G. McMillan Stars in Their Eyes: Galileo Meets Shakespeare Media Dev. grant
1. TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. TABLE OF CONTENTS...... 1 2. NARRATIVE...... 1 A. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION...... 1 B. CONTENT AND CREATIVE APPROACH...... 2 C. APPEAL TO NATIONAL AUDIENCE...... 8 D. FORMAT...... 9 E. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS...... 11 F. DISTRIBUTION PLAN...... 11 G. HUMANITIES ADVISERS...... 11 H. MEDIA STAFF...... 17 I. PROGRESS...... 17 J. WORK PLAN...... 18 K. FUNDRAISING PLAN (not applicable)...... 19 L. ORGANIZATION PROFILE...... 19 M. BIBLIOGRAPHY...... 19 N. ARCHIVAL RESOURCES...... 21 3. TREATMENT...... 22 4. IMAGES (SEPARATE FILE)...... 26 5. DESCRIPTION OF A SAMPLE...... 26 6. BUDGET (Separate Excel file)...... 26
2. NARRATIVE
A. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
This is a request for funds to develop a script for a 60-minute film dealing with an imaginary meeting between Galileo Galilei and William Shakespeare, with inserted comments from specialists in the humanities and astronomy, to show how interrelated literature and science are. The documentary will weave a variety of media together—on-camera interviews, panning photos of historic etchings and drawings, animated segments, and diagrams of Renaissance optical instruments—to bring to life two larger-than-life historical figures.
Stars in Their Eyes: Galileo Meets Shakespeare will explore and attempt to resolve some of the stereotypical mutual distrust and hostility between the arts and sciences by
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illustrating the connections between the two men’s work. Audiences will engage with the beauty of the night sky as perceived both scientifically and artistically.
We are investigating the possibility of distribution for our film via the Association of Science technology Centers with our ASTC contact Wendy Pollock. We are also exploring distribution possibilities with Kurt Austin, the Publications Division Director of the National Council of Teachers of English.
We are currently requesting $74,992.12 from the National Endowment for the Humanities which will be used to produce a detailed shooting script in preparation for production of the film.
INTRODUCTION TO PROGRAM
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) and William Shakespeare (1564-1616) created foundations for much of modern science and literature, yet they are seldom spoken of together. In Stars in Their Eyes: Galileo Meets Shakespeare, our new interdisciplinary approach brings to light recently discovered evidence that Shakespeare may have been using Elizabethan era optics to view the night sky. And, in turn, Galileo was more of a literary stylist and artistic draughtsman than most people realize. Because of poor communication and ongoing mistrust between the arts and sciences, many avenues of possible mutual enhancement and creative collaboration are being overlooked. C. P. Snow noted that many of the most intractable problems might be closer to a solution if more courageous souls dared to cross the gulf of distrust between the arts and sciences. That is what our film intends to embody: a true meeting of minds and creative capabilities. Our dramatized encounter between Galileo and Shakespeare will be punctuated by commentaries from experts in a number of disciplines, including theater arts, literature, cultural theory, anthropology, and astronomy.
B. CONTENT AND CREATIVE APPROACH
“This is only speculation, of course: the fact is that with the second-best bed, as with so much else, he left us a mystery.” (375) - Michael Wood In Search of Shakespeare.
Mystery surrounds William Shakespeare, the man who created so many outstanding plays, and much that remains of him is based upon circumstantial evidence. As our character Will interacts with a more extroverted and self-important Galileo, we become aware of depths hidden behind that careful façade, because Shakespeare was a cautious man. He may have blended into his surroundings as a cover, because biographer Park Honan suggests that Shakespeare may have been “genial” and “a comfortable conformist.” Yet if Ernst Honigmann is correct about Shakespeare’s Catholic roots, then Shakespeare could have emerged from his upbringing as a nervous individual with a haunted nature and a need for secrecy. Will was a modest fellow, claims Stephen Greenblatt, who is convinced that Shakespeare was never embarrassed by his relatively humble background and was comfortable in his retreat to rural living in his old age. But which is the real Will? Our documentary mixes the expert opinions of scholars with actors who will probe our subjects’ biographical mysteries and who will show that Galileo and Shakespeare were similar, as well as different.
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Our presentation explores two aspects of Shakespearean mystery. The first aspect details how, in 2009, astronomer Ewen Whitaker reconstructed a working Elizabethan-era Digges perspective lens system that Shakespeare may have been, at least, aware of. If so, how did this affect his plays? Shakespeare is recorded as having become close friends with Leonard Digges the Younger (1588-1635), the younger son of the man who invented the perspective lens, Thomas Digges (1546 – 24 August 1595). Although there is no reference from Leonard Digges or his friend William Bourne that they had viewed the sky, Bourne did report a plan for a working magnifier capable of “discerning script from the distance of a quarter-mile” (Usher 70 After 1608, Dutch-made telescopes similar to Galileo’s were sold in London. Shakespeare may have looked through one of these Dutch telescopes, since evidence of telescope use in London is documented. For instance, English scholar Thomas Harriot’s lunar sketches, made by viewing through one of these early "Dutch trunke" telescopes (dated the 26th of July, 1609) are on display in the London Museum of Science. This viewing was three months before Galileo’s viewing of the moon!
Professor Frederick Kiefer will explore the other aspect of Shakespearean mystery: what is known of Shakespeare’s general curiosity. Kiefer asks if Shakespeare revolutionized our world view differently than by looking at physical objects in the sky. King Lear is an innovative play, defying the expectations of audiences. Why did Shakespeare purge from his sources for King Lear any trace of Christian theology and paint a world devoid of comfortable piety, the kind of piety sanctioned by the Catholic church, the same church that ruthlessly persecuted Galileo? Did Shakespeare’s metaphorical “perspective lens” in King Lear run parallel to the new dimensions offered by Galileo’s telescope? The use of perspective altering lenses was well-known in Renaissance art. Shakespeare had surely seen examples of anamorphic paintings that tricked the eye, appearing as weird shapes from one angle, then like precise portraits from another. Is King Lear, then, one of these shape changers, altering forever the way Elizabethan audiences viewed their world? And what other Shakespearean plays created a startling new world?
These twin mysteries, Shakespeare’s interest in the night sky and his shockingly novel perspective on society, fascinate researchers and stir debates. Some Shakespearean scholars maintain that, even if he could have viewed the stars through a telescope, why would he? Others, like Frederick Kiefer, ask what world-changing perspective Shakespeare instigated with King Lear, his early modern play of the naked struggle for power, where the gods are absent and/or cynically invoked by contending parties. Of course, what Shakespeare knew of Galileo’s work is also an open question. Could Shakespeare have been planting subtle references to what Galileo had observed of Jupiter in such plays as Cymbeline? Specialist in Shakespearean biography Lois Potter argues that “modern biographers of Shakespeare would be lost if they were not allowed to ask unanswerable questions.”
These are fascinating speculations: Shakespeare’s toying with the workings of society, the Elizabethan perspective lens, and his possible knowledge of Galileo’s work. Such open questions may force a revision of the image of the man of the theater who was removed from science. The William Shakespeare some have known kept his distance from the Copernican world view and would not have chosen to think about the actual planets, but only the mythological gods for whom they were named. Yet—the tantalizing yet—these doubting scholars cannot prove that Shakespeare did not view distant objects (at least earthly objects) with such a device. It would not be surprising if Shakespeare had toyed with the telescope himself or listened to others telling about what they had seen through a telescope. We interviewed Ewen Whitaker, who has built a working Elizabethan perspective lens and has defined the capability of this optical instrument for viewing the night sky in The British Astronomical Association Journal (199.2, 2009.) This
3 G. McMillan Stars in Their Eyes: Galileo Meets Shakespeare Media Dev. grant videotape session was held Nov. 20th, 2009. Whitaker explained his new findings, showing cross- sectional diagrams comparing the perspective lens and the Galilean telescope, and he will answer how Shakespeare’s possible use of a Galilean telescope (or knowledge of its use ) may cause scholars to revise their views of late 17th Century optics and the impact of such optics on the minds of creative artists.
Our approach is to ask questions, such as whether Shakespeare’s curiosity about the night sky existed, as Peter Usher claims. We also investigate whether Galileo should be considered a great literary stylist, as is claimed by his biographer Andrea Frova. Our project’s approach to these historical figures is to show viewers two very different men than those who have come down to us pigeonholed as if for eternity in two intellectual camps: Shakespeare the playwright and Galileo the scientist. Frova cites the rich human element and power of Galileo’s style as setting the course for the future of Italian prose and our consultant Darko Suvin notes that the Italian admiration of Galileo’s writing is well documented. Dedre Gentner emphasizes the rich use of metaphor and analogy across Galileo’s writings. In our documentary, we counter frozen categories to reveal that our two protagonists were interested in everything around them. Why should they not serve, in this new view, to inspire the youth of today to link knowledge in new and unusual ways? In a series of scenes with the two men that are linked to commentaries by present-day specialists in academic fields, we hope to stir the minds and emotions of a diverse audience.
