Feature Works

GALILEO TONIGHT A One Act, One Man Play by Michael Chriss SYNOPSIS I. OPENING: AN OLD MAN TELLS OF A DANGEROUS TIME As the stage lights darken and go out, a door opens and an old man dressed in Florentine garb slowly enters. He holds a flickering candle and carries some books and scrolls. He squints at the audience as he shuffles towards the centre of the stage, and stops at a large trestle table with props, books, solar system models, a bowl of fruit and a flagon of wine. The stage lights come up as Galileo puts down his books and scrolls and faces the audience, addressing them first

I’m not any fun! How do I know this? Because I’ve been told this many times. I’ve been told this by my family, by my friends, and, most especially, by my students. They all say the same thing: I’m no fun. Now why do they say this? I think I know. Because I refuse to believe in the fad of the moment. What excites others, leaves me filled with skepticism, boredom, and ennui. For example, one of my students will come into class with something from the San Francisco Chronicle or the National Enquirer -sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference- about astrology. Since I teach astronomy, they want to

THE AVIAT0R’S SUIT Michael Chriss It can get really cold in an observatory. There you are, all alone, high up on a platform near the top of the telescope, the dome shutters wide open, and the winter temperature well below freezing. The dome is unheated, of course, so as not to create air currents that would blur your images. You have been there for maybe 3 hours or so, sitting in a chair, peering through a small, frigid eyepiece, trying to keep a faint guide star on the crosswires as you seek to photograph some faint and incredibly far away object, just barely visible to your icy staring eye. You