Photo Credit: Renaissance Theaterworks
“Whose eye is brighter than a woman’s?” is a sentence attributed to Annie Jump Cannon, one of America’s greatest astronomers, known for her classifications of the stars. Defying 19th-century gender stereotypes, Cannon established herself as a genius whose work is still celebrated today through the American Astronomical Society’s Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy. Playwright Reina Hardy references Cannon’s life and work in Renaissance Theaterworks’ new play, Annie Jump and the Library of Heaven, which closes the company’s season about women and science.
Annie Jump is a 13-year-old science genius living in a small Kansas town with a struggling dad who believes in aliens. Annie is visited by Althea, an intergalactic supercomputer who came to help Annie bring humanity out into the cosmos; in the process, Annie becomes free to realize her true potential. Through science-fiction themes and exploring greater purpose in the Universe, the play focuses on interpersonal relationships.
“It is a humanist play. It is about the struggles within a family to realize their dreams,” director Pam Kriger says. “The science-fiction aspect of it is there to help this young girl become who she could become, but the play is truly about her journey.” This is not a play only for kids; “anyone from age 10 and up can enjoy it,” Suzan Fete, Renaissance Theaterworks’ artistic director, insists. It has characters that anyone can relate to, but it is first and foremost a beautiful story for everyone.
Hardy says that her two protagonists, Annie and Althea, “showed up from who knows where, already sniping at each other, already the best of friends,” while she tried to write the script. As for the initial idea, it came to her after she heard “a story about a man who maintained a website inviting aliens to contact him” and read a science history book “that described a theoretical concept much like the Library of Heaven. The two ideas sort of collided,” she adds.
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Renaissance Theaterworks Rehearsal
Renaissance Theaterworks Rehearsal
Renaissance Theaterworks Rehearsal
Renaissance Theaterworks Rehearsal
Annie Jump has all the odds stacked in its favor, from a charming premise to a great cast, as well as animated sections using a large screen to take the public from place to place. To bring the story to life, Rachael Zientek, a seasoned actress, was chosen to play Althea. Annie herself is interpreted by 17-year-old Reese Parish, who has demonstrated her on-stage skills as Dorothy in First Stage’s The Wiz, despite still being a high-schooler. “She is really going to be a force to be reckoned with. She is amazingly well-rounded and she’s smart as a whip. You give her one little direction, and she goes with it, she really gets it,” Kriger says.
Renaissance Theaterworks’ New Play Development Series
Annie Jump and the Library of Heaven marks the beginning of a new era for Renaissance Theaterworks. The play is a rolling world premiere; it premieres in Milwaukee, but three other theaters in the nation are playing it, too: Rorschach Theatre in Washington, D.C., Vortex Theatre in Austin, Texas and Thrown Stone in Connecticut next season, all thanks to the National New Play Network, which Renaissance Theaterworks recently joined. The New Play Network is a national organization that helps new plays get developed and produced by giving local theater companies resources and contacts all over the country.
Playwright Reina Hardy
Annie Jump allowed Renaissance Theaterworks to join that network as the script is original, written specifically for the company’s New Play Development series, Br!NK. Since 2013, female Midwestern playwrights have been encouraged to submit scripts to Br!NK; each year, two scripts win and are subsequently developed and presented to the public through readings.
Hardy’s script for Annie Jump and the Library of Heaven won Br!NK in 2017, and it is the first original Br!NK script that Renaissance Theaterworks fully produced. “We could afford to produce it well; we felt like it would fit in really well with our season, and we just really loved it,” Fete explains. “It was also so successful at the reading; I’ve never had so many people coming to me and saying, ‘You have to produce this.’ Of course, we would love to produce more Br!NK plays.”
More recently, the company expanded Br!NK with Br!efs—a collection of short plays that will be presented as part of the Br!NK New Play Festival. “The Br!efs are 10-minute plays based on one of the three writing prompts we put out each year. For instance, ‘Fortune favors the bold,’ or ‘Happiness is waiting for you.’ We then show five of those plays during a Br!ef afternoon,” Fete explains.
If you’re a Midwestern woman, a passionate writer and, like Hardy, would like your script to be played not only here in Milwaukee but around the U.S., Renaissance Theaterworks offers you a chance to get your voice heard. This year’s Br!NK season is from September to December, and Br!efs are posted thrice a year on their website, r-t-w.com.
Annie Jump and the Library of Heaven will be performed March 29-April 21 at the Broadway Theatre Center, 158 N. Broadway. For tickets, call 414-291-7800 or visit r-t-w.com.