Our documentary illustrates that Shakespeare was like a kaleidoscope as well as a shadowy figure, in that he reflected the light from those around him and turned their attributes into figures of radiance. In the company of somber men, he created somber characters to match —and to poke fun at: Polonius in Hamlet, Don Armado in Love’s Labour Lost. In the company of glaring Elizabethan court intrigue, he created memorable portraits of Regan and Goneril in King Lear and of Richard the Third in the play of that name. He could beam with love as in Romeo and Juliet and bristle with hate as in Macduff’s plans for revenge upon the usurping Macbeth. We will again interview Frederick Kiefer, who will address what is known of Shakespeare’s personality and how he handled controversial matters that arose in his life and works. Our documentary version of Will makes use of all the mercurial changes of emotion that glimmer down to us. Was Will stingy or generous? Was he honest or devious? When confronted with a man such as Galileo, one so certain of his own importance and of his astronomical knowledge, would Will have bowed down and melted into the scenery or would he have held up his end of the conversation?
We will recreate a Shakespeare who could refract, but also reflect (and sometimes deflect) stinging insults from arrogant, college poets. Will evaded the sneer of the college- educated London playwright Robert Greene that he was nothing but an “upstart Crowe beautified with our feathers” and a nervy “Shake-scene.” He reflected the feelings of his times and made those in power recognize that they wore what was, at best, a hollow crown. In plays such as Hamlet and King Lear, Shakespeare spoke truth to the powers of his day by confronting the powerful with their limits and their mortality. But, if challenged, he swore that nothing originated with the humble playwright. He merely reflected the mores of his times. Our meeting between the two men will ask the viewer to decide whether the less subtle Galileo could gain the upper hand over such a smooth player as Will.
We will dramatize such personality contrasts. Since he was less subtle than Shakespeare, Galileo shone out to his contemporaries. Unlike Will Shakespeare’s careful demeanor, Galileo elbowed his way up the social scale by force of his bright, charismatic personality. Biographer
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Mario Biagioli describes Galileo in anthropological terms as a “big man” (237). Physicist Dan Q. Posin describes Galileo’s relations at the University of Pisa as troubled because other professors “for the most part, rejected new ideas,” believing too strongly in the authority of Aristotle to accept Galileo’s observations of falling bodies.” Later, he obtained his title as court philosopher to Cosimo de Medici, not through the usual channels, but by patronage. In shining so brightly and passing others who did the expected training, Galileo also scorched some egos and local scholars referred to him as an “alien” coming into their sacred precincts to raid, rather than join the brotherhood of philosophers. Our documentary will present Galileo’s negotiations to become the Medici’s court philosopher and mathematician as being based upon his claim that he could entertain by producing “novelties” (Biagioli).
Our Specialist Maurice Finocchiaro will establish that Galileo knew that there were times to exercise diplomacy to meet the demands of Italian court patronage. Bagioli also notes that a surer way to become an author than to arrogantly represent oneself as a sole producer of a work was to assign one’s role merely as that of the agent of the noble patron, fleshing out his valued ideas and comments. Even within the courts and their political intrigues, there were great differences in the ways that Will and Galileo handled controversial issues. Where Shakespeare was sometimes veiled and shadowy, Galileo’s forceful personality led him to cast a bold light upon matter, making sharp contrasts. As Suvin has noted, after researchers such as Galileo, science began to be based upon experience: predictive capability and reproducible effects.
Our experts’ commentaries will reveal that the clarity of Galileo’s arguments does not preclude his ability to weave rich textures of metaphor and analogy. Both Suvin and Froma assert Galileo’s complete mastery of written style. His biographers proclaim Galileo’s formative position over the development Italian writing, just as Shakespeare’s plays influenced the development of English style. The University of Arizona holds a copy of Galileo’s Sidereus Nuncius that we expect to examine during our discussions of Galileo’s literary style. Our documentary will show how these two men brought their extraordinary gifts to bear under trying circumstances. We will show that, far from the usual conception of the arts and sciences, the creative paths of these two luminaries crossed and resonated with each other.
We know Galileo as an iconolastic scientist, but our consultant Bob Joseph will demonstrate that Galileo was also an artist. He was an excellent draughtsman and especially good at perspective technique. Part of the persuasive character of the Sidereus Nuncius is the quality of Galileo’s illustrations of the mountains and valleys on the Moon. He was a member of a Florentine artistic society and had a number of good friends in the artistic community. His telescopic discoveries, and especially his lunar studies, fascinated the artistic community. A number began using the telescope themselves. Perhaps the most famous example of Galileo’s influence on contemporary art is Lodovico Cigoli’s Immacolata of 1612, a fresco in the dome of the Pauline Chapel in S. Maria Maggiore in Rome, in which the Virgin is standing on Galileo’s cratered moon. Cigoli worked with Galileo in making drawings of Galileo’s sunspots. Other artists, both in Italy and on the Continent, included features from Galileo’s telescopic discoveries in their works. Galileo compares true scientists with true artists in the Dialogues on the Two Chief World Systems, arguing that There are between the practice of natural philosophy and the study of it precisely those differences that we find between drawing from life and copying the works of others.... There are those [artists] who never do take
up drawing from Nature, but always persist in copying drawing and paintings, such that they fail not only to become perfect painters, but are also unable to distinguish great art from bad, and good representations from
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poor ones, through the recognition in thousands and thousands of natural examples the true effects of foreshortening, contours, lights, shadows, reflections, and the infinite variety of different viewpoints. (98).
Our approach shows that, just as the Galilean telescope’s lens refracts into facets of light, so does Galileo’s reputation over time. His personality divided into different aspects and was theatrical enough in his own day to attract comments of envious philosophers in the Medici court. Little wonder that he has passed into the world of theater, notably in the play Galileo by Bertolt Brecht. If Shakespeare were interested in the night sky, thus breaking disciplinary boundaries, then Galileo’s theatricality must also feature in our documentary. Darko Suvin is uniquely qualified to address Galileo's theatrical effect upon our culture. We will interview him during the documentary to further elaborate upon Galileo’s dramatic personality and theater based upon his life and career. Contemporary theatrical interest in this most dramatic of scientists shows that Galileo, like Shakespeare, is still refracting into times to come.
Funds from an NEH media development grant will allow us to bring our consultants together and design our film’s plan of production. Our continental United States colleagues will confer in person and we will use both the Internet and conference calls to confer with our international consultants. And for those in Hawaii (Bob Joseph), Wales (Nick Campion) and in Italy (Darko Suvin), we are already researching the remote videotaping arrangements with their local institutions. Due to his age (87), we have already videotaped Ewen Whitaker’s segment for the film but this was just a precaution because Ewen is hale and spry. As for archival materials, we have the interest of various libraries and archives in the southwestern United States who own Galileo manuscripts, such as the Huntington Library and the University of Arizona’s Special Collections. To determine the base of interest in our subject, we will interview students at Pima Community College and at the University of Arizona about the achievements of Galileo and of Shakespeare and ask whether they would like to know more about these two historic figures. Such an informal series of brief interviews should reflect in miniature the attitude of today’s students toward the foundations of science and the humanities. We hope our documentary’s dramatic visual approach will inspire students and the broader public to lifelong education at its most creative.
SIGNIFICANCE TO THE HUMANITIES
There seems to be no place where the cultures meet. . .The clashing point of two subjects, two disciplines, two cultures—two galaxies, so far as that goes—ought to produce creative chances. . .But they are there, as it were, in a vacuum, because those in the two cultures cannot talk to each other. (21). -C. P. Snow The Two Cultures: and a Second Look.
British physicist, novelist and critic C. P. Snow famously analyzed the antipathy of the humanities and scientific communities at the mid-twentieth century. As a published writer whose professional training was in science, he could move in the circles of both camps, which was (and is) a rare occurrence. But why should petty squabbling up in The Ivory Towers of higher education be of any concern to the broadest public? Snow explains this, as well. Stating that the division in our culture is “making us more obtuse than we need to be,” Snow concludes that even though everyone cannot be reached and broadened, we can educate a large proportion of our better minds so that they “are not ignorant of imaginative experience, both in the arts and in science, nor ignorant either of the endowments of applied science, of the remediable suffering of
6 G. McMillan Stars in Their Eyes: Galileo Meets Shakespeare Media Dev. grant most of their fellow humans and of the responsibilities which, once they are seen, cannot be denied” (92). George Coyne, SJ, the former Director of the Vatican Observatory in Rome, notes that “we have come a long way since C.P. Snow's comments but we have a long way to go. Just look at the struggles between some religious beliefs in America and scientific evolution. Rifts among, for instance, the "new atheists," creationists, and new Darwinists are still very prominent and cantankerous,” and he suggests that “This initiative, Stars in Their Eyes: Galileo meets Shakespeare, will go a very long way in helping to create a more civil and productive exchange among the many diverse currents in American society.”
