"Silent Sky"

April 28, 2019 — In the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, Edward Charles Pickering, director of Harvard Observatory, began hiring women to analyze and catalog data from telescopic photographs on glass plates. More than 80 of these women would work for Pickering during his tenure, earning 25 to 50 cents an hour working six days a week. They computed. The were called computers.

Lauren Gunderson honored three of these dedicated women in her play "Silent Sky," presented in its New Hampshire premiere at the Derry Opera House in Derry, New Hampshire, by theatre Kapow.

Emily Karel appeared as Henrietta Leavitt in a particularly moving performance, by turns exhilarating and heart-breaking. Henrietta's observation of variable brightness of stars proved the known universe extended far beyond our own Milky Way.

Candace Gatzoulis portrayed Henrietta's sister, Margaret, who remained at home and Henrietta missed Margaret's marriage and the birth of her nephew as she labored away at her intense, tedious job in Pickering's laboratory. When their father became critically ill, Henrietta finally went home temporarily but had her work sent to her so she could continue her research. Gatzoulis moved the story along with piano and song.

Carey Cahoon, a co-founder of theatre Kapow and winner of two New Hampshire Theatre awards for best actress, appeared as Annie Jump Cannon whose strict discipline kept the research on track. The multi-talented Cahoon also designed costumes and scenery for this production.

Gail Angellis, in her tenth show for theatre Kapow, took the part of Williamina Fleming, the first woman to hold an official title at Harvard. Angellis was an audience-pleaser with her convincing Scottish accent and folksy manner.

Jimmy Stewart, the lone male member of the cast, appeared as Peter Shaw, the socially awkward assistant to director Pickering. Smitten by Henrietta, he finds endless excuses to interrupt the women in their work while seeking Henrietta's attention. Peter and Henrietta eventually do find a temporary bond, but it's a relationship not meant to be. I can't confirm this part of the story is anything but fiction, but it's a charming romantic digression.

Rachael Chapin Longo directed this excellent production. Matt Cahoon, the other theatre Kapow co-founder and winner of multiple New Hampshire Theatre awards, was stage manager. And what would a theatre Kapow presentation be without Tayva Young's lighting expertise? Her backdrop of a huge starfield and other lighting effects were as important as the performances, executed by light board operator Trey Haynes.

A well-deserved standing ovation rewarded the cast at the end of the play, another triumph of this small but always outstanding New Hampshire company.

"Insignificance"

April 13, 2019 — It's around 1954. The Professor (A. J. Ditty), with wild hair and sloppily dressed in Princeton sweatshirt, baggy pants and no shoes, is going over his research papers when there's a knock on the door. When he opens it, in barges the Senator (Thomas Daniels), with slicked-down hair, carrying a bottle of whiskey and a couple of glasses. Loud, crude and overbearing, he tries to force liquor on the non-drinking Professor, lectures him on the communist menace and tries to convince him he should testify at the Senator's House Un-American Activities Committee.

The Senator eventually leaves, but soon there's another knock on the door. This time it's the voluptuous blond Actress (Kelsey Andrae) in fur coat, huge sunglasses, figure-hugging white dress, carrying balloons. Andrae plays the part to the hilt, and I was especially impressed with the dialog she had to memorize for her explanation of highlights of the special theory of relativity to the Professor, using toy locomotives, flashlights and other props, and much to the Professor's approval, she gets it right.

Yet another knock on the door turns out to be the Actress's husband, the Ballplayer (Landon Shaw). Incensed at finding his wife in the Professor's room, he becomes belligerent and threatening, striking fear into the Professor and the Actress. In a long harangue, he pops bubblegum and boasts about his thirteen World Series rings.

The characters are not named, but those of us who were around in the fifties, or those who are students of the period, should recognize the Professor as Albert Einstein, the Senator as Joe McCarthy, the Actress as Marilyn Monroe, and the Ballplayer as Joe DiMaggio. All performances are first-rate. The part of the Ballplayer, written as a loud, bellicose bully, is not the suave, gentlemanly DiMaggio we remember, but it's appropriate for this play, and he does share the anguish and heartbreak Joe must have known. Nick Cochran had a brief non-speaking part as the Senator's tall, grim aide.

They all return in the second act, in climactic scenes, offering some insights into what motivates them. This is all fiction, of course. There's no record of these four ever meeting in a hotel room or anywhere else, except of course Monroe and DiMaggio who were briefly married. It's an often funny, sometimes poignant, very entertaining presentation.

The play, titled "Insignificance" by Terry Johnson, was staged at the Winnipesaukee Playhouse (the Winni) in Meredith, New Hampshire. Neil Pankhurst directed, Lesley Pankhurst designed the costumes and Dahlia Al-Habieli the set.