Voyager 1 snapped this "pale blue dot" photo of Earth in 1990 as the spacecraft traveled beyond the orbit of Neptune. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
The wonders of the universe鈥攏ow set to disco music and 1980s rock ballads.听
This week, the Fiske Planetarium at 精品SM在线影片 and the debut Voyagers, an original musical that follows the story of NASA鈥檚 twin Voyager spacecraft.听
The immersive experience will take place in Fiske鈥檚 full-dome theater from Oct. 22 to 31. The show was originally scheduled to run in March 2020 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Audiences can expect to take a journey from Earth to Jupiter, Neptune and points beyond.听
Voyager 1 and 2 launched in 1977 and have since pushed past the boundaries of Earth鈥檚 solar system. The musical serves as a fitting tribute for that iconic journey, said John Keller, director of Fiske. More than听30 years ago, Voyager 1 snapped what is now known as the 鈥減ale blue dot,鈥� a photo that shows our own planet as just a pinprick of light in space.听
鈥淢atheatre has done a nice job of telling a human story,鈥� Keller said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not just a story about discovering planets. It鈥檚 a story of humans trying to figure out our place in the universe.鈥�
The show promises to be a lot of fun, too, said Sadie Bowman, managing director of Matheatre.
Top: Voyagers poster; bottom: Sadie Bowman and Ricky Coates as Marie and Pierre Cure in Curie Me Away. (Credits: Fiske Planetarium/Matheatre; Matheatre)
鈥淎udiences are going to have some really fun songs stuck in their heads, and they鈥檙e going to be dancing in their seats,鈥� she said.听
Where no one has gone before
Bowman鈥檚 been helping audiences to dance in their seats鈥攖o songs about science, no less鈥攆or more than a decade.听
Since launching Matheatre in 2006, Bowman and her husband and fellow actor Ricky Coates have traveled the country and internationallyperforming pun-heavy musicals for adults and kids alike. Their repertoire includes Calculus: The Musical, Tesla from the Machine and Curie Me Away.
鈥淲e use live theater to tell stories that get people excited about math and science,鈥� Bowman said. 鈥淪tories make science a living, exciting thing.鈥�
The duo met Keller at a conference in 2018, and the idea for a Voyager musical set in a planetarium was born. It may be the team鈥檚 most challenging show to date.
鈥淭here was not one protagonist that made Voyager happen,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t was this crew of people from all walks of life working together for this one purpose.鈥�
To capture that common purpose, Bowman and Coates met with many of the original scientists on the mission to talk about their experiences and what all they learned. They included Fran Bagenal, a professor in the at 精品SM在线影片.听
Coates said that these pioneers were, in many cases, exploring places in our solar system that no human craft had visited before鈥攊n the case of Uranus and Neptune, no mission has been back since.听
鈥淰oyager turned these little points of light that you can only see with a telescope into full blown worlds,鈥� Coates said. 鈥淪ome of them have volcanos. Some of them have geysers. Some look like cantaloupes that were broken apart and put back together.鈥�
People of the pale blue dot
The inaugural performances of Voyagers will mark the first time that Bowman and Coates have belted their tunes in a planetarium. They鈥檙e looking forward to melding their music with Fiske鈥檚 mind-bending trips through space.
The show taps into the music popular during the mission鈥檚 heyday, beginning with disco and evolving into killer guitar solos.听
Bowman鈥檚 favorite song is an anthem that delves into the mysteries of Miranda, a bumpy moon of Uranus. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an 80s soft-rock ballad,鈥� Bowman said.听
She and Coates hope audiences will come away from Voyagers with the same sort of 鈥渃osmic perspective鈥� that the mission inspired with a single photo of Earth three decades ago.
鈥淲e want them to walk away with this idea that we are all on a tiny pale blue dot in the middle of this vast expanse,鈥� Coates said. 鈥淭hat is both lonely but can also help to build community. We鈥檙e all on this thing together.鈥�
