Silent Sky

THE HARPETH HALL PLAYMAKERS PRESENT

BY LAUREN GUNDERSON

Join us for our virtual show November 19-21 OPENING NIGHT Thursday, November 19th at 6:30 p.m. at HarpethHall.org

2O2O FRANCES BOND DAVIS THEATRE

38O1 Hobbs Road • Nashville TN 37215

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Settings 1900 – 1920 Leavitt home, rural Massachusetts The Harvard Observatory Offices Henrietta’s apartment in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Henrietta Leavitt Astronomy wouldn’t be what it is today without an ability to measure distances.

This was all made possible by the work of Henrietta Swan Leavitt. Ms. Leavitt worked at the Harvard College Observatory in the early 20th Century. She, along with other Harvard ‘Computers’ like Annie Jump Cannon and Williamina Fleming, performed complex calculations and catalogued the brightness of countless celestial objects. Ms. Leavitt’s careful work led her to discover a relationship in Cepheid Variable stars that is used to find the distance to these bright stars. This revelation led to its use as a yard stick to measure the distance to other galaxies, ultimately contributing to our understanding of an ever-expanding universe. Through Ms. Leavitt and the other Harvard Computers, we know that we are but a small speck in the wide-open universe and are ever on a quest to understand it.

Leslie C. P. Chamberlain, PhD Physics Teacher in the Upper School

Cast Henrietta Leavitt...............................................................................Lila Elrod* Margaret Leavitt.......................................................................... Kate Franklin Peter Shaw........................................................................McConnico Sharpe* Williamina Flemming.................................................................Angie Baird* Annie Jump Cannon................................................................Larissa Smith* Understudy..............................................................................Annabelle Nolan

Technical Team Stage Manager....................................................................Frances Bradford* Assist. Stage Manager ...............................................................Emma Pierce Costumes.....................................................................................Lauren Payton Props.........................................................Sara Mac Wallace & Nia Maddux Light Board..................................................................................Taylor Nisbet* Sound Board.................................................................................Autumn Nash Microphone Board .........................................................Michaela Hamman

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Artistic Team Director................................................................................Janette Fox Klocko Technical Director..............................................................Davin “D.J.” Ranta Sound Design .................................................................................Kyle Odom* Projection Design ...........................................................................Sam Lowry Light Design ........................................................................ Davin “D.J.” Ranta Costume Design...........................................................................Lauren Terry Assistant TD’s............................................ Sarah Weeks & Kaitlin Barnett Poster/Program Design........................................................ Lauren Finney Rehearsal Photographer.........................................................Lin Rutherford Silent Sky is Presented by Special Arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York. *Indicates membership in the INTERNATIONAL THESPIAN SOCIETY, an honorary organization for high school theatre students who have earned distinction for their outstanding dedication and their excellence in theatre arts.

Special Thanks Many thanks to our Head of School, Jess Hill and to Armistead Lemon, Director of the Upper School. Our Performing Arts Faculty: Lori McDermott, Martha Goodman, Matthew Pyles, Stephanie Hamilton. Thank you to Annabelle Nolan, Bruce Miller, Dr. Leslie Chamberlain, Dr. Barbara Bell, Tad Wert, Jessica Bliss, Lauren Finney, Elizabeth Floyd, Molly Rumsey, Peter Fox and Sage Dining, Lin Rutherford, Laurie Ranta with Press and Pixels, Jason & Stephanie Nolan, Chuck Pierce, Cal Fuller & MBA Theatre Department, Dianne and Trey Smith, Marion and John Bradford, Leslie and Stephen Franklin, Jill and David Baird, Ginny Maddux, Elizbeth Sharpe, Michelle Hamman, and any other volunteers that helped.

We would also like to thank YOU for supporting Educational Theatre in our school!

A huge thank you to Memphis Circle in the Square for costume rentals — Kathie Kobarik & Brooke Papritz. Michael Meyer and Academy of Make Up Arts for the wigs and wig stylists. His students Rebekah Barnes and Zach Lankford for building the wigs; Ansley Hughes and Sam Ulicny for run crew during production filming. And last, but not least, Patric McWilliams who made sure that we had costumes even though he was not well enough to do it himself !

Nashville, TN Playhouse on the Square Memphis, TN 38104 3

Director’s Note Finding the right play to direct and produce is one of the most difficult tasks a high school theatre teacher faces. It has to meet standards of language and subject matter, it has to be about a subject worth spending weeks of a student’s time working on, it must be beautiful in some or many ways, and most problematically, it has to fit the needs and skill level of the students who are participating in the production. In a school of young women that becomes even more difficult because so many plays, even those written by women, often feature more male than female roles. Sometimes, the task of finding the right play seems as daunting as finding a star in a distant galaxy.

And that’s a bit like how it felt when I discovered Silent Sky by Lauren Gunderson.

