditorium.
On opening night, the stage transformed into an ethereal academic observatory, replete with a replication of the night sky above the stage and lights dimmed to shades of dark purples and blues as a packed audience awaited the performance.
When the show began, the performances and the storytelling brought universal themes and emotions to life that any audience member could connect to.
Written by playwright Lauren Gunderson, the play follows Henrietta Leavitt, played by senior acting for stage and screen major Esther Cloyd, an astronomer in the early 1900s hired to work at the Harvard Observatory.
Despite being employed, Leavitt and her other female colleagues, who are called “computers,” cannot share their scientific ideas or even use the university’s telescope.
As the play progresses, the audience sees Leavitt continue her work as an astronomer despite the setbacks while creating new friendships, navigating a possible romance and keeping up with the family she left behind to embark on her new journey. It is a story based on the real Henrietta Leavitt, whose work in astronomy goes unnoticed even though she contributed to scientific achievements, such as helping develop a method for calculating distance estimations of stars and galaxies.
Many great details made this production distinctive. Each character was costumed in the color of a star — blue, white, red, orange or yellow — and star illusions appeared above the stage when the stage was dark and disappeared when the lights indicated daylight.
However, the female characters and their relationships with each other shone the brightest in this production and were a central talking point in putting together the show.
“I hope that above and beyond anything else, that the strength of the relationships between the female characters in this show really comes to the forefront and that people really see how much these characters are supporting each other and taking care of each other,” Flanagan said.
Even though there is a brewing romance for Henrietta, Cloyd also explained that her character’s relationships with the other women in the play, as well as her curiosity about what lies beyond Earth, are the character’s central journeys.
“The sister relationship that she (Henrietta) has, her relationship to God and her relationship to the other females that she works with (are) much more of a bigger thing that we’re trying to communicate in our personal production than the love interest relationship,” Cloyd said.
Sisterhood, a strong theme in this play, was also used to explore the complexities of those relationships.
Kaitlin Orsega, a junior majoring in Southern studies and double minoring in theater arts and Chinese, plays Henrietta Leavitt’s sister, Margaret Leavitt. Orsega and Cloyd created a realistic and emotional sister relationship that showed two women who maintained their special bond regardless of their differing personal lives and familial struggles.
Even offstage, Cloyd and Orsega experienced a real sister relationship. Jokingly, Orsega recalled a time during rehearsal when those sister dynamics became a little too realistic. However, she explained that it helped bring the Leavitt sisters’ relationship to life.
“I will say that towards the end of our rehearsal process, me and Esther (Cloyd) got pretty ‘method,’ which basically means that we started fighting like real sisters a little bit,” Orsega said. “Just little bits here and there, and it was just really fun to have that kind of connection with another person.”
The other female characters in the play, including freshman acting for stage and screen major Dani Jackson as Annie Jump Cannon and senior acting for stage and screen major Kaitlyn Clayton as Williamina Fleming, created a heartwarming friend group that would make anyone want to cheer them on to success.
Those two actors were also powerhouses individually, with Annie as a leader and mentor to her colleagues and Williamina as a bold and caring free spirit unafraid to say what is on her mind.
Even though the main focus is not romance, the character Peter Shaw, played by Jay Green, a local writer and photographer in Oxford, brought laughter and sweet moments to the audience as they watched Peter and Henrietta grow closer.
Most characters in this play are based on real people, except for Margaret Leavitt and Peter Shaw, so the cast turned to research as a part of their preparation.
Even though information was limited, researching the characters’ lives and finding small real-life details to use in their performances was a fascinating experience for the cast.
“We learned that Annie and Willamina were actually roommates in real life, and so Dani (Jackson) and I did a lot of work with like, well, ‘How would they interact working with each other slash being roommates?’ and stuff like that,” Clayton said.
Flanagan added that research can show the actors different possibilities regarding how they develop their characters.
“The historical research, I think, can really inform a lot of the character choices that the actors are making at any given moment, as much as possible, that you can sort of get a feel for that character’s personality, and that can inform some of the acting choices that you’re making,” Flanagan said.
With elements of history, fiction, relatable themes, relationships and storytelling, “Silent Sky” brought laughter, awe and even some shocked gasps in the audience. Post-opening night, audience members were pleased.
“It was surprisingly funny and also really heartwarming to watch,” Cameron Collins, a freshman theater arts major, said. “And there were many surprise elements.”
“I thought it was a brilliant performance,” Libby Lang, a sophomore acting for stage and screen major, said. “All the actors were so dedicated to their characters. I just thought it was a great performance all around.”
Even though not everyone knows the discipline of astronomy, most do know what it is like to pursue your passion or to find friendship, which is what the entire production team conveyed in a heartwarming and fun theater experience.
