GREAT Will Shine Light On Harvard Computers With Silent Sky

WAITE PARK (WJON News) -- If you liked the movie Hidden Figures then GREAT Theatre has a show for you. GREAT will be putting on Silent Sky at the Helgeson Learning Lab Theatre in Waite Park.

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Paul Habstritt, WJON

Silent Sky tells the story of three women working at Harvard Observatory in the early 1900s who helped pave the way for mapping the stars. One of the unique things about the presentation of Silent Sky is the round stage setup. Artistic Director Kendra Norton-Dando says the round stage really fit for how they want to tell the story:

"Which is really exciting because our audience sits all around all four sides of the performers and it's just a beautiful way to tell this story in such an intimate space, where you're so close to the actors and the story being shared."

Paul Habstritt, WJON

Another unique aspect to GREAT's production is the Understudy Performance on March 16th. Norton-Dando says the understudies work just as hard so the special show is their day to shine:

"We're excited to showcase our understudies and incredibly grateful for the time that they have dedicated because it's a big thing to say yes, I will take a role not necessarily guaranteed that I'll go on stage, but we've all approached this from a space of learning and really looking at how can we grow this and how can we, how can we make this a positive educational experience for all of us and I really think we have learned a lot through it."

Paul Habstritt, WJON

Norton-Dando says the three women were known as the Harvard Computers and never received any credit for all their work.

She says one of the reasons they chose Silent Sky is because they were taken with all the possible ways to tell the story. GREAT's performance of Silent Sky runs over the next two weekends.

Paul Habstritt, WJON