{"id":13431,"date":"2026-02-19T12:00:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T19:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/merely-players-illuminates-silent-sky\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:31:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:31:08","slug":"merely-players-illuminates-silent-sky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/merely-players-illuminates-silent-sky\/","title":{"rendered":"Merely Players illuminates \u2018Silent Sky\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Tara
Tara Demmy plays Henrietta Leavitt in the Merely Players production of \u201cSilent Sky.\u201d (Kara Cavalca for Merely Players)<\/span>Kara Cavalca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cSilent Sky,\u201d Lauren Gunderson\u2019s remarkably human play about the hard science of astronomy, brims with emotion. Currently staged all over the country and now by Merely Players through Sunday, the local production also unearths comedic groundwater.<\/p>\n

\n

If you go<\/h4>\n

WHAT: <\/strong>\u201cSilent Sky,\u201d a play by Lauren Gunderson, Merely Players, directed by Mandy Irons<\/p>\n

WHEN: <\/strong>7 p.m. today, Friday, Saturday; 2 p.m. <\/p>\n

Sunday<\/h3>\n

WHERE:<\/strong> Merely Underground, 789 Tech Center Drive<\/p>\n

TICKETS: <\/strong>Variable. If sold out, get on wait list<\/p>\n

MORE INFORMATION: <\/strong>Visit www.merelyplayers.org<\/a> or call 749-8585<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

From the opening scene, an argument between siblings Margaret and Henrietta Leavitt (the brisk and endearing Abby Kubicek and the fiercely determined Tara Demmy), director Mandy Irons establishes a quick pace with a high level of intensity.<\/p>\n

Life-changing decisions ripple through this true story set at the turn of the last century. Henrietta wants to pursue her dream of scientific research. What we now label the \u201cwork-life balance,\u201d takes on an interesting trajectory. Lest we forget, in 1900, American women generally didn\u2019t aspire beyond the kitchen.<\/p>\n

\"Jeannie
Jeannie Wheeldon, Maureen May and Tara Demmy perform a scene from \u201cSilent Sky.\u201d (Kara Cavalca for Merely Players)<\/span>Kara Cavalca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The play unspools in short, often overlapping scenes as Henrietta, a Radcliffe graduate, leaves home for a job at Harvard\u2019s prestigious observatory \u2013 data collection in contemporary terms. Immediately, Gunderson introduces obstacles with sharp takes on gender and power discrepancies.<\/p>\n

Henrietta encounters rigid male and female hierarchies through three characters: Annie Cannon, her immediate boss, (a blunt and brisk Jeannie Wheeldon); a more congenial peer, Willamina Fleming (Maureen May with a light Scottish brogue); and Peter Shaw, a mid-level research assistant (the inimitable Geoff Johnson who corrals his comedic instincts and masters Peter\u2019s nerdy awkwardness). All three reference the never-seen but powerful project head, Dr. Charles Pickering. But it is Peter who delivers deadlines and introduces the possibility of romance into Henrietta\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

\"Tara
Tara Demmy, as Henrietta Leavitt, studies glass plates in \u201cSilent Sky.\u201d (Kara Cavalca for Merely Players)<\/span>Kara Cavalca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Other productions, like last year\u2019s outings in Creede or the Utah Shakespearean Festival, tackled the challenging technical demands of a story about astronomical discoveries in grand ways. The play requires a split set for the home and Harvard, work-life issues, plus the illusion of a sea voyage, not to mention our illustrious starry firmament.<\/p>\n

Credit technical director Charles Ford and his creative team for turning the low-ceilinged Merely Underground into a workable performance area. Ford has divided the stage into three minimalist spaces, one for the modest clergyman\u2019s home, one for a scientific laboratory and one representing the cosmos. A simple bookcase and piano create Henrietta\u2019s family home. A half-arch back window serves as a site for innumerable projections that visually support storytelling demands.<\/p>\n

\"Geoff
Geoff Johnson, as Peter Shaw, and Tara Demmy, background, perform in \u201cSilent Sky.\u201d (Kara Cavalca for Merely Players)<\/span>Kara Cavalca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Costumers Megan Sander and Kathleen McGee provide suits, dresses, elaborate hats and a Suffragette scarf to pin down the period. To signal time passing, the playwright inserts subtle verbal cues, so pay attention.<\/p>\n

Henrietta\u2019s discovery centered on a new way to measure astronomical distances. Her work changed scientific thinking about the universe. Be assured, Gunderson gives the hero her moment of discovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s now commonly called Leavitt\u2019s Law is still taught in college astronomy courses,\u201d writes Kirk Johnson in The New York Times <\/em>obituary series titled \u201cOverlooked.\u201d \u201cIt underpinned the research of other pioneering astronomers whose work in the years after World War I demolished long-held ideas about our solar system\u2019s place in the cosmos.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Abby
Abby Kubicek and Tara Demmy, play sisters Margaret and Henrietta Leavitt. (Kara Cavalca for Merely Players)<\/span>Kara Cavalca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Throughout \u201cSilent Sky,\u201d Gunderson weaves multiple plot threads and take us into the future. Director Irons has crafted a seamless production with only a few, momentary ruptures in the fabric of the play. At the first matinee, the powerful conclusion seemed rushed and needed some air. Even an extended blackout would enable the audience to take in the play\u2019s larger intentions.<\/p>\n

Judith Reynolds is an arts journalist and member of the American Theatre Critics Association.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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