In 2002, John Kaufmann and Dan Dennis devised a perfect intersection of science and theater. This “dreamy musical astronomy show,” called “STARBALL,” was first created at the Pacific Science Center Planetarium in Seattle and has since played across the country and in parts of Europe – including at the Zeiss Major Planetarium in Berlin, Germany from Jan. 6-7.
“‘STARBALL’ is a unique experience,” Dennis, an associate professor in the School of Theater, said. “It is theatre in a planetarium…they are amazing spaces to begin with, they really take you somewhere else.”
The show was created by the two performers while working in the Seattle planetarium and workshopping educational programs. Those workshops slowly began to morph into theatrical explorations of the sciences, until the original version of “STARBALL” came to be.
“‘STARBALL’ is about these two guys on the run from the law and they have invited this particular group of audience members to come to see a clearing,” Dennis explained. “Clearings are rare, we don’t have them very often because there’s all the pollution in the air, as well as light pollution and there’s all this information pollution we’re just constantly bombarded with. So, if we can clear all of that away, we have a chance of connecting with what’s been there the entire time, for way longer than there have been people.”
The production begins with audience members writing down a dream they have had on slips of paper that are collected by the two performers. At the most recent run of the show, these dreams included “a helpful chocolate cookie, AI-driven evil robots that pursue humanity and an elevator that saves us all,” according to a review by Berlin broadcast media station RBB24.
After the dreams are collected, the performers begin what Dennis referred to as a “very standard star show,” complete with outbursts of accordion-accompanied song. The audience grows accustomed to the mechanics and constellations of the sky, which is always a depiction of the sky at the exact time and place of the performance.
After discovering existing constellations, audience members draw from the box of previously-collected dreams and create their own constellations based on what they read.
“We end the show by asking them to write a song with us based on this new story that we’ve discovered, and John helps them pull lyrics together and I write the music on the guitar and then there’s a song and we all sing it together,” Dennis said.
“STARBALL” holds a unique space in the zeitgeist of interactive theater by being a truly successful example of the art form.
“Audience interaction is scary,” Dennis said. “…so much of what we have focused on over the years is how to really welcome people into a space in which they feel like their thinking and their hearts can be opened to an experience of something that’s actually personal.”
According to Dennis, these efforts have been largely successful.
“When we see people after the show, they are laughing, they are smiling, they really are surprised at what they’ve just been through and sometimes some of the stories are emotional,” he added.
Another facet of the show’s originality is its powerful demonstration of interdisciplinarity.
“It is science…and it’s crossing over into the arts and where that connection is are the people,” Dennis said. “We find ourselves, all of us who are at the show, at the intersection of art and science.”
“STARBALL” has existed for most of the 21st century, but not without its slow patches. According to Dennis, performances of the show were on hiatus for approximately seven years before it played in Germany in the summer of 2024, both in Hamburg and at the Live Interactive Planetarium Symposium of the International Planetarium Society in Berlin.
With the company’s recent invitation to return to Berlin, in addition to plans to discuss the show at the Mid-America Theatre Conference in Atlanta and return to the Live Interactive Planetarium Symposium, Dennis feels the show has regained some momentum with which to continue.
“Eventually I’d love for us to be able to tour regularly to universities across the country that have both astronomy or physics departments and theater departments to try to bring those populations together, to be able to meet in the middle where humans are between art and science,” Dennis said.
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