The need for better communications between the disciplines shows up both at the local and national levels almost daily. In a faculty senate debate on April 24th, 2009, over open access publishing at the University of Maryland, the online campus newspaper The Diamondback reported that “science professors faced off against humanities professors - a rift caused by the vast differences between scientific journals and humanities journals.” Such scenes as these erupt over any number of precipitating causes, but the gulf between science and the humanities is always just below the surface, ready to spill into scenes of interdisciplinary strife. C. P. Snow reported that his critics showed remarkable animosity when he proclaimed the existence of “two cultures” and that F. R. Leavis, the literary critic, even approached him before publishing Two Cultures? The Significance of C. P. Snow to be sure that Snow would not sue him over some of the abusive language in his critique of both Snow and of science (56). So the problems between disciplines, even then, were not new and they continue. By bringing our two historic figures together, we hope to show how, despite initial mistrust and lack of mutual esteem, Galileo and Shakespeare will learn to get along with each other and appreciate what the other does.
But there have been forerunners to our project in the broad sense, because some scholars have been attempting to connect these two worlds. For a number of years, the post-secondary educational movement called Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) has been attracting many adherents, and has some notable journals, such as Writing Across the Disciplines, currently edited by Michael Pemberton of Georgia Southern University. This new journal, founded in 2002, sets up the task of publishing studies of how to teach the various kinds of writing done in both the sciences and in the humanities. The last ten years have brought keynote speakers to both the Conference on College Composition and Communications (CCCC) and The Modern Language Association (MLA) who have outlined the gulf between the two cultures and what might be done to bridge the gap. In his 2005 essay in the national MLA journal Profession, the then-MLA president, Robert Scholes, decried the humanities’ inability even to define itself without “setting up science as their opposite, an opposite regularly regarded from the humanistic point-of-view with a mixture of suspicion and envy” (8). Scholes argued along with Barbara Herrnstein Smith that those in the humanities “need to explain more clearly to scientists what we are doing and why we are doing it,” as well as helping scientists, who work in a climate of broad scientific illiteracy, to explain their work to students (8).
But have there been any initiatives to help the mutual flow of understanding? Indeed, there have, even though many of these were not appreciated for decades. We can see the last forty years as a seed time of groundbreaking work on improved communication between the humanities and the sciences. In 1970, the science writer Isaac Asimov published his Asimov’s Guide to Shakespeare, taking the risk of bringing a fresh, broadly interdisciplinary, approach to the reading of the Bard’s plays. In his Introduction, Asimov explained that he would “go over each of the thirty-eight plays and two narrative poems written by Shakespeare in his quarter century of literary life, and explain, as I go along, the historical, legendary, and mythological background” (xxii). At the time, such interdisciplinary work was frowned upon by those who emphasized textual analysis in isolation (formalism) in the field of Shakespearean studies, since,
7 G. McMillan Stars in Their Eyes: Galileo Meets Shakespeare Media Dev. grant among the other elements of history, Asimov also elaborated upon allusions to science and technology as reflected in Shakespeare’s lines.
Yet, there was reason for the literary scholars’ concern, since slipshod work often has proclaimed that it connects science to the humanities, as E. C. Krupp, the Director of Griffith Observatory, recalls in his note of support for Stars in Their Eyes: Galileo Meets Shakespeare. He notes that “over the years I have encountered superficial, inappropriate, and predictable programs intended to link astronomy and the arts but that compromised both,” but he finds our project “a refreshing alternative” and he judges our interdisciplinary team as “well qualified for the task.”
C. APPEAL TO NATIONAL AUDIENCE
An interesting collaboration occurred in April 2008 at the University of Arizona when the Phoenix Mars Mission landed its craft on the surface of that planet: a dance concert. The University of Arizona’s Dance Department created a festive event called Mars and other Stories, which included newly choreographed works on themes of space and time travel. The audience overflowed the Stevie Eller Dance Theater on the university’s campus. Proud of being at the first public university to host its own mission to Mars, the dance department crossed the cultural gulf between science and the humanities by awarding the Phoenix Mars Project’s Principal Investigator Peter Smith a scroll of appreciation. A male dancer floated impressively down from the ceiling, framed in a wire hoop, to present the scroll. People leaving the building were heard to wish that more such collaborations could be planned. Indeed, the obvious excitement and appeal of timely collaborations such as the above and others in the wings, such as Stars in Their Eyes: Galileo Meets Shakespeare, show that an eager audience exists for media dealing in new ways with the borders between science and the humanities.
Around the world, Galileo is being celebrated in 2009, UNESCO’s International Year of Astronomy. Even Google has celebrated Galileo and his telescope with a special Google logo on Tuesday, 25 August, 2009, on their main search page, because four hundred years ago, on 25 August 1609, Galileo wrote notes about showing his first telescope to the Venetian Senate. Our film project is fortunate to launch in this year of global celebration and interest will remain strong due to the many projects across the country started by amateur astronomy groups and others. For example, on the International Year of Astronomy’s United States web site, one group is working on connections between music and astronomy, citing, among other works, Philip Glass’s Opera Galileo. In another attempt to show connections between art and science, the International Association of Astronomical Artists (IAAA) has created a traveling exhibition titled “The Artists’ Universe,” a juried collection of 31 astronomical artworks by 23 artists that reflects various styles, subject matters, and media. A partial count of US productions of Brecht’s Galileo yielded 23 United States college and repertoire theater venues this year. Museums and planetariums, as well as traditional classrooms, can make good use of our film in arousing intellectual and artistic curiosity.
In particular, Dr. Art Hammon of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Education Office, asserts that Stars in Their Eyes: Galileo Meets Shakespeare will be a valuable addition to the resources of any 7th through 12th grade school. In middle school in particular, interdisciplinary units (science and literature) are popular and NASA has produced one in connection with the
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Ulysses Mission: Over the Poles of the Sun ( http://ulysses.jpl.nasa.gov/education/Maunder_Min_Activity.htm).
Hammon continues that the film, Galileo meets Shakespeare addresses the need to integrate habits of mind of two persons whose work and interests transcended a single subject. Shakespeare used words like “atomies” She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes In shape no bigger than an agate-stone On the fore-finger of an alderman, Drawn with a team of little atomies (Romeo and Juliet, I .4). Hammon goes on that Galileo’s writing in the Sidereus Nuncius (The Starry Messenger) uses language with the same eloquence as Shakespeare,” for instance, where Galileo argues that "It seems to me to be a matter of no small importance to have ended the dispute about the Milky Way by making its nature manifest to the very senses as well as to the intellect. " (Galileo 28). And he concludes that “to link these two persons and their writings is a logical way to show the influence of language and science and the mutual interests that each shared during this era. The lessons for the present are obvious as science and literature enrich each other. High school teachers of several disciplines could use the film to emphasize the importance of writing in the sciences and the importance of science in the crafting of accurately written expository writing.” And Simon James, Editor of The Wellsian newsletter of the H. G. Wells Society, adds that “This is an eminently worthwhile and stimulating project. It will make a valuable contribution to bridging the gaps in understanding between the arts and sciences, and the proposed format will ensure that the film will reach the widest possible audience.”
Although less momentous than Galileo’s global festival, the year 2009 is also the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s sonnets. Lee Jamison, on the faculty of Theater Studies, Stratford- upon-Avon College, notes ruefully that “I think that this important anniversary has been sadly overlooked in the media. . .. This year we should find a way to mark the anniversary and celebrate Shakespeare’s poetry.” Our film’s double mission of showing Galileo the writer and Shakespeare the sky watcher complements other interdisciplinary initiatives that have drawn good comments and lively crowds. Both Galileo and Shakespeare are perennial as well as topical favorites of the public as is evidenced by the events for the International Year of Astronomy and by the many Shakespeare plays being constantly produced across the United States and around the world.
D. FORMAT
Our documentary unfolds the dramatic panorama behind the creative work of Galileo and Shakespeare. Stars in Their Eyes: Galileo Meets Shakespeare will use a variety of elements to bring these two giants’ worlds into conflict and harmony. These media are, chiefly:
Archival space imagery, original pages from Galileo’s texts, etchings and line drawings, paintings, diagrams of optical instruments
Interviews with scholars (in-camera and as voice-over)
Diagrams of significant artifacts (e. g., the Digges-Bourne perspective lens and Galilean telescope)
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An off-camera narrator
Music, sound effects, special effects
Clips from Brecht’s Galileo and astronomical parts of scenes from Shakespeare’s plays (e. g. Edmund’s speech in King Lear)
Actors readings from letters, Shakespeare’s plays, and scientific texts as voice- over
Actors speaking to camera
Dramatic recreations
Our three level format--actors, experts, archival imagery—facilitates a creative flow of ideas and inspiration. By mixing live actors and commentary from experts in the fields of astronomy, literature, drama, and cultural theory, we will engage the audience at many levels. The interrelation we present between astronomy and the arts should awaken curiosity in our audience as to how the world works and how artists create within the natural order. By opening our film with Galileo in an edgy relationship with Shakespeare, we are challenging the dusty pigeonholes assigned to these two men. We also are helping to create new cognitive maps for our viewers. In fact, the disciplinary boundaries were far more open in Galileo’s and Shakespeare’s day, when it was not at all uncommon for a playwright to pick up a lute and play a ballad or pick up a paint brush and make a sketch. Nor was it unusual, in Galileo’s day, for a scientist to write poetry or to draw artistic renderings of the objects in the night sky.
