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INDIVIDUAL

Anonymous (2)

Toni Bassett

Matty Bloom

Joan Bowersock

Stephen Carney

Rebecca Carter

Cheri Chapman

Evelyn Comstock

Frances Escherich

Daniel Fourrier

Alice Frayne

Seth Leslie

Bruce Lonie

Russ Louthian

Barbara McArthur

Lewis Miller

Guido Neels

Sharon Perl

Audrey Perlman

Valerie Pierce

Nancy Ruskin

Judith Schwartz

Frank Shifrin

Debra Summers

Lisa Walker

Patricia Workman2

"Because wonder will always

get us there… those of us

who insist that there is much

more to come. And I do. I do."

Henrietta, Act II, Scene III of Silent Sky

FRONT COVER: ELENA WRIGHT AS HENRIETTA LEAVITT IN SILENT SKY / PHOTO TRACY MARTINABOVE: HARVARD’S GREAT REFRACTOR TELESCOPE, CIRCA 1860

Table of Contents

For Teachers and Students• For Teachers: Using this Study Guide 4• For Students: The Role of the Audience 5

Exploring the Play • Silent Sky Plot Summary 6–8• Understanding Plot: Sequencing Events 9• Interview with Playwright Lauren Gunderson 10• The Real Henrietta Leavitt 11• When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer (by Walt Whitman) 12• For the Beauty of the Earth 13• Designing Silent Sky: An Interview with Set Designer Annie Smart 14• Henrietta and Her Cepheid Stars (video) 15• Word Detectives 16• Henrietta and Women’s Suffrage 17

Resources• STUDENT/Student Matinee Evaluation• TEACHER/Student Matinee Evaluation

3ASTRONOMER EDWARD CHARLES PICKERING’S HARVARD “COMPUTERS”

How to use this Study Guide

This guide is arranged in worksheets. Each worksheet or reading may be used independently or in conjunction

with others to serve your educational goals. Together, the worksheets prepare students for the workshops, as

well as seeing the student matinee of Silent Sky produced by TheatreWorks, and for discussing the performance

afterwards.

Throughout the guide you will see several symbols:

Means “Photocopy Me!” Pages with this symbol are meant to be photocopied and handed directly to students.

Means “English Language Arts.” Pages with this symbol feature lessons that are catered toCalifornia State English Language Arts standards.

Means “Theatre Arts.” Pages with this symbol feature lessons that are catered to California State Theatre Arts standards.

Means “Social Studies.” Pages with this symbol feature lessons that are catered to California State Social Studies standards.

For Teachers

The student matinee performance of Silent Sky will be held on February 6, 2014 at 11:00 am, at the Mountain View

Center for Performing Arts. The production is approximately 2 hours, with one 15 minute intermission. The performance

will be followed by a discussion with actors from the show.

Student audiences are often the most rewarding and demanding audiences that an acting ensemble can face. Since we

hope every show at TheatreWorks will be a positive experience for both audience and cast, we ask you to familiarize

your students with the theatre etiquette described on the “For Students” pages.

4

All the work that goes into a production would mean nothing if there wasn’t an audience for whom to perform. As the

audience, you are also a part of the production, helping the actors onstage tell the story.

When the performance is about to begin, the lights will dim. This is a signal for the actors and the audience to put aside

concerns and conversation and settle into the world of the play.

The performers expect the audience’s full attention and focus. Performance is a time to think inwardly, not a time

to share your thoughts aloud. Talking to neighbors (even in whispers) carries easily to others in the audience and to the

actors on stage. It is disruptive and distracting.

Food is not allowed in the theatre. Soda, candy, and other snacks are noisy and, therefore, distracting. Please keep

these items on the bus or throw them away before you enter the audience area. Backpacks are also not allowed in the

theatre.

Walking through the aisles during the performance is extremely disruptive. Actors occasionally use aisles and stairways

as exits and entrances. The actors will notice any movement in the performance space. Please use the restroom and

take care of all other concerns outside before the show.

Cell phones and other electronic devices must be turned off before the performance begins. Do not text during

the performance, as it is distracting to the audience members around you.

What to bring with you:

Introspection

Curiosity

Questions

Respect

An open mind

What to leave behind:

Judgments

Cell phones, etc.

