- 2023-10-09
New Works presents Silent Sky
CALENDAR LISTING
Performing Arts | Theater
WHAT
Marin Theatre Company’s New Works Series presents Silent Sky
WHO
By Lauren Gunderson
Directed by Meredith McDonough
WHEN
Monday, December 5, 2011 at 7:30 p.m.
WHERE
Marin Theatre Company | 397 Miller Avenue, Mill Valley, CA 94941
ABOUT
Join Marin Theatre Company for a FREE public staged reading of Silent Sky by award-winning San Francisco playwright Lauren Gunderson.
As Henrietta Leavitt stared at the stars and struggled to chart our place in the universe, she charted a new path for women at the turn of the 20th century. Leaving behind her family in rural Massachusetts, she moved to Boston in 1893 to join Pickering’s Harem – the all-female data collection staff of the Harvard Observatory. There, she mapped stars from photographic plates, expected to process and record, but never analyze the data. Henrietta refused to be content just tidying up the cosmos for her male colleagues and set off on a crusade that changed our perception of our world forever. Gunderson fills the life of this eclipsed astronomer with brilliant light in this funny, inspirational and heartwarming play.
MTC’s New Works Series offers exciting script-in-hand readings of new plays by emerging playwrights. Readings are followed by a talk-back with the playwright, director and actors.
TICKETS
New Works Series readings are FREE. Reserve tickets online or through the Box Office, seating is limited.
CONTACT
marintheatre.org | (415) 388-5208 | boxoffice@marintheatre.org
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Lauren Gunderson is a playwright, screenwriter and short story author. Her play for young audiences A Short History of Nearly Everything was produced by Marin Theatre Company’s School Tour program in 2008 and 2009 and public staged readings of Rock Hill: Southern Gothic were produced by MTC’s New Works Series in 2009. Her most recent Bay Area production, Exit, Pursued By a Bear at Crowded Fire Theatre, was part of the three-city National New Play Network rolling world premiere that also included productions at Synchronicity in Atlanta and ArtsWest in Seattle. Other recent premieres of Gunderson’s work include her first musical The Amazing Adventures of Dr. Wonderful and Her Dog! at the Kennedy Center and Silent Sky at South Coast Repertory. Commissioned and premiered at South Coast Repertory in 2009, Emilie: La Marquise Du Chatelet Defends Her Tonight now plays across the country and is published by Samuel French.
Gunderson’s work has received numerous awards including the Sloan Science Script Award, Berrilla Kerr Award for American Theatre, Global Age Project (Aurora Theatre Company), Young Playwright’s Award, Eric Bentley New Play Award and Essential Theatre Prize. She has been commissioned by Actor’s Express Theatre, Alliance Theatre’s Collision Project, City University of New York, Crowded Fire Theatre, Dad’s Garage Theatre, the Kennedy Center, MTC, SF Playhouse, South Coast Repertory, Synchronicity Performance Group and Theatrical Outfit. She has developed plays with Primary Stages, Red Bull Theater and Second Stage Theatre in New York City; Aurora Theatre Company, Crowded Fire Theatre, Magic Theatre, Playwrights Foundation and TheatreWorks in San Francisco; as well as theater companies in Atlanta, Boston, Dallas and Portland.
Gunderson received her MFA in Dramatic Writing at NYU Tisch, where she was also a Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship. A native of Atlanta, Georgia, she currently resides in San Francisco.
ABOUT MTC
Celebrating our 45th Anniversary this season, Marin Theatre Company is the Bay Area’s premier mid-sized theater and the leading professional theater in the North Bay. We produce a six-show season of provocative plays by passionate playwrights from the 20th century and today in our intimate 231-seat proscenium theater. We are committed to the development and production of new plays by American playwrights, with a comprehensive New Play Program that includes at least one world premiere each season, two nationally recognized annual playwriting awards, new play readings and workshops by the nation’s best emerging playwrights and a leadership position in the National New Play Network. Our numerous educational programs serve more than 6,000 students each year.
PRESS CONTACT
Sasha Hnatkovich, Communications Director
(415) 388-5200, ext. 3313 | email
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