Our director, Howard Allen, has previously made effective use of live actors in his presentation of the short feature Se Habla Espanol and his Behind The Scenes documentary, where he used the two camera Errol Morris approach to talking-head footage. The technique played so well that he will use this again in Stars in Their Eyes: Galileo Meets Shakespeare.
We have made four key decisions in creating our live actors’ scenes. First, all dialog must reflect the character of Galileo and Shakespeare as documented. Where we have the two meet and interact, is, of course, fictional, but well within character, and some lines will be taken from primary sources. Secondly, we have secured high caliber actors for our two key roles of Galileo and Shakespeare. Third, Howard Allen has demonstrated his ability to direct period theater , as evidence his adaptation of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde and Mesmeric Mozart. Forth, we will be using Nathan Shelton as our Director of Photography and Executive Producer. Shelton has experience in both photography and sound at KUAT-TV, the local Tucson PBS affiliate station.
We will intersperse clips from the Bertolt Brecht play Galileo, performed by the equity actors of the Arizona Theater Company, with live scenes and commentary. These glimpses of Galileo’s brushes with authority will be matched by Shakespeare’s artful dodges of the Elizabethan civil authorities when he approached dangerous subjects, such as the new Copernican world view, the fallibility of monarchs, or the validity of astrology in human affairs in his plays. We will place scenes from Shakespeare, such as Edmund’s speech in Act III sc. 1 of King Lear that specifically addresses the touchy issue of Copernican world view versus the Ptolemaic geocentric solar system. The counterpoint established between the personalities of these two men will be amplified because shown across live action and expert commentary.
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Our live actor scenes will represent both the recorded experiences of Galileo and Shakespeare and also their subjective viewpoints or flights of fancy. Our invented dialog that is in character will be of greatest use where we have the least primary source material, such as Shakespeare’s possible use of the Digges perspective lens and the Galilean telescope (which was available in London by 1608) to view distant objects or Galileo’s attempts to rouse Shakespeare from depression at the state of the world at the time of his death by explaining the wonders that came to pass soon thereafter. Wherever we can, we will create smooth transitions from primary source dialog to invented dialog. In the locations where we can adequately express what is dramatically necessary by means of primary source dialog, we will do so, but we wish to draw parallels and make a meeting of the minds of the two men that will also require additional, invented dialog.
E. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS
We intend to use primarily public domain imagery from NASA and The University of Arizona’s Space Imagery Center, the local Tucson repository for NASA photos. We will clear rights via Corbis for any paintings or drawings of Galileo and Shakespeare, etc., that we use. Estimated cost: $2500 for archival images.
F. DISTRIBUTION PLAN
Stars in Their Eyes: Galileo Meets Shakespeare can be useful in both classroom and more informal learning situations, such situations are planetariums, museums, astronomy club meetings, or gatherings of actors. We see this film as valuable for audiences starting in the 7th grade through adult, as Art Hammon of the Jet Propulsions Laboratory’s Education Office suggests. We are negotiating with our Arizona PBS affiliate television stations, KAET (Phoenix) and KUAT-TV (Tucson), to have this venue for a showing, possibly with live appearances of our local astronomers and scholars. This was extremely successful when Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the Phoenix Mars Lander Mission appeared and spoke before the showing of the KUAT-TV produced documentary on this historic space mission to Mars. We are in partnership with The Kuiper Circle, an educational and public outreach committee of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory of the University of Arizona. This Circle host public events around Tucson and the state of Arizona and can aid in our local distribution of DVDs.
G. HUMANITIES ADVISERS
Chris Impey, Co-Project Director, received his B.Sc. in Physics from the University of London (1st Class Honors) and his Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He is Deputy Department Head, Department of Astronomy, University of Arizona, (August 1999 -) and University Distinguished Professor, Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, (August 2000 -). Among his many awards are Distinguished Teaching Scholar (National Science Foundation, 2002), Arizona Professor of the Year (Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 2002), Vice President, American Astronomical Society (2003-06), and Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar (2006-
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07). He has served as Nominator, Nobel Prize in Physics (2007), and as Plenary Speaker, Astronomical Society of the Pacific “Cosmos in the Classroom” (2007). He has written, with William H. Hartmann, The Universe Revealed (Brooks Cole Pub., 2002), and The Living Cosmos (Random House, 2007.) Among other grants, he has received the National Science Foundation’s grant for New Collaborative Learning Environments for the Teaching of Astronomy, PI, $48,824 awarded, (1 September, 2002 - 31 August, 2005) and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope Legacy Outreach Program, The ACS Mosaic of M51 and the Intersection of Research and Education, PI, $45,000 awarded, (1 December 2005 - 30 November 2007).
Gloria McMillan, Co-Project Director, received her Ph.D. in English from the University of Arizona, and an M.A. in literature from Indiana University. She is a co-founder of the Arizona Theatre Company’s Old Pueblo Playwrights, a group which works closely with ATC in developing new playwrights and play scripts. She has developed science and science fiction-oriented curricula for the University of Arizona’s first-year composition classes, including a library unit on H. G. Wells. She is a Research Associate at the University of Arizona and on teaches at Pima Community College in Tucson Her plays have been produced in Tucson and in the Chicago area. Her play Universe Symphony about modern composer Charles Ives, was jointly produced by the Flandrau Planetarium and the Music and Theater Departments of the University of Arizona. She is a contributor to a number of academic journals, including Rhetoric Society Quarterly, Sonoran Arthropod Studies newsletter, Teaching in the Two-Year College, Lore: for Teachers of Writing, Across the Disciplines, Kairos, The Adjunct Advocate, Extrapolation: MLA Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy, and Text Technology.
Howard Allen, Director of Video Production, has worked for many years as a professional actor, playwright, director, screenwriter and literary manager/dramaturg, as well as a reporter, reviewer and editor in his journalistic career. Latest news: he is again a Star Speaker at L.A. Screenwriters Expo because of his skills at ScriptDoctor.com (rated fourth nationally by Creative Screenwriting magazine) and his CoyoteMoon Films (.com), a production company aiming to honor the storyteller, which will release its first film Se Habla Espanol this fall. He will act in films Red 71 and The Decoy and as Script Consultant on The Good Boy and The Graves. As a member of Actor's Equity and the Screen Actor's Guild, he has performed in LORT B theatres and in films directed by Michael Landon and others. . He was Awarded Best Director of 2007 by the Arizona Daily Star. Howard Allen’s other directorial experience includes directing the taping for the DVD and the stage of Thankful For The Road, a comedy storytelling evening 2008 at Temple of Music and Art and he also directed Hollow Man, a Pima College Advance Production movie, film. He has won awards for editing, reporting, and reviewing film and theatre at the Tucson Weekly. He won a scholarship to attend the Critics Institute at the prestigious O'Neill Theatre Conference. He has benefited from workshops with August Wilson, Eric Overmyer, Horton Foote, Edit Villareal and others. With an MFA in Playwriting and Screenwriting, he teaches college level courses in Writing for Film and Television, Film Acting, Art Of Cinema, Theatre History -- as well as Humanities. His adaptation of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde was given a professional theatre production. Credits: co-writer on screenplays “Renaissance,” top 10% at Heart of Austin Film Festival and Line In the Sand has been optioned; His latest theatre events: directing I Hate Hamlet, Pinter’s The Birthday Party, London hit Humble Boy, and this spring Mesmeric Mozart, “and A Beautiful Deception for Chamber Music PLUS with Robert Picardo and Armin Shimerman.