Backpacks

Food

Attitude

The Role of the Audience

5

It is around the year 1900 in the late evening. We find

ourselves outside of a rural church on a cold day in

Lancaster, Massachusetts. Henrietta Leavitt is looking

at the emerging stars, pondering a job offer from the

famous Harvard Observatory. Her sister, Margaret, pelts

her with a snowball and tries to convince her to come

inside to church where their father is leading the service.

Henrietta breaks the news about her job offer, and this

makes Margaret sad. “It’s a changing world,” she tells

Henrietta, “And some things should be sacred. And I’m

not saying you shouldn’t go—you should go—you must

—but you are so much. To me. And I worry. It’s far away

that place, and it’s crowded, and you’re still here in my

sight and I worry.” It’s clear that the sisters adore each

other and that this separation will be hard on them.

Henrietta asks Margaret to help her break the news to

their father and also to ask him for her dowry. Because

Henrietta doesn’t want to get married and wants more

than anything to study the stars, she hopes to use her

dowry to help her get to Harvard. Margaret agrees to

help her. When Henrietta tries to convince Margaret to

come with her and to study music at Radcliffe College

(Harvard’s all-female sister college), Margaret reveals

that her beau Samuel has asked her to marry him and

that she intends to accept.

The Harvard Observatory! Henrietta is eager to get

started and to meet her boss, Dr. Pickering. She meets

her supervisor, a young Peter Shaw, who insists on

giving her an orientation. It turns out that Henrietta

won’t be allowed near the gorgeous telescope, and

that women in the department are limited in their job

duties. The astronomers (all men) take pictures of the

sky and give the photographic plates to the “girls” who

count the stars on the plates. Henrietta is disappointed,

and outsmarts Peter on several occasions with her wry

sense of humor. When she asks Peter why the department

consists of only women, he tells her, “Pickering got fed

up with the boys he was sent and said—really said

this—that his housekeeper could do better, so he hired

her. And she did better. Now it’s quite a women’s…

world… up here.” Lastly, Peter tells Henrietta that she

will make 25 cents an hour, which Henrietta considers

6

Hayden Tee, Maureen McVerry, & Mindy Lym / Photo by Tracy Martin

“volunteering.” She makes a last plea to be able to

study the stars and contribute to the research in a more

meaningful way, but Peter tells her that her work counting

the stars is meaningful and important in its own way.

Next we meet Henrietta’s colleagues, Annie Cannon

and Williamina Fleming. Williamina, a boisterous

Scottish woman, instantly likes Henrietta. Annie Cannon,

the head of the department, isn’t sure about Henrietta

and her eagerness to conduct research. Annie tells

Henrietta, “We are mapping the entire sky. If doing

what has never been done before sounds unimportant

to you, uninspired? I’d leave before you are asked to.

Otherwise, show some respect.” We learn that Williamina

used to be Annie’s boss until Annie discovered a new

way of coding the stars by temperature, and that she

created an acronym for this labeling process, “OBAFGKM”

which can be remembered using the phrase, “Oh be a

fine girl, kiss me.” Henrietta is quite star-struck. She

learns that her official title in the Girls Department is

“Computer”—the women compute the stars: “notate

the plates, transfer the data, process, record, next star.”

As time passes (approximately a year), we see Henrietta,

Annie, and Williamina hard at work in their department,

cataloguing the stars out loud. Interspersed with these

work scenes are letters from Margaret to Henrietta.

Margaret updates Henrietta on all the family news in

Lancaster, including the fact that she is pregnant and

Silent Sky Plot Summary

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7

eventually has a son. It seems that Henrietta is missing

out on a lot of family news because of her work. Margaret

asks her if she received a book that their father sent and

asks her if she intends to come home for Christmas.

Henrietta is distracted by an exciting discovery that she

is making. She tells Annie and Williamina, “I put together

a simple comparative that lets me analyze the plates

quickly. The same starfield at different times—and you

can see that some of the stars are much brighter. And

I’m seeing them in most of the plates. Now if these are

true Cepheids, and if there are as many of them as I’m

starting to see, it could be a big clue.” Annie agrees to

let Henrietta continue her research in the department at

night.

It is morning around the year 1905. Henrietta is asleep

at her desk—it seems she's been up all night working

on her research. Peter and Williamina enter. Peter is

very curious about what she’s been working on. Henrietta

tells him about her research tracking the Cepheid stars

and that she’s observed a huge number of these stars—

last night alone she counted two hundred of them. She

leaves to take a nap in the file room while Williamina,

Annie, and Peter discuss a new paper that’s rattling the

scientific community. Albert Einstein has written a paper

about the theory of relativity, and his ideas indicate that

the universe is far larger than anyone ever believed.

