“vera rubin: bringing the dark to light”

By William C. Kovacsik. Directed by Stephen Weitz. Featuring Mackenzie Sherburne and Chip Parsons. A BETC and Fiske Planetarium production. Jan. 21Feb. 6 at Fiske Planetarium, 2414 Regent Drive, Boulder, on the CU campus. Tickets $25 opening night, $15 other times ,at 1-800-838-3006 or online. Our stage is still in front but, in the planetarium, the audience is in the set along with the actors. That direct change in perspective and immersion has profound implications on the script and interplay between the actors.”

These differences took awhile for the BETC and Fiske teams to reconcile, he said.

One challenge was to balance how much the screen drives the story and how much the actors drive the story.

“The interplay of the dome and actors is very deliberate,” Benjamin said. “We worked hard to make sure that at no point in the play the dome and the actors were competing for the audience’s attention. Once the Fiske team learned the basics of theatrical storytelling and the BETC team understood the freedom of the dome, we were able to create a wonderfully immersive story.”

On the educational side, “Vera Rubin” uses creative visualizations of gravitational force and galaxy movement within the show, to make these complex concepts come alive for older students,” said Heather Beasley, BETC director of programming and grants.

Astronomer Rubin was a pioneering scientist in the 1960s, a time when women were a tiny minority in the field. Rubin was part of the team that uncovered the concept of “dark matter,” the idea that up to 90 percent of the universe is invisible and unidentifiable. (Apparently scientists still don’t know what it is, but they’re sure it’s out there.) In the ’70s, her theory was derided by the all-male science establishment.

The 35-minute play by William C. Kovacsik explores the challenges Rubin encountered as a woman in astronomy throughout her career.

In her later years, Rubin won awards, published books and papers and became a strong advocate for women in the sciences. She has the distinction of having an asteroid named in her honor.

Opening night features a post-show talk from Meg Urry, professor of physics and astronomy at Yale and current president of the American Astronomical Society. Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830, jostrow@denverpost.com or @ostrowdp