We are a little over one week out from the opening of Silent Sky and I hope everyone is as excited as I am to take a look at this amazing play! Over the past couple of weeks, we have looked at the characters, some history, and the Cepheids themselves, but I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about the incredible playwright of this masterpiece.

Lauren Gunderson is from Atlanta, Georgia and now resides in San Francisco. She attended Emory University where she received a BA in English and Creative Writing and later attended NYU where she received her MFA in Dramatic Writing. Gunderson is not only an accomplished playwright, but also a screenwriter and short story author as well. She began writing after a short stint as an actress because she felt like there were not enough meaty female roles, and she was right.

Gunderson has also found ways to intersect academics and theatre, not only in Silent Sky, but in other plays of hers. In Ada and the Engine, she writes about the famous mathematician Ada Lovelace, and in Emilie: La Marquise du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight, she writes about the play’s namesake.

She also has won numerous awards, including the Dramatist Guild of America award, Berrilla Kerr Award for American Theatre, Global Age Project, and the Sloan Science Script Award.