Peter is both anxious and thrilled by the ideas in this

paper, “The idea that there could be galaxies as big as

ours? Outside of ours? That the universe is that large?

No!” The potential vastness of the universe is mind-boggling.

Later, Annie and Williamina have fun teasing Henrietta

about the fact that Peter has a crush on her. Henrietta

doesn’t know what to make of this—she didn’t realize

that Peter had been flirting with her for months now.

Henrietta is working alone at night, crying at her desk.

Without the assistance of her hearing aid, she doesn’t

hear Annie sneak into the office until Annie bumps into

a table. They chat briefly, and Henrietta confides in

Annie that she feels close to making a discovery but

that she still has so much work to do. Annie encourages

her to keep going, to keep searching, and that her

“chance” to make a mark in this man’s world is close.

Plot Summary, continuedShe leaves, and Peter arrives. What follows is a romantic

and awkward conversation in which it becomes clear

that Peter likes Henrietta, and Henrietta likes Peter. He

asks her to leave with him on an ocean liner the next

day. He’s about to embark on a trip to Europe where he

will meet some of the greatest minds in science. Henri-

etta resists at first because she doesn’t want to leave

her research and her work at Harvard. Her stars are so

important to her. Peter argues that the stars will always

be there. The Harvard Observatory fades into a beauti-

ful ocean liner on the sea—gorgeous stars above. They

dance. However, Margaret shatters the dream with a

telegram telling Henrietta that their father has had a

stroke and pleaing for her to come home. Henrietta tells

Peter she can’t run away from him and encourages him

to go to Europe without her. They agree to find each

other again when Peter returns from his voyage.

Henrietta returns to the Leavitt home where an

overwhelmed Margaret greets her. Their father can’t

move or do anything for himself, and her husband, Sam,

has hurt his leg. Margaret is exhausted and upset with

all the work that needs to be done and by the prospect

of losing her father. Henrietta attempts to do some star

work, and that infuriates Margaret. Things are tense. We

learn that Margaret has written letters to their father

pretending to be Henrietta, because Henrietta has been

too busy to write him herself. Henrietta realizes she has

neglected her family and writes to Annie, Williamina,

and Dr. Pickering to let them know that she won’t be

able to return to the Observatory as soon as she had

hoped. She asks them to send her work to do from

home. Next, we hear letters exchanged between

Henrietta and Peter (who is travelling the world). The

letters are affectionate at first, but Peter gradually grows

more and more distant. We learn that Henrietta’s father

has passed away, and that she’s remained at home with

her sister to help take care of things. We then see

Henrietta surrounded by her star plates while Margaret

plays the piano. Margaret teases Henrietta about

romance and gets her to talk about her romance with

Peter; a romance that Henrietta realizes has ended.

Margaret tells Henrietta that she should return to the

Observatory, and a delighted Henrietta asks her to play

8

something on the piano. It seems Margaret has been

composing a symphony, and begins to play. As she

plays, Henrietta has a breakthrough—the music helps

her see a pattern, that the blinking of the Cepheid stars

is tonal, like notes in a song. She immediately writes to

Annie and Williamina with her discovery.

An ocean liner on a gorgeous night. We watch a romantic

moment between Henrietta and Peter who are very

much in love. The ocean liner dissolves into the reality

of the Harvard Obersvatory where Henrietta is working.

She and Peter talk, and it becomes clear that Peter is

being cold and distant with her. After a tense conversation

in which we learn that Henrietta’s paper on the

Cepheid stars has been published and in which Peter

dismisses her contributions to the Observatory, we

learn that Peter is married. Williamina tries to cheer

Henrietta up and Annie returns from a Suffragette

protest—she’s been working hard to fight for women’s

right to vote, something that Peter calls “trouble.” It is

clear Henrietta is heartbroken by the news of Peter’s

marriage. She attends a lecture he is giving and realizes

that he is preaching something he doesn’t believe in:

“It is my judgment, that the universe is exactly the same

thing as our galaxy. There is nothing greater and

nowhere else. How could there be? To even consider

that would mean that these stars are thousands of light

years away.” Henrietta corners Peter later, and it be-

comes clear that Peter is heartbroken and deeply loves

her. He tells her that his father forced him to marry

someone when he returned from Europe. Henrietta

tells him she’s leaving on an ocean liner to see the

world and to please, “Send more sky.”

Henrietta on an ocean liner -- for real this time. She

writes to Margaret telling her about the incredible sky

and the incredible trip she’s having. She tells her she’s

coming home. A week later, an excited Margaret,

Annie, and Williamina greet her at the dock. However,

Henrietta is very sick with stomach pains. Margaret in-

sists on taking care of her.

Years later, around 1918, Henrietta wrapped in a blan-

ket, sits with Margaret. We learn that Henrietta is sick

with ovarian cancer and that Margaret is taking care of

her in an apartment near the university. She keeps writ-

ing letters to scientists who are using her great discov-

eries but who do not credit her: “I write and write and

no one answers. These men, colleagues, all using my

work, but they won’t let me near it. Useless. Helpless.”

Annie and Williamina arrive with news that Henrietta

has been promoted to Head of Stella Photometry—

everyone has been promoted. Peter arrives having run

from the university—he followed Annie and Williamina

to Henrietta's house, because he didn't know where

Henrietta had moved. He tells her that a Danish

scientist has used her findings to prove that "there are

things outside our galaxy.” It appears that the stars

that Henrietta has been studying are thousands and

thousands of light years away and that there could be

many other galaxies out there. He gives her the book

that her father sent her but that she never opened out

of guilt—it's a book of poetry by Walt Whitman. One

poem, "When I Heard The Learn'd Astronomer," is

marked. Henrietta is shocked that her father would

send her poetry and realizes that he loved her and was

deeply proud of her. Margaret, Annie, Williamina, and

Peter decide that they need to celebrate all of this

great news—they break into the observatory to gaze

into the huge telescope at night. Henrietta gazes into

her heaven.

Boom. Henrietta is on an ocean liner. She tells us that

the next year Annie wins the vote and the famous

scientist Hubble uses her research on Cepheid stars to

prove that our galaxy is one of billions. A man from

Sweden calls to offer Henrietta the Nobel Prize,

unaware that she has passed away. Henrietta tells us

that a few years later Williamina dies. World War I

begins, and Annie dies soon after. Annie and

Williamina join Henrietta on the ocean liner. Then

Peter and Margaret die, and they join her on the ocean

liner too. The stars begin to take over the whole

world, as Henrietta becomes a star herself.

9

Understanding Plot: Sequencing EventsSilent Sky is a story that jumps in and out of reality at times. Read the plot summary and underline the six most important events in the story. Then number them 1-6 and assign them to a box. Draw a small picture of the event in thebox and write a description in the lines below the boxes.

Bonus exercise: Highlight in yellow moments in the play when there is a shift in reality. Then illustrate each of these moments in the order in which they happen.

1

3

5

2

4

6

10

Interview with Playwright Lauren GundersonTheatreWorks:

How did you first

hear about Henrietta

Leavitt? What was

it about her that

spoke to you?

Lauren Gunderson:

I've always been

drawn to tell

stories of science.

My earliest plays

were about Isaac

Newton and

Leonardo Da Vinci as young men. But then I saw the

inherent drama of women in science, who have it twice

as hard (which means twice the drama). I found Henrietta's

story by chance while perusing the stalls of used books

in New York. There isn't that much known of her, but

what is known is that in 1912 this unassuming but

meticulous and curious woman gave the flagging field

of astronomy the ingredient it needed to leap into the

future. Without her finding a pattern in Cepheid stars,

great astronomers like Shapley and Hubble wouldn't

have shown us how huge and fast-moving our universe

is. I went to Cambridge to visit Henrietta before the

premiere of the play in 2011 and got to see her hand-

written notes, the glass photographic plates she used,

and her grave. This is going to sound crazy but I stood

there at her grave and said, "Thank you for letting me

borrow your story. I promise I'll take care of it."

TW: The music for Silent Sky is composed for the show

by Jenny Giering. Why did you choose to make all the

music hymnal?

LG: This play invites a conversation about science and

faith which is dually represented by the astronomer

Henrietta and her devout sister Margaret. I wanted the

music to help bridge the two perspectives, and this

hymn, "For The Beauty Of The Earth," does that for

me. Its sound is very liturgical but its lyrics are sprinkled

with naturalism. I grew up going to church in Decatur,

Georgia, and singing this hymn. My grandmother loved

it, and we even sang it at her funeral. It's a beautiful

song no matter what you believe about god.

