And The Sun Stood Still

Dava Sobel

Jun 2015 · L.A. Theatre Works · Narrated by Robert Foxworth, John Vickery, Gregory Harrison, Kate Steele, and Michael Kirby

About this audiobook

Dava Sobel’s thoughtful play brings to life the story of Nicolaus Copernicus, the Renaissance astronomer and mathematician who proposed the heliocentric model of the universe in which the Sun stands at the center. Plagued by self-doubt and threatened by religious censure, Copernicus resisted the publication of his work until just before his death in 1543. The play follows Copernicus in those final years as he works to complete his research with the help of Georg Rheticus, a young disciple from Wittenberg, Germany.

Includes a conversation with playwright Dava Sobel, author of “A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos.”

Recorded at The Invisible Studios, West Hollywood in February, 2015.

And the Sun Stood Still is part of L.A. Theatre Works’ Relativity Series of science-themed plays. Lead funding for the Relativity Series is provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, bridging science and the arts in the modern world.

• Directed by Rosalind Ayres
• Producing Director Susan Albert Loewenberg
• Robert Foxworth as Copernicus
• Gregory Harrison as Giese
• Michael Kirby as Rheticus
• Kate Steele as Anna
• John Vickery as Bishop Dantsicus

Associate Producers: Anna Lyse Erikson, Myke Weiskopf. Recording Engineer, Sound Designer, Mixer: Mark Holden for The Invisible Studios, West Hollywood. Editor: Wes Dewberry

About the author

Dava Sobel was born in the Bronx, New York on June 15, 1947. She received a B.A. from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1969. She is a former New York Times science reporter and has contributed articles to Audubon, Discover, Life, Harvard Magazine, and The New Yorker. She has written several science related books including Letters to Father, The Planets, and A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos. Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time won the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love won the 1999 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for science and technology and a 2000 Christopher Award. She has co-authored six books with astronomer Frank Drake including Is Anyone Out There? She also co-authored with William J. H. Andrewes The Illustrated Longitude. Because her work provides awareness of science and technology to the general public, she has received the Individual Public Service Award from the National Science Board in 2001, the Bradford Washburn Award in 2001,the Klumpke-Roberts Award in 2008, and the Eduard Rhein Foundation in Germany in 2014.