As a result of COVID-19, I was looking for a play that had a small cast, and one that could be performed online if conditions called for it. When I read this play, I fell in love with it immediately. Beautifully written, inspiring, and about women — women who are making groundbreaking discoveries that are either dismissed by the men they work for, or diminished by those men even as their accomplishments are stolen by them without acknowledgement. It is an all too familiar story that, unfortunately, still seems as fresh as today’s news.

Why are women still fighting for their voices to heard, their accomplishments to be acknowledged, their standing recognized as equal to that of men? This play takes place at the beginning of the movement that one hundred years later is still being fought.

2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment giving women the right to vote. The challenges faced by Henrietta Leavitt, the real-life heroine of this play, and her colleagues are the same challenges women face today.

I mentioned at the top that a play, like all works of art, should be beautiful in some way.

This play is. Its imagery and language is poetic, and the intersection of music and science and image that Gunderson uses to tell her story is truly brilliant. It is Henrietta’s sister’s musical ability that finally ignites Henrietta’s mathematical genius and leads her to finally see and hear the music of her mathematical computations.

My young, starry eyed cast and crew have put their hearts and minds into making this show come to life. We have been trying to find our way through the darkness, and have been bumping into all the problems that rise up in the little universe that makes up the rehearsal process. Covid has slowed us down, and even forced us to change how we make theatre, but it has never stopped us. It was no easy task going from rehearsing a live performance to making it a virtual one. Let’s just say we used the courage and tenacity of Henrietta Leavitt and her colleagues as our inspiration.

My artistic team brought my vision into focus and then, because of Covid, into refocus. I am grateful for their help in navigating our story, and in adding clarity and beauty of their own. Theatre, our guiding star, is not unlike astronomy and astrophysics — it must be a collaborative effort. We do this collectively because we have a passion for it, and together, we all hear the play’s music, and then, through rehearsal, learn to play it in a way that clearly expresses the story of our humanity.

Janette Fox Klocko 4

Harpeth Hall Playmakers present LEPERS by Robert Baronne.

Directed by Maggie Sullivan ’20

“Electrify Your Strings” workshop with Mark Wood, one of the founding members of the Transiberian Orchestra

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Senior Dancers, “ELASTICITY”

2020-21 Performing Arts Calendar DECEMBER 7

WINTER ORCHESTRA CONCERT for 5th, 6th and 7th grade Orchestras There is overwhelming excitement to be performing together again. Girls from the Middle School grades 5th, 6th, and 7th will showcase their talents over a zoom link.

Performances will feature selections from each middle school group with selections ranging from beginning Mozart to Pachelbel’s Canon in D. Admission is free and open to the public.

DECEMBER 8 WINTER ORCHESTRA CONCERT for 8th grade and Upper School Chamber Orchestras

These groups of performers will feature pieces from Tchaikovsky to Journey.

Releasing our Mark Wood videos this evening along with our pre-recorded performances of 8th grade playing Aurora Borealis by Michael Hopkins. The Upper school Chamber Orchestra will also perform Larry Moore’s Medley of Alla Tchaikovsky.

Admission is free and open to the public.

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JANUARY 29 A YEAR WITH FROG AND TOAD

Based on Arnold Lobel’s beloved children’s books, A Year with Frog and Toad is a whimsical musical that tells the story of two best friends: the cheerful Frog, and curmudgeonly Toad. The musical follows Frog and Toad through four colorful seasons, from hibernation to hibernation.

Children and adults alike will relish in the joyful vignettes which feature catchy tunes, funny dialogue, and bright, memorable characters.

This year, the production will be virtual!

See HarpethHall.org for details

Learn more at HarpethHall.org

Upper School Orchestra performing “Ashokan Farewell�, by Jay Ungar

Meet the Performing Arts Faculty

Lori McDermott Interim Department Chair and Director of Instrumental Music

Janette Fox Klocko Theatre Teacher/ Director

Stephanie Hamilton Dance Company Director

Martha Goodman Middle School Drama/ Speech Teacher

Diana LeMense Dance Teacher/ Associate Director

Matthew Pyles Middle School Choral Director

D.J. Ranta Theatre Technical Director 7

Harpeth Hall Alumnae in the Performing Arts Sarah Colley Cannon ’32 Entertainer known to thousands as “Minnie Pearl.”

Reese Witherspoon ’94 Oscar-winning actress, owner of production company Hello Sunshine, and lifestyle brand Draper James

Amy Grant ’78 Grammy and Dove awardwinning recording artist, singer-songwriter, Nashville, TN

Kimberly Irion ’96 Actress and Brand Entertainment Consultant, Los Angeles, CA

Alison Smith ’79 Executive Vice President of Distribution, Publisher Relations and Administrative Services at BMI, New York, NY

Kelleigh Bannen ’99 Country singer, EMI recording artist, Nashville, TN

Lala Cochran ’82 Actress and voice-over talent, Atlanta, GA

Jacqueline Saturn Dakar ’86 Co-General Manager, Harvest Records, Los Angeles, CA

Willa Fitzgerald ’09 Actress, New York, NY

Stephanie Rothenberg ’08 Actress, New York, NY

Marcie Allen Van Mol ’92 President, MAC Presents, New York, NY

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