The rest of the music invites another synergy, one that

is found between math and music. Henrietta's key

discovery takes a musical form at some point and finding

that synchronicity fell to our brilliant composer Jenny

Giering. Jenny and I met at TheatreWorks actually!

[Silent Sky Director] Meredith McDonough brought us

together for a project here and we just caught on like

fire. Not only is Jenny a sublime talent whose songs

have a grace and emotional taproot that has always

impressed me, but also she's a nerd like me. Jenny,

who went to Harvard and grew up in Boston, was the

only person who knew who Henrietta was before I had

to explain. She was a perfect choice to help capture the

romance of this story as well as the physics.

TW: Do you feel that you, like Henrietta, are "a woman

in a man's world"?

LG: I would not compare myself to Henrietta and her

colleagues. Theirs was a real struggle. The truth is that

I, like Henrietta, am surrounded by incredible women

(and men) who make me better at what I do (Meredith

McDonough, our director, is an example). In American

Theatre as a whole I am most concerned with women's

stories being told as much as men's stories, which is

more lacking than you'd expect. Roles for women are

often fewer than for men, which means that complex

female stories are fewer too. (Although this year the

number of roles for women at TheatreWorks topped

men's!) And a story that focuses on women is often

characterized as a "woman's play" while one that is

male-focused is just called a play. But a woman's life is a

human one, and her story is just as profound, visceral,

and compelling as a man's. And in the end we're trying

to tell universal stories.

Watch and listen to Lauren Gunderson talk

about the real Henrietta Leavitt here:

http://vimeo.com/21620013

11

The Real Henrietta LeavittHenrietta Swan Leavitt was a real astronomer born onthe Fourth of July in 1868 and who lived to be 53 yearsold. Many of the details about Henrietta in Silent Skyare based on real biographical facts. She attended Radcliffe College, Harvard's sister school at the time,and went to work at the Harvard College Observatoryin 1893. There, she worked as a "computer," countingimages on photographic plates.

Through her work as a computer, Henrietta made somehuge discoveries about Cepheid stars. These discoveriesformed the basis for the pivotal work of astronomerEdwin Hubble. Henrietta Leavitt discovered over 2,400stars during her time at Harvard—almost half of theknown total of stars at that time. She was promoted tohead of stellar photometry in 1921, but she sadly diedof ovarian cancer later that year. Swedish mathematicianGösta Mittag-Leffler, not knowing that she had passed,considered nominating her for the 1926 Nobel Prize inPhysics. Unfortunately, the Nobel Prize cannot beawarded posthumanously, so Henrietta Leavitt wouldnot be awarded the prize.

Annie Jump Cannon

(1863–1941) was an

astronomer who was

instrumental in developing

a way to classify the stars.

She invented a system of

classification which she

called O.B.A.F.G.K.M., or

"Oh Be a Fine Girl, Kiss Me."

Williamina Fleming

(1857–1911) was a Scottish

astronomer who worked at

the Harvard Observatory

identifying and cataloguing

thousands of stars. She is

known for her discovery of

the Horsehead Nebula in

1888.

CONNECTION:

Henrietta, like other women of her time, was in the midst of an uphill battle fighting for womens’rights. Her role as an astronomer was rather unusual at the time.

Break into groups and discuss the following:

Henrietta attended college. How many women orwhat percentage of women do you think werestudying in college between 1870 and 1900?

How do you think Henrietta and her colleaguesdealt with being thought of as “computers” andsimply counting stars? Do you think they wereokay with that concept?

What do you think the general society thought ofwomen in the “workforce” in the 1890s to early1900s?

12

When I Heard the Learn’d AstronomerBy Walt Whitman

When I heard the learn'd astronomer,

When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,

When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,

When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,

How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,

Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself,

In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,

Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.

CONNECTION:

• Who do you think is the speaker in this poem? How would you

describe him or her?

• What effect does the "learn'd astronomer" have on the speaker?

• What kinds of imagery do we see in this poem?

• Why do you think Henrietta's father sent her a book of poetry by Walt

Whitman with this poem marked? Why do you think he wanted

Henrietta to read this poem in particular?

• Who was Walt Whitman?

• What are "the proofs, the figures" that the speaker mentions?

• Why do you think the speaker becomes tired and sick?

