Lauren Gunderson’s Silent Sky is a moving, magical look at the story of Henrietta Leavitt, an early twentieth century astronomer whose discovery of how to effectively measure vast astronomical distances led to a shift in the understanding of the scale and nature of the universe. In early twentieth-century Wisconsin, hearing-impaired mathematician Henrietta Leavitt can’t stand not knowing where she is in the universe. When she’s recruited to the Harvard Observatory to work as a human “computer” mapping the stars, she embarks on a journey to answer that question and others: How do you balance your commitment to the heavens with your obligations here on Earth? How do you make discoveries when you’re not even allowed to touch a telescope? And what role will women play, in the lab, at the ballot box, and in society? Directed by Baltimore-based Subversive Productions’s Susan Stroupe, Silent Sky, will run January 30-February 14, 2026. 

Perisphere Co-Artistic Director Lizzi Albert will play the role of Henrietta Leavitt. Lizzi is a director, actor, and teaching artist who directed Perisphere’s 2023 production of Hazardous Materials, by Beth Kander. Other directing credits include This Historic Night (Seed Productions/Capital Fringe 2018), A Christmas Carol and The Tempest(Chesapeake Shakespeare Company), and an all-female Macbeth (Notre Dame of Maryland University). Acting credits include Avant Bards’ Julius Caesar, Constellation Theater Company’s Absolutely! Perhaps, and several productions with Chesapeake Shakespeare, where she is a company member. Lizzi is interested in creating intimate, expressive, psychologically insightful theater that allows audiences to both see their own experiences reflected on stage and be inspired to seek out new ones. She holds an M.A. in acting from the University of Essex and a BFA in theater from New York University.

*Note: Tickets purchased in person at the box office will incur an additional $2 service fee added to the prices listed online.

Susan Stroupe, Director

Susan Stroupe is a Baltimore-based theater maker, with a focus in collaboratively devised pieces; scripts that challenge norms of race, gender, and genre; theater in nontraditional spaces; and critically examining and expanding the collective mythology of the dominant narrative.

She has worked in the Twin Cities, LA, NYC, Albuquerque, Baltimore and her hometown Atlanta as a director, performer, writer, puppeteer, teaching artist, dramaturg, and deviser, In Baltimore, she works as a freelance director for independent companies, and she is a founding member and Artistic Associate for Submersive Productions, serving on the core creative team for The Mesmeric Revelations! Of Edgar Allan Poe, H.T. Darling’s Incredible Musaeum, The Institute of Visionary History, and MASS/Rabble.

She is a long-time member of the Teaching Artist team at Baltimore Center Stage, and a continuing associate of Philip Arnoult’s Center for International Theatre Development.  She received her BA from Macalester College and MFA in Theatre Arts from Towson University, and has worked as an adjunct professor at Towson University, the University of Baltimore, and UMBC.

Lauren Gunderson, Playwright

Lauren Gunderson is one of the most produced playwrights in America since 2015 topping the list thrice including 2022/23. She is a two-time winner of the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award for I and You and The Book of Will, the winner of the William Inge Distinguished Achievement in Theatre Award, the Lanford Wilson Award and the Otis Guernsey New Voices Award; a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Weisberger Award, and John Gassner Award for Playwriting; and a recipient of the Mellon Foundation’s Residency with Marin Theatre Company. She studied Southern Literature and Drama at Emory University, and Dramatic Writing at NYU’s Tisch School where she was a Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship. Her play The Catastrophist, about her husband virologist Nathan Wolfe, premiered digitally in January 2021. She co-authored the Miss Bennet plays with Margot Melcon, and The Half-Life of Marie Curie premiered off-Broadway and is now at Audible.com. Her work is published at Bloomsbury (Revolutionary Women: A Lauren Gunderson Anthology, anthropology, I and You), Playscripts (I and You; Exit Pursued By A Bear; The Taming and Toil And Trouble), Dramatists Play Service (The Revolutionists; The Book of Will; Silent Sky; Bauer, Natural Shocks, The Wickhams and Miss Bennet) and Samuel French (Emilie). Her picture book Dr Wonderful: Blast Off to the Moon is available from Two Lions/Amazon. She is the book writer for musicals with Ari Afsar (Jeannette), Dave Stewart and Joss Stone (The Time Traveller’s Wife), Joriah Kwamé (Sinister), Kait Kerrigan and Bree Lowdermilk (Justice and Earthrise), and Kira Stone (Built for This). She is a board member of The Playwrights Foundation. LaurenGunderson.com

Meet the Cast and Creative Team

Join us for our Special Events!

“Hidden Figures” Book Club. Join with other members of the Perisphere community in exploring themes of women in STEM through the lens of the novelist Margot Lee Shetterly and her book, Hidden Figures. Meetings on January 27, February 2, and February 8. 

Thursday, January 29, 8:00pm: PWYC Preview. Donations will be accepted at the door (CASH ONLY) for anyone interested in watching our final rehearsal of the show. We will be putting finishing touches on the show and invite the public to watch this exciting end to our process.

Friday, January 30, 8:00pm: OPENING NIGHT. There will be a reception following the performance. Join us for drinks, food, and a chance to mingle with the cast and production team!

Sunday, February 8, 2:00pm: CAST TALKBACK. Perisphere will host a talkback this evening following the performance with artists from the production moderated by Co-Artistic Director, Gerrad Alex Taylor. Join us as we take a more detailed look at the process of putting this play on its feet and celebrate everyone involved.

Saturday, February 14, 7:15pm: PRE-SHOW TALK WITH DR. EMILY RICKMAN. A discussion of the science of the show to bring context to some of the more esoteric plot points of relativity and our understanding of space and time. 

Dr. Emily Rickman is an astrophysicist for the European Space Agency (ESA) based at the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland, USA, which is home to the Mission Operations Center for the largest telescope ever launched – the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Dr. Rickman seeks to discover and understand planets beyond our Solar System – known as exoplanets – through the use of multiple observing techniques from both the ground and space, as a member of the JWST telescope scientist team, and leads a survey to look at the atmospheres of giant planets. She is also a member of the Hubble Space Telescope’s STIS Instrument Team, supporting the science operations. 

Previously, Dr. Rickman was awarded a European Space Agency postdoctoral fellowship and worked as a postdoc at Geneva Observatory, Switzerland, where she completed her Ph.D. in Astronomy and Astrophysics, imaging exoplanets using telescopes situated in the dark skies of the Atacama Desert, Chile. Dr. Rickman graduated from the University of Sheffield, England, with a first-class Master’s degree with honors in Physics and Astrophysics, including spending one year studying at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia.