Photo credit: North Shore Camera Club

by Lauren Gunderson
Citadel Theatre
February 16 – March 17, 2024

Equity Jeff Award Nominated for Best Director and Best Production!

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Director’s Note in the Program:

One evening a few weeks ago, as I was getting ready to leave for rehearsal, my ten-year-old daughter hugged me tightly and said how much she missed me. She felt like I’d been out too much lately for rehearsals. Gently, I tried to explain how much I love my work even though I know it’s hard sometimes for the family. I thanked her, and her dad and little brother too, for being so supportive; I suggested that without their support I might have to wait another ten years to pursue my career. She agreed matter-of-factly that putting my career on hold for ten years was a preposterous notion.

I drove off to rehearsal that night ruminating on the direct line between the choices faced by the characters in Silent Sky and women today. Should one pursue a career, following her passion and making discoveries out in the world, even when the odds are stacked against her? Or should she get married, have children, and nurture a loving home life, following a prescribed and expected (but no less important) path?

In Silent Sky, this choice is presented as an incredibly binary one. That line is certainly muddier today, but the questions are no less potent. In the modern era, where women can “have it all” (ha!), I’ve been asked countless times throughout my career, at production meetings and rehearsals and performances, “who’s watching the kids?” or, with a tone of incredulity, “how can you direct plays with children at home?!”

Of course, it would be disingenuous for me to suggest that nothing has truly changed since the time when women worked as computers at the Harvard Observatory. Certainly, the world has evolved, and I enjoy a lot more autonomy and opportunity than these women did 100 years ago. And yet, the characters in Silent Sky still feel incredibly modern. In a contemporary world —one where a woman still can’t get elected to the Presidency; where a woman can make a Best-Picture-nominated film about patriarchy but doesn’t get nominated for Best Director; where a woman’s private medical decisions are legislated publicly and she earns an average of 17% less than her male counterparts—the choices made and the challenges faced by the trailblazing women in this play still resonate.

My daughter doesn’t yet fully understand the patriarchal systems that would keep women from pursuing any career they might choose. These “bad old ideas” of sexism and strict binary gender roles seem ludicrous to her, and I’m trying to keep it that way as long as possible. I want to empower her to follow whatever puts a fire in her belly – whether it’s astronomy or motherhood or theatre or engineering or creative writing or anything else she can dream up. Henrietta Leavitt, Annie Cannon, Williamina Fleming, the fictional Margaret in this play, and countless others blazed an example of how we can all navigate the world on our own terms.

In other words…this one’s for my daughter. And for yours. Enjoy the show.

Reviews

“A perfect production! Under Beth Wolf’s direction, the five-person ensemble brings touching human-scale emotion to a story about the vastness of the universe.”
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Chicago Reader, 02.21.2024

“Sharply directed by Beth Wolf… What is very impressive about this production is the fact that Citadel has made their very small intimate space work perfectly. A solid production!”
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Around the Town, 02.21.2024

“Guided with so much love, elegance and skill by Beth Wolf (who helmed Citadel’s Jeff-nominated Outside Mullingar), this talented director creates an entertaining and moving memorial to an unsung scientific trailblazer.”
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Chicago Theatre Review, 02.19.2024

“Superb… beautifully done.”
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Chicago Theatre and Arts, 02.17.2024

“Educates as much as it entertains—and it entertains a great deal!”
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
NewCity Chicago, 03.08.2024

“A superbly written and exceptionally well-acted and directed production. … Director Beth Wolf has a wonderful script by Lauren Gunderson to work from. A superior script in the hands of a skilled director can result in incredible theatre. The dialogue flows effortlessly and realistically. In fact, realistic is a key word in describing what Wolf has pulled out of her actors. For the audience, it is like watching history unfold. Honest emotions. Movement with intent and purpose. Unforced conversational interactions. It all works.”
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Life and Times, 02.19.2024

“A triumph, indeed!”
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Splash Magazine, 02.20.2024

Cast and Crew

Cast: Laura Michelle Erle (Margaret Leavitt), Cameron Feagin (Williamina Fleming), Melissa Harlow* (Henrietta Leavitt), Anne Lentino (Annie Cannon), Adam Thatcher (Peter Shaw)

Production Staff: Beth Wolf (Director), Ellen Phelps (Production Manager), Scott Phelps (Producer), Erin Galvin* (Stage Manager), Alex Trinh (Assistant Stage Manager), Trevor Dotson (Scenic Design), Cate Gillespie (Dialect Coach), Patrick McGuire (Props Design), Chris Owens (Video Projection Design), Stefanie Senior (Sound Design), Rachel Sypniewski (Costume Design), Sheryl Williams (Intimacy Director), Joel Zishuk (Lighting Design)

*indicates member of Actor’s Equity Association