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Consultants
David H. Levy, Chief Consultant and scriptwriter, is A.B.D. in English Literature from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Levy is one of the most successful comet discoverers in history. He has discovered 22 comets, nine of them using his own backyard telescopes. With Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker at the Palomar Observatory in California he discovered Shoemaker-Levy 9, the comet that collided with Jupiter in 1994. That episode produced the most spectacular explosions ever witnessed in the solar system. Levy is currently involved with the Jarnac Comet Survey, which is based at the Jarnac Observatory in Vail, Arizona, but which has telescopes planned for locations around the world. Levy is the author or editor of 35 books, including, More Things in Heaven and Earth: Poets and Astronomers Read the Night Sky (Wolfville, Nova Scotia: Wombat Press, 1997) and David Levy’s Guide to Observing and Discovering Comets (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2003). Media: He won an Emmy in 1998 as part of the writing team for the Discovery Channel documentary, "Three Minutes to Impact." As the Science Editor for Parade Magazine, he was able to reach more than 80 million readers, almost a quarter of the population of the United States. A contributing editor for Sky and Telescope Magazine, he writes its monthly "Star Trails" column, his "Nightfall" feature appears in each issue of the Canadian Magazine Skynews, and he writes the "Evening Stars" monthly column for Astronomy magazine. David Levy has given more than 1000 lectures and major interviews, and has appeared on many television programs, such as the Today show (4 times), Good Morning America (twice), the National Geographic special "Asteroids: Deadly Impact", and ABC's World News Tonight, where he and the Shoemakers were named Persons of the Week for July 22, 1994. He and his wife Wendee host a weekly radio show available worldwide at www.letstalkstars.com. In 2004 he was the Senator John Rhodes Chair in Public Policy and American Institutions at Arizona State University. He has been awarded five honorary doctorates, and asteroid 3673 (Levy) was named in his honor. Levy is President of the National Sharing the Sky Foundation, an organization intended to inspire new generations to develop an inquiring interest in the sciences, or in other words, to reach for the stars.
Gary Mechler, Director of Academic Distribution, will help gain local post-secondary and informal (astronomy “star night” special events) distribution of our DVD. He received his Ph.D. in Astronomy from Case Western Reserve University and his M.S., also in Astronomy, from Case Western Reserve University. He works as Astronomy Lead Faculty, STEM Division, at Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona. He is the first astronomer hired by Pima College to teach full-time. In 1998 he produced Pima College's first telecourse in science with a lab component. He has written National Audubon Society’s First Guide: Night Sky, one of a series a range of nature topics. In addition, he has written four books on astronomy for the National Audubon Society; part of its “Pocket Guide” series on nature topics: Constellations, Planets & their Moons, Sun & Moon, Galaxies and Other Deep-Sky Objects. Outside his publishing and teaching, Mechler is actively involved in community outreach for the advancement of science. He is a member of the Flandrau Planetarium Advisory Committee, 2005 to 2007, a long- term, continuing member of the Education Enrichment Foundation ("EEF") Mini-grant Allocations Committee, and producer / promoter of the well attended and received public memorial to Dr. Carl Sagan at Pima College’s Proscenium Theater in March 1997. His scholarly affiliations include membership in American Astronomical Society, National Association of Science Writers, Union of Concerned Scientists, Astronomical Society of
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the Pacific, The Planetary Society, and the National Space Society.
Frederick Kiefer, will address Shakespeare’s works and character in interview segments in the DVD. He received his Ph.D. and M.A. in English Literature from Harvard University. His specialties include Renaissance Literature and Drama, and Elizabethan visual culture. He is a Professor of English at the University of Arizona. His scholarly books include Shakespeare’s Visual Theatre: Staging the Personified Characters (Cambridge UP, 2003), Writing on the Renaissance Stage: Written Words, Printed Pages, Metaphoric Books (Delaware UP, 1996), and Fortune and Elizabethan Tragedy (The Huntington Library, 1983.) He has contributed numerous chapters in Shakespearean studies, including, “Poems as Props in Love’s Labor’s Lost and Much Ado About Nothing” in Reading and Literacy in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. (Ed. Ian Frederick Moulton. Arizona Studies in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance 8: 2004) and “A Dumb Show of the Senses in Timon of Athens.” In In the Company of Shakespeare: Essays on English Renaissance Literature in Honor of G. Blakemore Evans (Edited by Thomas Moisan and Douglas Bruster. Associated University Presses, 2002.) He an is member of many scholarly organizations and presents at their conferences, including the Shakespeare Association of America, The Renaissance Society of America, and The International Shakespeare Conference at Stratford-on-Avon, UK (invited).
Maurice A. Finocchiaro, A Galileo scholar of renown, Prof. Fincocchiaro will shape our DVD in the area of Galileo’s trials and behavior at court. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. His current position is Distinguished professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He has received both National Science Foundation and National Endowment for the Humanities grants, including a three-year NEH grant for his project “Galileo on the World Systems” and a fouryear NSF grant for the project “Retrying Galileo: 1633 – 1992.” His books include Galileo and the Art of Reasoning (Springer 1980), The Galileo Affair (edited and translated, New York: Gryphon Editions, 1991), Retrying Galileo, 1633-1992. (Berkeley: University of California P, 2007), and The Essential Galileo. Trans. and edited, (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2008.) He has also written numerous essays on the subject of Galileo. In addition to his NSF and NEH awards, he has won Guggenheim Fellowships. In 1993, he was organizer and chair, session on “Galileo and Experimentation,” History of Science Society, Annual Meeting, Santa Fe (NM), November 11-14. As a public service, Appeared in “Great Books” episode on Galileo’s Dialogue, aired on the Learning Channel, September 14, 1997.
Ewen Whitaker, will examine the construction and possible uses of the Elizabethan-era Digges- Bourne perspective lens. He has been a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society since 1950 and member of the international Astronomical Union’s Task Force on Lunar Nomenclature, began as a spectographer, joined the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, working on astrophysics and astronometry programs. He became interested in the Moon, its cartography and associated research as a sideline, and was invited by Prof. G. P. Kuiper to join his newly-formed Lunar Project at Yerkes Observatory in 1958. This nascent project moved to Tucson in 1960 and formed the core of what Kuiper named the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona. He was co-investigator on NASA’s Lunar Ranger program, and team member on the Lunar Surveyor, Lunar Orbiter, and Apollo programs; his title at LPL was Associate Research Scientist. He retired in 1987.
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Whitaker is the author of over 100 scientific publications, the most relevant to the history of telescopic observations being “La Carte Lunaire de Jean Dominique Cassini (Ciel et Terre 80.8/10, 1955),” “Galileo’s Lunar Observations,” “Galileo’s Lunar Observations” (Science, 208, 1980), and “Lunar Topography: Galileo’s Drawings” (Science 210,1980.) He has also contributed foundational knowledge in the dating of the Composition of Sidereus Nuncius (Journal for the History of Astronomy IX.3, 1978),” “The Digges Bourne Telescope—an Alternative Possibility” (Journal of the British Astron. Assoc. 103.6, 1993),” and “The Digges Bourne Telescope Revisited” (Journal of the British Astron. Assoc. 119.2, 2009), These last two papers deal with a novel lens / concave mirror setup that preceded the Dutch/Galilean telescopes by some thirty years. He wrote the book titled Mapping and Naming the Moon—A History of Lunar Cartography and Nomenclature (Cambridge UP, 2004.).
Darko R. Suvin, will be interviewed for our DVD, wherein he will examine the theatrical in Galileo’s self-presentation and also his continued dramatic function in today’s theater. Suvin was born in Zagreb, Yugoslavia , Studied at Zagreb University, Univ. of Bristol (U.K.), the Sorbonne (France), and Yale Univ. (U.S.A.). Degrees: B.A., M.A. (equiv.), M.Sc. (equiv.) and Ph. D. (Zagreb). Lecturer, Faculty of Philosophy, Zagreb Univ. (1959- 67); vice-president of the Union Internationale des Théâtres Universitaires, Zurich, Switzerland (1962-65); member, Croat National Theatre Board (1962-64), Nat. Library Board (1963-65); art director, International Student Theatre Festival, Zagreb (1967); Assistant, later Associate and Full Professor of English, McGill Univ. (1968-99); various other functions in scholarly periodicals and bodies, organization of conferences, editorial boards, etc; Vice-President, Int'l Brecht Society (1984-88); editor, Literary Research/ Recherche littéraire, International Comparative Lit. Assoc. review organ, 1986-94, co-editor 1994-95 (earlier assoc. editor). He has been an Adenauer Award Fellow, Humboldt Foundation 1997-2000. His recent appointments include those of Emeritus Professor, McGill University, Montréal, QC, Canada. Fellow of Royal Society of Canada (Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences) from 1986. Research associate, Dip. di anglistica, Univ. di Pisa, Italy; membro del Collegio, Dottorato in Italianistica, Dipt. di l e l moderne e comparate, Univ. Roma 2 - Tor Vergata.
Among his scholarly texts are To Brecht and Beyond: Soundings in Modern Dramaturgy. (1984), For Lack of Knowledge: On the Epistemology of Politics as Salvation (Working Papers Series in Cultural Studies, Ethnicity, and Race Relations, 2001.) He has edited many studies, including, "Brecht's Parable of Heavenly Food: Life of Galileo," Essays on Brecht: Brecht Yearbook 15 (1990), "Heavenly Food Denied: Life of Galileo," in Peter Thomson and Glendyr Sacks, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Brecht (1994), and "Brecht's Life of Galileo: Scientistic Extrapolation or Analogy of the Knower?" Forum Modernes Theater 5.2 (1990). Finally, he has been awarded a number of honorary titles, including Honorary Fellow of Clare Hall College (Cambridge UK) in 1973-74, of University College (London UK) in 1980-81; Visiting Research Fellow of Tokyo University 1990-91, of Rikkyo University (Tokyo) 1994; honorary Visiting Professor, Departments of English and History, Reading University (UK), 1999-2002.
