“The Kepler Story” : The background of a one-man performance work about Johannes Kepler

Here is a SETI Institute Google Hangout discussion about the Kepler Story | California Academy of Sciences.

The work is described as follows:

As a one-man performance with dramatic supporting music and full dome visuals, the Morrison Planetarium in collaboration with Motion Institute presents The Kepler Story – an innovative, immersive performance piece about the life and story of 17th-century astronomer and mystic Johannes Kepler. The story of his life, including his discovery of the three laws of planetary motion which removed Earth once and for all from its position at the center of the Universe, took an even more dramatic turn when his mother was arrested for witchcraft and Kepler was forced to defend her. On the way to her trial, reading Galileo’s father’s book on harmony, Kepler experienced one of his greatest epiphanies about the harmony of the universe.

History, religion, passion and science intersect in this remarkable individual’s life with a performance in the Academy’s planetarium that has the capacity to elicit moments of transcendence as it enlivens your senses and stimulates your mind. We will explore Kepler’s unique capacity to integrate a worldview steeped in mysticism with a rigorous scientific perspective based on observation and experimentation.

The Kepler Story is produced by Motion Institute, a Bay Area nonprofit theater production company that offers audiences a singular view of current issues, presented in ways that are contemporary, unpredictable, and embedded in the narratives of their own lives. Written and directed by Nina Wise and performed by Norbert Weisser, a veteran film and stage actor, The Kepler Story integrates spectacular visuals developed by the Morrison Planetarium visualization studio and Toshi Anders Hoo, deeply moving music by composer and cellist Zoë Keating and sound design by Emmy Award winner Christopher Hedge.