ACTIVITY:

Choose one of the following:• Draw, paint, or sketch a version of this poem. What does the speaker look like? What moment would you

capture?• If you were to create a short film based on this poem, what would you show? What would your film

consist of?• What piece of music do you think best captures the spirit of this poem? Identify or create a piece of music

that you feel best reflects the world of this poem.

WALT WHITMAN IN 1887

13

"For the Beauty of the Earth" is a Christian hymn written in1864 by Folliott S. Pierpoint. Throughout Silent Sky we hear Margaret sing and play this song as she practices for her fa-ther's church service. In fact, it weaves its way throughout the play, as scenes transition from one to another. Read thelyrics of the hymn and answer the questions about it.

For the beauty of the earth, For the beauty of the skies, For the love which from our birth Over and around us lies, Lord of all, to thee we raise This our grateful hymn of praise.

For the beauty of each hour Of the day and of the night, Hill and vale, and tree and flower, Sun and moon and stars of light, Lord of all, to thee we raise This our grateful hymn of praise.

For the joy of human love, Brother, sister, parent, child, Friends on earth, and friends above, Pleasures pure and undefiled, Lord of all, to thee we raise This our grateful hymn of praise.

For each perfect gift of thine, To our race so freely given, Graces human and divine, Flowers of earth and buds of heaven, Lord of all, to thee we raise This our grateful hymn of praise.

For thy Church which evermore Lifteth holy hands above, Offering up on every shore Her pure sacrifice of love, Lord of all, to thee we raise This our grateful hymn of praise.

WALT WHITMAN IN 1887

For the Beauty of the Earth

CONNECTION:

• What is this hymn about?• Why do you think Margaret loves this hymn so

much?• What is the relationship between faith and science

in this play?

OCEAN LINER AT NIGHT

14

Designing Silent SkyAn Interview with Set Designer Annie Smart

TheatreWorks: What was the process of designing theset of Silent Sky like?

Annie Smart: Conceptually the design came together

fairly easily as the play is not naturalistic. Time and place

move around as needed and inferred by Henrietta's

thoughts and life events, so that allows for a more poetic

design response. The stage is never the best place for

kitchen-sink realism (our audience is sat there, in close

proximity to the structures, with a couple of hours to

spend on seeing the joins, the short-cuts and the fakery)

so being able to make broader, reverberative visual

statements is always going to be more successful. At

the same time this play is rooted in some very real and

fascinating historical events, so the research was very

important, and photographs of the day and the people

and places concerned gave me a great deal of wonderful

material to draw on.

TW: What is your favorite part of the Silent Sky set?

AS: The whole thing. It is an office, a parlor, an astronomical

observatory and an old cruise-ship's deck all interwoven

together.

TW: What was the biggest challenge of making theSilent Sky set come to life?

AS: The math. I'm a scenographer and not an engineer so

figuring out how the dome structure would hold itself to-

gether correctly was a big headache for me!

Also the lighting. Paul Toben, who designed the lighting,

has to be able to point lights at the actors from several dif-

ferent directions, including up from the floor. Finding ways

to give him those essential opportunities with a wrap-

around set took the most time.

TW: The play offers some very specific notes about whatthe set should look like, but there is a lot left up to the designer's imagination too. How did you go about combiningMs. Gunderson's direction with your own imagination?

AS: I always ignore all stage directions on my first reading of

any play. It was how I was taught. The words the actors speak

are the main priority. One should read a play seeing how

much and of what those spoken words paint a picture and

then develop your design from that knowledge. It's not the

designer's job to illustrate but to support. The trick lies in

figuring out how best to support the actor for every show.

SET MODEL BY ANNIE SMART

15

Watch this video about Henrietta and her research of Cepheid variables, and answer the following questions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9gvk_OkrPw#t=205

Henrietta and Her Cepheid Stars

CONNECTION:

• What are Cepheid stars?

• What are Cepheid variables?

• What did 19th century sailors in the southern hemisphere report seeing in the night sky?

• What happened when a star was brighter on a photographic plate? What happened when a star looked faded

on a photographic plate?

• What pattern did Henrietta begin to notice?

Word Detectives

16

As you watch the performance of Silent Sky, you may come across vocabulary words or terms that you aren't familiarwith. Jot down these words as you watch, and complete this Word Detective worksheet after the performance is over.