R. D. (Bob) Joseph will advise our project on Galileo’s role in the inter-connections between cosmological ideas and the history of ideas in western civilization, as well as Galileo’s literary style. He received a Ph.D in physics from Washington University (MO) and M.A. from Vanderbilt University(TN). He works as an astronomer in the Institute for
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Astronomy (IfA), the University of Hawaii, Manoa. He has been at the University of Hawaii 20 years. Before coming to Hawaii, he was Reader in Astrophysics at Imperial College, University of London, where he was on the faculty for almost 20 years. He served as Director of the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility on Mauna Kea for the years 1989-2000, and was recently awarded the NASA Public Service Medal “for outstanding leadership while serving as Director.” Joseph has published nearly 200 scientific papers, and there have been over 3,300 citations of his work by other astronomers in their publications. His research interests are in extragalactic astronomy. He and colleague Dr. Toni Cowie have developed a new upper division course, “History of the Cosmos in Western Culture,” which they have presented the past three years.
Nick Campion Prof. Campion will be interviewed to assist our DVD in making clear the issues and societal effects involved in the shift from Ptolemaic to Copernican world views. He received his BA in History from the Cambridge University, UK, his MA in Southeast Asian Studies from London University and his PhD in the Study of Religions from the University of the West of England, Bristol. He is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Archaeology, History and Anthropology, University of Wales, Lampeter and is the author of A History of Western Astrology, 2 Vols., London Continuum 2009. He has also lectured on Shakespeare’s attitude to astronomy, in his recent talk, “The Bard of Avon: Shakespeare’s Stars,” a public lecture at Steward Observatory affiliated with the Astronomy Department, University of Arizona on the 22nd April 2009. His other recent papers include “Astronomy and Political Theory” at the conference on “The Role of Astronomy in Society and Culture” at the International Astronomical Union Symposium 260, UNESCO, Paris, 19-23 January 2009. He organized the recent conference on “Cosmologies” through the University of Wales, Lampeter in July 2009.
Frederick Kellogg will advise our project on 16th and 17th century Italian and British history. He received his Ph.D. in History from Indiana University. He is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Arizona. Among other works, he has written The Road to Romanian Independence (West Lafayette: Purdue UP, 1995) and O istorie a istoriografiei româné [A History of Romanian Historical Writing.] Rev. ed. Trans. Laura Cuţitaru. 2nd ed. Drumul României Spre Independentá (Iaşi: Institutul European, 1996.) His articles include “The Structure of Romanian Nationalism” in Canadian Review of Studies in Nationalism/Revue canadienne des études sur le nationalisme 11.1 (1984): 21- 50 as well as “Perilous Liaison: Russo-Romanian Relations in 1877” in Labyrinth of Nationalism /Complexities of Diplomacy: Essays in Honor of Charles and Barbara Jelavich (Columbus: Slavica, 1992: 290-317.) Honors include Romania’s Annual Scholarship Award: Premiul Nicolae Iorga, Academia Română (The Nicolae Iorga Prize, Romanian Academy), 1997. He is a member of the American Historical Association, among other professional societies.
William Whitney, mentor to our project, received his Ph. D. in low-temperature physics from MIT (1956). At the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, he has been involved with R/D management. He has worked in the Education Office since November 1999. He has allowed our project to present our documentary’s themes to his department at JPL and has assisted in assessing the need and timeliness of this documentary. He has also helped us to locate individuals at JPL who facilitate such aspects of further development as national distribution.
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H. MEDIA STAFF
Coyote Moon Films has a history of making high quality media. Their production team has a solid record of past performance. In addition to those projects directed by Howard Allen, such as Pinter’s The Birthday Party. Megan Guthrie, the Associate Producer, received a BA (Summa Cum Laude) in Education in 2009 with emphasis on television. She has worked with Howard Allen on several Coyote Moon productions. Jim Scott, our videographer, received a B.S. in Film and Television Production from Montana State University, Graduating with honors in 1985. He has as clients: CBS, NBC, ABC, Discovery Channel, PBS, Fox Sports, E network, Home and Garden Channel, Discovery Canada, Disney, and Entertainment Studios. Nathan Shelton, our Director of Photography and Executive Producer, received his B. A. from the University of Arizona in General Studies in1982 with emphases in journalism, English, and psychology. He is the Soundman for The Desert Speaks on Tucson PBS affiliate television station KUAT. He is also the Media Specialist as well as the Videographer for KUAT-TV’s news talk show Arizona Illustrated. Michaela Pentacoff, our sound mixer, received her B.A. degree in Media Arts in 2008. She performed location audio on My Father’s Son (directed by Jordan Fuller) using mixed production sound as a double system in 2009. In a number of films, including The Electric Sleep (directed by Matt Brailey) in 2006, she worked Mixed Production Sound and operated the boom as a single system. Her sound experience is extensive and varied.
I.PROGRESS
In August 2008, Co-Project Director Gloria McMillan presented a picture at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Education Office general staff meeting of the deteriorating relation between science and the humanities. Her Power Point talk was called “Good-bye to Frankenstein.” Following her talk, the staff encouraged McMillan to find collaborators who could help her to create new media that would address the situation and improve interdisciplinary communication between science and the humanities. On returning to Tucson from Pasadena, McMillan held a series of meetings with David Levy and Gary Mechler, scientists on her team. Hearing of the project, Professors Darko Suvin and Nick Campion joined as consultants regarding Galileo and The new Copernican world view during Galileo’s and Shakespeare’s era. During early 2009, she made more contacts around the University of Arizona and attracted Prof. Frederick Kiefer as a consultant to the project. The group now needed a director, so McMillan drew upon her theatrical past and recruited Howard Allen and his independent Tucson-based film production company Coyote Moon Films. In September of 2009, Prof. Chris Impey joined the project as Co-Director. And more consultants came on board: our historical cosmologist, Prof. Robert Joseph; our Shakespeare scholar, Jack Harris; and Galileo historian Maurice Finocchiaro. Videotaped Ewen Whitaker, the last surviving founder of the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, on Nov. 20th, 2009. We have a strong team representing both the arts and sciences. Our script is gaining definition as we pass it between members. We are harmonizing known facts with dramatic interventions.
J. WORK PLAN
Summer 2008-Winter 2009. Talk at JPL. Second trips to JPL and consultation with Bill Whitney. Pima College and University of Arizona involved. Gary Mechler offers cooperation
17 G. McMillan Stars in Their Eyes: Galileo Meets Shakespeare Media Dev. grant from Pima College astronomy regional campus departments. Research images copyrights and permissions. Research remote videotaping for consultants in Italy and Wales.
Sept. 2010. Ewen Whitaker leads research over Galileo’s original edition of Sidereus Nuncius in Special Collections, University of Arizona. McMillan and Levy, the script writers, confer over a revised script draft with Howard Allen, the director.
Oct. 2010. Revision is passed to Prof. Kiefer, Suvin, Campion, Harris, and Finocchiaro for their additions and comments.
Oct.- Nov. 2010. Revise script to show consultants additions and corrections via email exchanges of script versions. Script in what consultants will say during their segments.
Oct.- Nov. 2010. Director Howard Allen and videographer Jim Scott begin to draft a treatment for the live action scenes between Galileo and Shakespeare in the documentary.
Jan. 2011. Revise script to show consultants additions and corrections via email exchanges of script versions. Expand and refine what consultants will say during their segments.
Feb. 2011. Full day meeting of the production team, including all consultants (some by conference call and email). Each consultant will review the segment in which s/he appears and how that segment flows with the live action sequences.
Mar. 2011. Full day meeting of the consultants, including conference telecom for remote consultants.
Apr. 2011. Review with production team. Revise, add effects and graphics to script.
July- Aug. 2011. Second full day meeting of the consultants, including conference telecom for remote consultants.
Sept. 2012. The production phase NEH grant is submitted for implementation to the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Summer/Fall 2012. The film is videotaped in Tucson at the University of Arizona and at remote locations (Las Vegas, Hawaii, Italy, Wales.)
Winter 2012/Spring 2013. The film is edited and proceeds to postproduction release and pilot showings in Tucson-area college classrooms arranged by Gary Mechler.
