When the astronomer Henrietta Leavitt opens “Silent Sky,” she has a scientist’s offbeat flair for describing the heavens: They’re “all that is far-off and lonely and stuck in the deepest dark of space. Dark but for billions and billions of … exceptions.”

At SPARC Theater’s production of the play, written by San Francisco playwrightLauren Gunderson,audiences will be able to assess Henrietta’s description for themselves: The show is staged under the open evening air, surrounded by rows of grapevines at Darcie Kent Vineyards in Livermore.

The real-life Leavitt (1868-1921) made extraordinary contributions to science, discovering how to measure the distance to faraway stars — which reminds us of our humble place in the universe. “We can skip star to star across the deepest space until we know … exactly where we are,” as Henrietta puts it in the show.

Jennifer Le Blanc directs a promising cast that includes Elena Wright, who makes text twinkle, as Henrietta.

"Silent Sky": 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Sunday, June 29-July 2. Through July 9. $18-$60. Darcie Kent Vineyards, 7000 Tesla Road, Livermore. 925-443-2273.https://sparctheater.org