Part of speech

My own sentence

WORD

Context clue

Context clue

My own definition

A picture that will remind me of what this word means to me

Sentence where I found the word

17

Henrietta and Women’s Suffrage1890: American Woman Suffrage Association and National Woman Suffrage Association merge into the

National American Woman Suffrage Association

January 25, 1887: The United States Senate voted on woman suffrage for the first time—and also the last time in 25 years

1893: Henrietta began work at Harvard College Observatory

1908: Henrietta first published her data, noting a pattern in variable stars

May 4, 1912: Women marched up Fifth Avenue in New York City, demanding the vote

1912: Henrietta published a full paper documenting her Period-Luminosity relationship

1913: Ejnar Hertzsprung used Henrietta’s fining to measure distance to cepheids within the Milky Way

April 1917: The United States government declared war against Germany—WWI

June 1917: Arrests began of Suffrage pickets at the White House

January 10, 1918: House of Representatives passed the Anthony Amendment but the Senate failed to pass it

Nov 1918: WWI ended

May 21, 1919: United States House of Representatives passed the Anthony Amendment again

June 4, 1919: United States Senate approved the Anthony Amendment

1920: Henrietta made head of Stellar Photometry

August 26, 1920: United States Secretary of State signed the Anthony (19th) Amendment into law.

Dec 12, 1921: Henrietta died of ovarian cancer

1923–24: Edwin Hubble measured Cepheids in the Andromeda Galaxy proving that the universe is far bigger than the Milky Way

1926: Unaware of her death four years prior, the Swedish mathematician Gösta Mittag-Leffler considered nominating Henrietta for the 1926 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Student Matinees/STUDENT Feedback

Name____________________________________Grade_____________School_________________________________________

Performance Tasks based CA State theatre arts standards

Select and complete one of the following activities:

1. Rewrite the ending of the play. How would you like to see it end? Why?

2. Pick a moment in the play that affected you. Describe the stage elements that created that moment for you

(the script, acting, lighting, music, costumes, set design, sound design and/or direction).

3. Write a review of the play or an actor.

4. Describe something you would change in the production. Describe what benefit that change would create in

the production and why.

5. Identify and describe how this production might affect the values and behavior of the audience members who

have seen it.

6. Write about any careers you learned about in attending this production (example: stage hands, set designers,

actors, etc.).

Assessment Survey

No Maybe Yes Really Yes

I learned a lot from this experience 1 2 3 4

I would like to do this sort of project again 1 2 3 4

I will remember what I learned 1 2 3 4

STUDENT evaluation (cont)

Finish the following statements:

The most important thing I learned from this play was:

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Besides getting out of school, the best thing about attending this student matinee is:____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Learning through the theatre is different from my regular class because:

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If I could change something about attending a student matinee, I would:

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I'm going to use what I learned, saw, or experienced by:

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Student Matinee/TEACHER Evaluation

Name_____________________________________________________________________School___________________________

Please rate your Student Matinee experience below:

Strongly Disagree Disagree Agree Strongly Agree

Planning

I received sufficient and timely information 1 2 3 4

from TheatreWorks before the matinee

TheatreWorks maintained communication with 1 2 3 4

me and/or involved administrators at my school

It was clear to me that the production and study 1 2 3 4

guide incorporated curriculum standards

Strongly Disagree Disagree Agree Strongly Agree

Matinee Workshops

Supported other curriculum areas/subjects 1 2 3 4

Targeted students' educational needs 1 2 3 4

Provided a grade-appropriate experience 1 2 3 4

Engaged students' interest and attention 1 2 3 4

I would like to learn how to lead more of these 1 2 3 4

kinds of activities on my own in the classroom

Strongly Disagree Disagree Agree Strongly Agree

Post-Matinee

Students were engaged in this experience 1 2 3 4

The experience was valuable to my students' 1 2 3 4

education

The "Performance Tasks" were useful in helping 1 2 3 4

my students understand their experience

I would be interested in bringing more drama 1 2 3 4

related activities into my classroom

TEACHER Evaluation (cont)

For your classrooms please list the strengths of watching a student matinee.

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In terms of your teaching, did this particular Student Matinee give you any arts integration ideas foryour curriculum?_________________________________________________________________________________________

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We are very interested in your feedback. What worked for you about this experience? _________________________________________________________________________________________

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What did not work for you?_________________________________________________________________________________________

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Additional Comments:

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TheatreWorks student matinees tend to fill up quickly. Information about next season will beavailable in February—keep us updated with your current contact information to receive showannouncements and booking information. Also, let us know if you have friends who would liketo be added to our mailing lists!