K. FUNDRAISING PLAN (not applicable)
L. ORGANIZATION PROFILE
The University of Arizona is a Tier 1 research university with a longstanding track record of excellence in astronomy and the arts. As the first publicly-funded university to mount a mission to Mars in 2008, the university and Peter Smith, the Principal Investigator, made history and world news. In a similar fashion, the University of Arizona is eager to be a seed bed of new and creative ways to increase our store of knowledge as well as to spark intellectual enthusiasm
18 G. McMillan Stars in Their Eyes: Galileo Meets Shakespeare Media Dev. grant in learners of all ages. The Special Collections of the University of Arizona’s library houses a copy of Galileo’s Sidereus Nuncius, which we hope to use in our documentary. We have ties also, with the Theater Arts Department and have been promised support in terms of use of facilities. In addition, we are pleased to have access to the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory’s fine Space Imagery center. Our project has met with cooperation and encouragement from the various department chairs such as Jun Liu, the Chair of the English Department-- at the university and we foresee a successful completion to our joint venture.
CoyoteMoon Films intends to focus primarily on low budget and micro-budget movies in a variety of genres, with an eye toward projects that can be filmed in the Southwest. Every movie begins with a script -- with the magic and passion a writer brings to the project. At CoyoteMoon Films, each project we take on will be treated individually -- with the story itself determining how the film will be produced. We believe a film’s success depends on more than the size of its budget. A full-service and filmmaker-friendly production company, CoyoteMoon Films will shepherd the project from beginning to end: from the original screenplay concept through the development process, through attaching cast and crew, through principal photography, and finally through to post-production and distribution.
M. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Asimov, Isaac. Asimov’s Guide to Shakespeare. New York: Doubleday, 1970. Print.
Austin, Tirza. “Faculty Sens. Battle over Open Access.” The Diamondback. Web.
Bate, Jonathan. Soul of the Age : a Biography of the Mind of William Shakespeare. New York : Random House, 2009. Print.
Biagioli, Mario. Galileo, Courtier: the Practice of Science in the Culture of Absolutism Chicago: University of Chicago P, 1994. Print.
Cassirer, E. The Individual and the Cosmos in Renaissance Philosophy. Trans. M. Domandi. U Penn P, 1963. Print.
Engle, Lars. Shakespearean Pragmatism: Market of His Time. University Of Chicago P, 1993. Print.
Finocchiaro, Mauricio. Retrying Galileo, 1633-1992. Berkeley: University of California P, 2007. Print.
Frova, Andrea, and Mariapiera Marenzana. Thus Spoke Galileo: The Great Scientist's Ideas and Their Relevance to the Present Day. New York: Oxford UP, 2006. Print.
Galilei, Galileo. Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. Trans. and with revised notes by Stillman Drake. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967. Print.
---. The Essential Galileo. Selected, trans., and ed. with Introduction and Notes by Maurice A. Finocchiaro. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 2008. Print.
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---. and Albert Van Helden. Sidereus Nuncius, or, The Sidereal Messenger. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago P, 1989. Print.
Gentner, Dedre. "Are Scientific Analogies Metaphors?" in David S. Miall, ed., Metaphor: Problems and Perspectives. Brighton: Harvester P, 1982, 106-32. Print.
Grady, Hugh, ed. Shakespeare and Modernity: Early Modern to Millennium. London: Routledge, 2000. Print.
Greenblatt, Stephen. Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare. New York: W. W. Norton, 2005. Print.
Honan, Park. Shakespeare: A Life. London: Oxford UP, 200. Print.
Honigmann, E. A. J. Myriad-Minded Shakespeare: Essays on the Tragedies, Problem Comedies, and Shakespeare the Man. New York: MacMillan, 1997. Print.
Jamieson, Lee. “Guide to Shakespeare.” 11 Jun. 2009. About Dot Com. 1 Oct. 2009. Web.
Kiefer, Frederick. Shakespeare's Visual Theatre: Staging The Personified Characters. New York : Cambridge UP, 2003. Print.
---. Fortune and Elizabethan Tragedy. San Marino, CA: Huntington Library, 1983. Print.
Lemmon, Jeremy. Shakespeare. London: Haus, 2007. Print.
Levy, David. More Things in Heaven and Earth: Poets and Astronomers Read the Night Sky. Wolfville, Nova Scotia, CA: Wombat P, 1997. Print.
Nicholl, Charles. The Lodger : Shakespeare on Silver Street. London ; New York : Allen Lane, 2007. Print.
Noppen, J.P. van, et al., comps. Metaphor: A Bibliography of Post-1970 Publications. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 1985. Print.
NASA. Ulysses Mission: Over the Poles of the Sun . Pasadena, CA: Jet Propulsion Laboratory Press, 2004.
Posin, Dan Q. Dr. Posin’s Giants: Men of Science. Evanston, IL: Row Peterson, 1961. Print.
Potter, Lois. “Having Our Will: Imagination in Recent Shakespeare Biographies.” Shakespeare Survey. 2007. 26 Sep. 2009. Web.
Shibles, Warren A. Metaphor: An Annotated Bibliography and History. Whitewater WI: Language P, 1971. Print.
Scholes, Robert. “Whither, or Wither, the Humanities?” Profession (2005): 7-9. Print.
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Shakespeare, William. Riverside Shakespeare. 2nd ed. Eds. G. Blakemore Evans and J. J. M. Tobin. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1997. Print.
---. Shakespeare: The Complete Works. Ed. G. B. Harrison. New York: Harcourt, 1968. Print.
Shea, William R. Galileo in Rome : the Rise and Fall of a Troublesome Genius. New York : Oxford University Press, 2003. Print.
Snow, C. P. Two Cultures and A Second Look. New York: Cambridge UP, 1963. Print.
Suvin, Darko. To Brecht and Beyond: Soundings in Modern Dramaturgy. Brighton: Harvester P, 1984. Print.
---. For Lack of Knowledge: On the Epistemology of Politics as Salvation. Working Papers Series in Cultural Studies, Ethnicity, and Race Relations [No. 27]. Pullman WA: 2001. Print.
Universe Symphony By Gloria McMillan. Flandrau Planetarium in Association with Theatre Dept. University of Arizona. 20 Feb. 1987. Play.
Usher, Peter. Hamlet’s Universe. San Diego, CA: Aventine P, 2007. Print.
White, Michael. Galileo Antichrist : a Biography. London : Weidenfeld, 2007. Print.
Wood, Michael. In Search Of Shakespeare. London: BBC Books, 2007. Print.
N. ARCHIVAL RESOURCES
Roger Myers, the rare books librarian at the University of Arizona Special Collections (MLS, 1981), confirms that the library is pleased to cooperate in the investigation for Stars in Their Eyes: Galileo Meets Shakespeare involving the early history of astronomy. They have several works of interest to our project including Copernicus’ De Revolutionibus Orbium (1543) and Galilei’s Sidereus Nuncius Magna (1610; also known in English as Sidereal Messenger, or Starry Messenger).
Maria Schuchardt and the staff of the Lunar and Planetary Lab of the University of Arizona will allow or project complete access to all public domain space imagery housed at their Space Imagery Center that we may require during the course of our production of this film
RELATED FILM AND TELEVISION PRODUCTIONS
Our film will be promoted as an educational digital product that may also be shown on PBS affiliates in Tucson, and perhaps elsewhere. This documentary with dramatized imaginary meetings between Galileo and Shakespeare is unique. There has been no attempt to unite both
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Galileo and Shakespeare in a cross-disciplinary documentary before, but there have been many separate films and television documentaries dealing with the two men separately. Just a few highlights must suffice here, since the list is voluminous.
Will Shakespeare (2008) A & E. Dir. By Mark Cullingham and Robert Knights, played by Tim Curry. Written by John Mortimer, (Rumpole of the Bailey).
In Search of Shakespeare (2004) Dir. By , played by Ray Fearon, Host Michael Wood.
NOVA: Galileo’s Battle for the Heavens (2002). Dir. By Peter Jones, played by Simon Callow as Galileo. Based on the book Galileo’s Daughter by Dava Sobel.
Galileo: On the Shoulders of Giants (1998) (TV) Dir. David Devine, played by Michael Moriarty (as Galileo).
Galileo (1975) Dir. By Joseph Losey, played by Topol, from Bertolt Brecht’s play.
Galileo (1969) Dir. By Liliana Cavani, played by Cyril Cusack (as Galileo).
3. TREATMENT
Actors:
Galileo Galilei: a red-bearded, arrogant, early-1600s Italian, 50 years of age. Dressed ostentatiously in period costume; the great scientist is about to encounter Shakespeare.
Will Shakespeare: a dapper Elizabethan gentleman, 50 years of age, with a sharply trimmed goatee and an earring.
Consultants: Ewen Whitaker, Frederick Kiefer, Maurice A. Finocchiaro, Darko Suvin, Bob Joseph, and Nick Campion
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SC. 1 Setting: From the Great Theater of the Sky to a Stratford Pub. We pan in from swirling views of galaxies-in-in-until light falls on the figure of Will Shakespeare, sitting at a small table in this dry ice-rich void-an imaginary pub--drinking a pint of some brew, is fiddling with an optical instrument.
