{"id":39506,"date":"2016-10-18T15:20:30","date_gmt":"2016-10-18T20:20:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/?p=39506"},"modified":"2023-05-10T16:06:11","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T21:06:11","slug":"poetry-constellations-collide-science-festival-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/poetry-constellations-collide-science-festival-production\/","title":{"rendered":"Poetry and constellations collide in Science Festival production"},"content":{"rendered":"

Theater meets science in the original production \u201cOdyssey Under the Stars,\u201d which co-author Robin Mello<\/a> calls \u201cthe full brain experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mello, associate professor of theater, teamed up with Jean Creighton, director of the UWM Manfred Olson Planetarium<\/a>, to blend performances from Homer\u2019s epic poem \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d with views of the night sky.<\/p>\n

The two naturally go together, Mello and Creighton say.<\/p>\n

The 2,500-year-old poem follows the hero Odysseus\u2019 tumultuous 10-year journey home after the Trojan War. Along the way, he encounters angry gods, creatures from mythical lands and countless other obstacles that lengthen what should have been a short trip.<\/p>\n

To guide his way home, Odysseus turns to the sky for direction. The audience will see the night sky move as Creighton, who plays the goddess Athena, guides the hero home.<\/p>\n

Creighton, who grew up in Greece, wanted to ensure the show\u2019s authenticity. She uses two Greek versions of the poem in the adaptation. She also will sing a traditional Greek song, which has become her favorite part of the show.<\/p>\n

Producing theater in the planetarium, where the audience looks up to see the show, was difficult.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to work around the irregular space to make sure there were no audience blind spots,\u201d Creighton said. The human performance takes place around the planetarium floor.<\/p>\n

Creighton and Mello, self-proclaimed BFFs, have been developing the project for several years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just having fun. Instead of going out for coffee, we wrote a play,\u201d said Mello.<\/p>\n

