Main Street Theater to Present SILENT SKY

Main Street Theater (MST) will open its 40th Anniversary Season with the Texas premiere of Silent Sky by Lauren Gunderson (this production also marks the Houston premiere of any of Gunderson's works). "I love the language of the play and the voice in which it's been written," says MST Artistic Director Rebecca Greene Udden, also the director of Silent Sky. "It's such a tricky thing to find the right tone for plays set in the past but written by a modern playwright. I was also very moved by the musicality of Gunderson's language." Udden has long been a champion of works by women writers and also neglected pieces of history, whether theatrical or actual, so the chance to produce Gunderson's play about the remarkable - and often overlooked - female astronomers on whom the play is based very much appealed to Udden.

With previews November 1, 4, 5, and 6, Silent Sky opens November 7 and runs through November 29 at Main Street Theater - Rice Village, 2540 Times Blvd. Performances are on Thursdays - Saturdays at 7:30pm and Sundays at 3pm (No performance on Thanksgiving (Nov. 26). Special performance on Wednesday, Nov. 25). Tickets are $39 - $20 (previews are $15), depending on date and section, and are on sale via phone at 713.524.6706 or online at MainStreetTheater.com.

About Silent Sky

Silent Sky is a new play about Henrietta Swan Leavitt and the real women "computers" working at Harvard Observatory at the dawn of modern astronomy. In this exquisite blend of science, history, family ties, and fragile love, a passionate young woman must map her own passage through a society unaccustomed to strong women in a man's world. A celestial romance and true story of discovery, this play was a finalist for the Jane Chambers Award 2013. http://silentskyplay.tumblr.com/

About Lauren Gunderson

Lauren Gunderson is the 2014 winner of the Steinberg/ATCA New Play award and was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for I and You. 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 work has been commissioned, produced and developed at companies across the US including South Cost Rep (Emilie, Silent Sky), The Kennedy Center (The Amazing Adventures of Dr. Wonderful And Her Dog!), The O'Neill, Denver Center, Berkeley Rep, Shotgun Players, TheatreWorks, Crowded Fire, San Francisco Playhouse, Marin Theatre, Synchronicity, Olney Theatre, Geva and more. Her work is published at Playscripts (I and You, Exit, Pursued By A Bear, and Toil And Trouble), Dramatists Play Service (Silent Sky), and Samuel French (Emilie). She is a Playwright in Residence at The Playwrights Foundation, and a proud Dramatists Guild member. She is from Atlanta, GA and lives in San Francisco. LaurenGunderson.com and @LalaTellsAStory.

Part of the Art Series

Main Street Theater has an audience engagement initiative, the Part of the Art Series, which provides special opportunities for people to connect with MST's work in new ways. Part of the Art events for Silent Sky include:

--Free Post-Show Discussion Series with Special Guests Following These Matinees:

· Nov. 8 - Dr. Carolyn Sumners, VP of Astronomy & Physical Sciences at the Houston Museum of Natural Science; Dr. Thomas R. Williams, Historian of the American Association of Variable Star Observers & Visiting Scholar in the Rice University History Department, & other guests from the Houston Astronomical Society

· Nov. 15 & 29 - Leroy Chiao, Ph.D., former NASA astronaut and International Space Station Commander, current CEO of OneOrbit

The public is welcome to attend these discussions even if you're not seeing the show on these days. Plan to arrive at the theater at 5pm.

--After-parties following Saturday Night Performances Beginning Nov. 7 (included in ticket price)/

About the Production

Main Street Theater Executive Artistic Director Rebecca Greene Udden is the director of Silent Sky. The cast includes Elizabeth Marshall Black (Peace in Our Time, Heartbreak House, Fallen Angels), Jennifer Bassett Dean (The Coast of Utopia, I Am Barbie, Driftwood), Shannon Emerick (The Real Thing, The Coast of Utopia, Arcadia), Claire Hart-Palumbo (The Year of Magical Thinking, But Not Goodbye, Copenhagen), and James Monaghan (The Coast of Utopia).

The design team includes Liz Freese (set design), Eric L. Marsh (lighting design), Margaret Crowley (costume design), Shawn W. St. John (sound design), and Rodney Walsworth (properties design). Debs Ramser and Julie Paré are the Production Stage Managers.

About Main Street Theater

Now in its 40th Anniversary Season, Main Street Theater provides theater experiences for all ages. Founded in 1975, our MainStage produces professional, intimate, literary plays for adults and operates under an Actors' Equity Association union contract; our Theater for Youth produces professional, engaging productions based on children's literature for families and school groups, both in-house and on tour around Texas; and we offer Education and Outreach programs on-site and at satellite locations around the Greater Houston area for youth aged 4 - high school. We work out of 2 brand new facilities: our Rice Village home on Times. Blvd., and as part of the MATCH (Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston) on Main Street.

Main Street Theater is a member of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national service organization for not-for-profit theaters, of Theatre for Young Audiences/USA (formerly ASSITEJ), the world theatre network of theatre for children and young people, and a founding member of Houston Arts Partners. Main Street Theater is funded in part by grants from the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance, and the Texas Commission on the Arts.