Actors: William Shakespeare, Galileo Galilei. Expert: Ewen Whitaker, Lunar and Planetary Lab, Ret.
Plot summary: Galileo comes out of the shadows, unimpressed with what Will Shakespeare is doing with a weird-looking piece of optical equipment and begins to tease him by making comparisons to his own functioning telescope.
CUT to modern optics expert Ewen Whitaker, who explains about Shakespeare's knowledge of the Elizabethan Diggs perspective lens and Shakespeare’s possible access to the Galilean telescope.
CUT to voice-over of Whitaker as we see Line drawing of the inventor Thomas Diggs, the cross section of the Elizabethan perspective lens. Contrast with cross section of Galilean telescope.
SC. 2
Setting: The same. Actors: Galileo, Shakespeare Experts: Profs. Maurice Finocchiaro and Darko Suvin.
Plot summary: (Strangers in the Night) Galileo says he feels strange. The last he recalled, he was feverish, gasping for breath, suffering from a serious illness and. . .his mind grows blank. Shakespeare, too, recalls he was very ill in 1616. Galileo scoffs that year was nothing and that he recovered from that evil vapor that had invaded the Italian lands in the spring of 1616. No, he remembers much more than this, well into the 1640s.
CUT to loud moans and scenes of a plague from old prints. Galileo confides about his recovery that it only served to allow him to be turned over to the questioning regarding his ideas.
CUT to pan across etching of Father Christopher Clavius, Church Astronomer in Rome who questioned Galileo for the church, historic etchings.
Shakespeare notes that he well may have shuffled off his mortal coil at an opportune moment. They debate which man did better in the hands of officials when they tried to share what they felt about the night sky and other issues. They justify their waffling under pressure.
CUT to Maurice Finocchiaro talking about Galileo's run-ins with church authorities and how Galileo and Shakespeare were similar in that they learned to decode and re-encode the signs and messages in the Medici Court and powerful London social circles.
CUT to Darko Suvin, discussing why Galileo failed in establishing an alliance between scientists and the people led by the rising middle class. He didn't appreciate who would have been his real allies and antagonists. His marvelous acumen didn't translate from natural into sociopolitical sciences. Suvin will discuss Brecht’s take on Galileo to illustrate how Galileo would waffle under pressure, and how we today view Galileo’s actions.
CUT to Frederick Kiefer talking about how Shakespeare may have evaded controversies and, as
23 G. McMillan Stars in Their Eyes: Galileo Meets Shakespeare Media Dev. grant some scholars believe, may have disguised his barbs against authority in poetic metaphor. For instance, he will discuss the diplomatic blunder by The Lord Chamberlain's Men for whom Shakespeare wrote Richard II. Queen Elisabeth took the weak King Richard’s abdication scene as allegory for herself. Did Shakespeare not realize? Did he care? Shakespeare’s players suffered near disaster when Essex and his supporters ordered Richard II played the night before their planned rebellion, but The Lord Chamberlain's Men narrowly escaped punishment.
CUT back to Suvin, who will compare the strategies of Galileo and of Shakespeare in avoiding official dogma.
SC. 3 Setting: Same. Actors: Galileo, Shakespeare Experts: Profs. Frederick Kiefer, Maurice Finocchiaro.
Plot summary: (When Worlds Collide) This encounter captures the different personalities of Galileo and Shakespeare. They agree that the night sky has a place in both science and literature. Galileo recalls that his annus mirabilis of 1609 and the start of 1610, when he discovered the moons of Jupiter through his telescope, coincided with a great creation by Shakespeare.
Shakespeare completed Cymbeline about 1610 (first performed 1611), which includes a scene in which Jupiter descends from the sky accompanied by four ghosts, which can be interpreted as Jupiter's four moons. Galileo is incredulous! He has never heard of such impudence, taking his newly-discovered moons and making them into some pallid English ghosts? They were Mediciean satellites. The great family of Florence. Will diplomatically smoothes Galileo's feathers by explaining why his references were confusing. He may or may not have heard of Galileo's discoveries. At this point, who can remember? Galileo may snort at this reply.
CUT to title pages of Galileo's Sidereus Nuncius (The Starry Messenger) And to Shakespeare's plays: Cymbeline and King Lear.
CUT to Prof. Frederick Kiefer who talks about what astronomical connections the play may hold. Can we peg Shakespeare's Cymbeline reference and others as either pro-astrology or pro- astronomy? Is this a meaningful distinction in the Elizabethan era? As a dramatic innovator, Shakespeare’s shockingly new perspective on society in King Lear parallels Galileo’s telescopic discoveries.
CUT TO Prof. Nick Campion who explores what Shakespeare could have known of Galileo's work and the value of a more speculative approach to biography.
CUT to Prof. Maurice Finocchiaro, who will elaborate upon the Copernican world view and Galileo’s role in promoting it very diplomatically, where and when.
SC. 4 Setting: Same. Actors: Galileo, Shakespeare Expert: Profs. Suvin and Finocchiaro.
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Plot summary: (Obstacles) Galileo is mumbling in English and Italian about artists being worse thieves than magpies. He is still not amused. Will sees that he needs to show the bridge between science and his plays, something that may impress even the arrogant gentleman blustering before him. He weaves stories about the eclipses of 1605 that are consistent with Gloucester's speech in Lear, the possible reference to the 1572 supernova at the opening of Hamlet, and the comets of Julius Caesar and I Henry VI. At this point Galileo begins to melt. As an Italian, he does appreciate the need for both science and art. Galileo is a great literary stylist who values language and its powers.
CUT TO Finocchiaro on Galileo as a literary figure in Italy, where his style of writing is as admired as his scientific exploits. Gives examples from Frova's Thus Spoke Galileo.
Setbacks for Galileo were his clashes with church authorities. And for Shakespeare, his great disappointments were his dismissal by upper-class, college-educated London poets and playwrights. For instance Will was attacked in print by the London playwright Robert Greene, who sneered that ...there is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tiger's heart wrapped in a Player's hide, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes factotum, is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country. (Greenblatt)
As they compare notes the men begin to see similarities in the way that they have handled adversity. Sonnet "When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes…" They joke about Fortune being in the stars or in themselves. Will jumps up and quotes the Edmund scene in King Lear about his being born under an unfortunate star. Galileo counters with a quotation from Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina (ca. 1615) in which he summarizes his view of the connection between theology and science, saying, "...the intention of the Holy Spirit is to teach us how one goes to heaven and not how heaven goes." (Finocchiaro 119).
SC. 5 Setting: Same Actors: Galileo, Shakespeare Experts: Profs. Maurice Finocchiaro and Nick Campion
Plot summary: (Sound & Fury) Will recalls how depressed he was during his last illness. Peasant uprisings, revolts in the making, clouds looming over England. He asks Galileo if it was all for naught. He quotes the "Sound and Fury" lines from Macbeth. Did their work amount to anything? Will can only recall up to April of 1616, and there it stops. Galileo says that by chance -- per fortuna--that he too was quite ill around then but recovered and can recall up to-when?- about 1642. Galileo recalls that he did have a trial. He officially surrendered to the Holy Office and faced Father Firenzuola, the Commissary-General of the Inquisition, and his assistants in April of 1633. But despite the events of trial that he recounts for Will, Galileo never lost hope. He tells Will not to despair, and gives a list of some effects upon society that the New Natural Philosophy had and that he lived to see.
CUT to Prof. Finocchiaro explaining how Galileo handled the upsetting aspects of his research when he dealt with courtiers and the 1633 tribunal.
CUT to Prof. Campion telling about the changes in society and the fears the royal family had about the heliocentric system. Quote John Donne's poem "The Anatomy of the World" (1611).
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And new Philosophy cals all in doubt, The Element of fire is quite put out; The Sunne is lost, and th'earth, and no mans wit Can well direct him where to looke for it, etc.
SC. 6 Setting: Same Actors: Galileo, Shakespeare
Plot summary: (De Profundis ad Astera) Will and Galileo realize that their work came from different great streams but their creations are tending in the same direction and both lead to art and knowledge. Will wonders whether the future generations will appreciate and understand this important fact. Galileo shrugs and says that it is so difficult to get anyone's attention for the really important things, but offers to show Will how to use his telescope. Shakespeare offers to proofread Galileo's improvements to his Siderius Nuncius.
Photo montage and voice-over of Galileo's Starry Messenger. Will is heard suggesting a new phrase for Galileo’s. He breaks off and suggests that they share a pint and Galileo happily agrees. Curtain, but just the Beginning. . .
4. IMAGES (SEPARATE FILE)
5. DESCRIPTION OF A SAMPLE
Our sample the Short Films (TV style documentaries) “Se Habla Espanol,” "Even A Gringa Can Make A Tamale," and the “Behind The Scenes” video show what CoyoteMoon Films brings to the project.
6. BUDGET (Separate Excel file)
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