Their goal is to make science available and accessible to everyone.<\/p>\n

Incorporating theater allows them to present astrophysics in a less intimidating and more creative way, said Creighton.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like people understand science better if they can talk about it in terms of a story.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Constellations and Homer\u2019s epic poem \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d might not seem to have much in common. But a Wisconsin Science Festival original production at the Manfred Olson Planetarium ties them together in a way that’s educational and entertaining. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40008,"featured_media":39507,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"section":[127,131],"display_categories":[115,116],"related-coverage":[],"uwmnews-feed":[344,158,161,164],"class_list":["post-39506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","section-arts-humanities","section-theater","display_categories-top-story-secondary","display_categories-top-story-section","uwmnews-feed-arts-architecture","uwmnews-feed-letters-science","uwmnews-feed-hard-science","uwmnews-feed-arts"],"yoast_head":"\nPoetry and constellations collide in Science Festival production<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Constellations and Homer\u2019s epic poem \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d might not seem to have much in common. But a Wisconsin Science Festival original production at the Manfred Olson Planetarium ties them together in a way that's educational and entertaining.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/poetry-constellations-collide-science-festival-production\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Poetry and constellations collide in Science Festival production\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Constellations and Homer\u2019s epic poem \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d might not seem to have much in common. But a Wisconsin Science Festival original production at the Manfred Olson Planetarium ties them together in a way that's educational and entertaining.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/poetry-constellations-collide-science-festival-production\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"UWM REPORT\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-10-18T20:20:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-05-10T21:06:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2016\/10\/Jean-and-Robin750x500.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"UWM News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@UWMNews\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@UWMNews\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"UWM News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/poetry-constellations-collide-science-festival-production\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/poetry-constellations-collide-science-festival-production\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"UWM News\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d72440401ec36965989bb00390105686\"},\"headline\":\"Poetry and constellations collide in Science Festival production\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-10-18T20:20:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-10T21:06:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/poetry-constellations-collide-science-festival-production\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":301,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/poetry-constellations-collide-science-festival-production\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/41\\\/2016\\\/10\\\/Jean-and-Robin750x500.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/poetry-constellations-collide-science-festival-production\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/poetry-constellations-collide-science-festival-production\\\/\",\"name\":\"Poetry and constellations collide in Science Festival production\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/poetry-constellations-collide-science-festival-production\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/poetry-constellations-collide-science-festival-production\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/41\\\/2016\\\/10\\\/Jean-and-Robin750x500.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-10-18T20:20:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-10T21:06:11+00:00\",\"description\":\"Constellations and Homer\u2019s epic poem \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d might not seem to have much in common. But a Wisconsin Science Festival original production at the Manfred Olson Planetarium ties them together in a way that's educational and entertaining.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/poetry-constellations-collide-science-festival-production\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/poetry-constellations-collide-science-festival-production\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/poetry-constellations-collide-science-festival-production\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/41\\\/2016\\\/10\\\/Jean-and-Robin750x500.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/41\\\/2016\\\/10\\\/Jean-and-Robin750x500.jpg\",\"width\":750,\"height\":500},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/poetry-constellations-collide-science-festival-production\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Poetry and constellations collide in Science Festival production\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"UWM REPORT\",\"description\":\"News from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/41\\\/2017\\\/02\\\/uwm-seo-logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/41\\\/2017\\\/02\\\/uwm-seo-logo.jpg\",\"width\":225,\"height\":224,\"caption\":\"University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/UWMNews\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d72440401ec36965989bb00390105686\",\"name\":\"UWM News\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/author\\\/uwmnewsuwm-edu\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Poetry and constellations collide in Science Festival production","description":"Constellations and Homer\u2019s epic poem \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d might not seem to have much in common. But a Wisconsin Science Festival original production at the Manfred Olson Planetarium ties them together in a way that's educational and entertaining.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/poetry-constellations-collide-science-festival-production\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Poetry and constellations collide in Science Festival production","og_description":"Constellations and Homer\u2019s epic poem \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d might not seem to have much in common. But a Wisconsin Science Festival original production at the Manfred Olson Planetarium ties them together in a way that's educational and entertaining.","og_url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/poetry-constellations-collide-science-festival-production\/","og_site_name":"UWM REPORT","article_published_time":"2016-10-18T20:20:30+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-05-10T21:06:11+00:00","og_image":[{"width":750,"height":500,"url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2016\/10\/Jean-and-Robin750x500.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"UWM News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@UWMNews","twitter_site":"@UWMNews","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"UWM News","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/poetry-constellations-collide-science-festival-production\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/poetry-constellations-collide-science-festival-production\/"},"author":{"name":"UWM News","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d72440401ec36965989bb00390105686"},"headline":"Poetry and constellations collide in Science Festival production","datePublished":"2016-10-18T20:20:30+00:00","dateModified":"2023-05-10T21:06:11+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/poetry-constellations-collide-science-festival-production\/"},"wordCount":301,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/poetry-constellations-collide-science-festival-production\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2016\/10\/Jean-and-Robin750x500.jpg","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/poetry-constellations-collide-science-festival-production\/","url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/poetry-constellations-collide-science-festival-production\/","name":"Poetry and constellations collide in Science Festival production","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/poetry-constellations-collide-science-festival-production\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/poetry-constellations-collide-science-festival-production\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2016\/10\/Jean-and-Robin750x500.jpg","datePublished":"2016-10-18T20:20:30+00:00","dateModified":"2023-05-10T21:06:11+00:00","description":"Constellations and Homer\u2019s epic poem \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d might not seem to have much in common. But a Wisconsin Science Festival original production at the Manfred Olson Planetarium ties them together in a way that's educational and entertaining.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/poetry-constellations-collide-science-festival-production\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/poetry-constellations-collide-science-festival-production\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/poetry-constellations-collide-science-festival-production\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2016\/10\/Jean-and-Robin750x500.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2016\/10\/Jean-and-Robin750x500.jpg","width":750,"height":500},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/poetry-constellations-collide-science-festival-production\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Poetry and constellations collide in Science Festival production"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/","name":"UWM REPORT","description":"News from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/#organization","name":"University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee","url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2017\/02\/uwm-seo-logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2017\/02\/uwm-seo-logo.jpg","width":225,"height":224,"caption":"University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/UWMNews"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d72440401ec36965989bb00390105686","name":"UWM News","url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/author\/uwmnewsuwm-edu\/"}]}},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-24 00:26:16","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39506"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39515,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39506\/revisions\/39515"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39506"},{"taxonomy":"section","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/section?post=39506"},{"taxonomy":"display_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/display_categories?post=39506"},{"taxonomy":"related-coverage","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/related-coverage?post=39506"},{"taxonomy":"uwmnews-feed","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/uwmnews-feed?post=39506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}