People often ask where we get the name "Blue Dot". Our inspiration was from the book "Pale Blue Dot" by Carl Sagan.
Sagan points out that, when viewed from beyond Neptune, the Earth resembles a miniscule dot of pale blue. The Voyager missions gave us a new image (at left) to contrast the one photographed by the Apollo 17 astronauts (below).
For us, the people on Earth, this "pale blue dot" is our home. Everyone we've ever known, everyone we've ever heard of, every store, every song, every sport, every kind of food, every race, gender, size, hair color, religion and animal is right here on this teeny tiny insignificant and easily overlooked little dot. This humbling sense of our existence could be devastating to us.
Yet, here we are. Beyond all probability and feasibility, an entire world thrives here. We love and hate and fear and cry and laugh and live our lives. All of this, unbeknownst to some other group, possibly watching from their own "pale blue dot".
Imagine if all we ever saw was the large Apollo 17 image of the Earth. It would be easy to believe ourselves the center of the universe. What the Voyager image shows is another, completely different idea of the Earth. Our planet, contradictory as it sounds, is both enormous and miniscule, everything and nothing, vital and inconsequential.
It just depends on where you're standing.
Here at Blue Dot Theatre, we believe that it is this fundamental change of one's vantage point that makes a difference. Theatre can help you to look at the world from a different point of view. Experience that which you have not. Or could not. Walk with people you would never have walked with. See what life is like outside your own world.
