There probably aren’t that many places where you can see a play in a Tudor mansion on an estate in a forest preserve, but somehow I happened across Oak Brook’s First Folio Theater. We got there early because I had no idea where I was going and hate being late. I didn’t get lost, so we had time to explore the mansion. It needs some rehab, but it’s a pretty cool place. I was disappointed, however, by the fact that the free pieces of chocolate at the ticket desk were for subscribers only. Really! They couldn’t spare a couple pieces to help entice us to come back? Don’t they know how important the availability of chocolate is to every major life decision?!

Even without the aid of chocolate, we had no trouble staying alert during Silent Sky, a wonderful play about Henrietta Swan Leavitt, an astronomer at Harvard College Observatory in the early 20th century, who, along with other female colleagues, referred to as computers (just as at NASA as depicted in the movie Hidden Figures), made discoveries through the use of astronomical plates despite never being allowed to use the observatory’s refracting telescope.

Not so coincidentally I suppose, on November 4 I saw Dava Sobel speak at the Chicago Humanities Festival regarding her book, The Glass Universe, on the same topic.

The First Folio Theater also has an outside venue where they put on Shakespeare in the summer. I have mixed feelings about attending one of those performances. I generally prefer my Shakespeare skewed, as in Something Rotten (a wonderful romp that I’ve seen in New York and Chicago). And as much as I like to enjoy the arts outside, I’m not completely comforted by their promises that ‘biweekly mosquito abatement is conducted to ensure your comfort, and free repellent is offered at the site” and that their “well-lit Portapotties are cleaned often.” On the other hand, their summer concession stand carries chocolate.