Tasks for Acting
(L)Kim G as Henrietta Levitt, (C) Gabriela Castillo as Williamina Fleming, (R)Darrell Johnston as Peter Shaw in Silent Sky , Center for Performance Experiment, December 2017 Prior to writing, Lady Alhambra, I was cast in a play called Silent Sky by Lauren Gunderson and directed by Steve Pearson. The play is inspired by the lives of women who worked as “human computers” at the Harvard College Observatory in the early 1900s, and many of the scenes take place at the office where they would calculate the light and distance of stars using glass photographic plates. The director provided us with props that were near to exact replicas of the plates, ledgers, and tools that would have been utilized by the women working as human computers that inspired the play. The cast was directed to recreate a pattern of actions that simulated the work these women did. For example, I am including here a version of the list of actions I made for myself while playing the role of Williamina Fleming. It’s not i
