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Night Sky, a play by Susan Yankowitz, will tell the story of Anna, a brilliant astronomer who is forced to gaze inward after an accident leaves her unable to communicate with others. A production of the University of Louisville Theatre Arts Department, Night Sky runs Oct. 26-30.

Yankowitz will att/files/storyimages/the opening of the play and hold a post-show discussion on Wednesday, Oct. 26. That afternoon, Yankowitz will also conduct a free two-hour playwriting workshop from 2 to 4 p.m. in Room 300 of the Bingham Humanities building. To register for the playwriting workshop, call Debbie Hudson at 852-7682. For more details, visit www.geocities.com/uofltheatre/. Her visit is sponsored by the Theatre Arts Department and the Commonwealth Center for the Humanities and Society.

"Susan Yankowitz has put so much into Night Sky," said Pacey Walker, 24, who plays Anna as her thesis role. "There's astronomy, medicine, physics, cosmology, to say nothing of her family relationships. All this has caused me to dig deep."

As research for the upcoming play, Walker, director Russell Vandenbroucke and other members of the cast have met with doctors and speech therapists from Baptist East Hospital and Frazier Rehab Center. They specialize in treating aphasia, the condition that afflicts Anna after she is hit by a car. It interferes with an person's ability to speak and/or to understand what others say.

"Patients can't move words from their brain down to their mouth without getting them lost," said Walker, describing Anna's condition. "She knows everything, but can't express it anymore."

At Frazier Rehab Center, therapist Amy Henderson allowed Walker to observe a session with a patient. For Walker, it was moving and elightening to see the woman's struggle with speech and the range of emotions it provoked: anger, laughter, frustration, embarassment and tears.

"This play does what I expect of theatre," said director Vandenbroucke, which is to help me understand something I don't know, to take me to places I've never been. Night Sky ends with a beautiful and very personal form of triumph for Anna."

Tickets to Night Sky are $10, $9 for seniors and U of L faculty/staff, and $7 for students. Shows are at 8 p.m. nightly (Wednesday through Sunday) with a 3 p.m. Sunday matinee in the Thrust Theatre, at the corner of S. Floyd and Warnock streets. To buy tickets, call the box office at 502-852-6814.