Starwomen

Theater Drachengasse Vienna [ENA] While the world is speaking about gender equality and empowerment of women the Theater Drachengasse presents to the taste of the Viennese publicum the performance which is called “Sternenfrauen” in German or "Starwomen" in English. Who are the starwomen? Obviously, women which have some connections to the starts and to the universe. These are women who are researching about activities of the sun and other stars.

Or these are women who design cosmic costumes. Or women who are engineering cosmic devices. Or women who are preparing themselves to go to the stars as astronauts or cosmonauts. But these women are also starwomen because they have braveness and belief in their capacities to follow the way of their professional interest, to combine the everyday routine with dreams, to work for years on the research of one question which interests them mostly. And these women are good mothers, good spouses and good friends. These women provide example and belief that everything is possible, they inspire and motivate others to follow their dreams.

The theatre performance is realised by a team of enthusiasts and among them two starwomen: Anita Zieher and Sandra Schüddekopf. Anita Zieher, an actress and a production manager, tells the story of four women who dedicated their lives to cosmic activities. During the performance Anita virtuously shows the characters and the life pathways of these different women while making the publicum tremble with all movements of their souls. She is supported by Sandra Schüddekopf, the director.

The four women portraited in this performance are Caroline Herschel, Williamina Fleming, Valentina Tereshkova and Sally Ride. Caroline Herschel lived during the 18th century and together with her brother discovered the unknown comets for which she received a special mention with a publication of her results by the Royal Society. Further on, together with her brother Wilhelm she discovered the infrared radiation. Williamina Fleming lived during the 19th century. Her largest contribution was to develop a catalogue of more than 10.000 stars. Both women dedicated all their passion and energy to their research and managed to follow their dreams despite the fact that society of that time did not facilitate participation of women in science.

Valentina Tereshkova was the Soviet cosmonaut, the first women who was flying to cosmos. She became an inspiration and an example to follow for several thousands of women and girls while showing that every dream is possible. Sally Ride was a US astronaut who was also involved into several investigation commissions on risk assessment for various astronaut missions. She is also famous for her children books while describing challenges of cosmos and inspiring children, and especially girls, to follow her path, to have dreams and to work on realization of these dreams, what ever they are, being a researcher, a start or an astronaut.

The innovative performance technique also brings video reports with various women working nowadays in science or various activities connected with cosmos. These women are telling about their professional activities, with enthusiasm and joy in their eyes telling about scientific research, discoveries or their dreams to go to cosmos. A charming theater performance, with inspiring ideas and good atmosphere of a small theater in the center of Vienna, living good positive feelings and desire to dream and to believe in your own destiny and possibilities for other people.