Written by: Alan Dyer

Galileo is alive and well, and performing daily at your local planetarium, where he’ll tour you through his universe of discoveries.

He looked through a telescope and changed the world. You can look through a telescope and change your life. Let Galileo be your guide…. Through a nationally-funded and produced planetarium show, Galileo Live!, we take you back 400 years to meet the great scientist himself, live on stage, touring you in person through his discoveries with the telescope

You’ll meet Galileo amid immersive 360° scenes shot on location in Italy: at the Doge’s Palace in Venice where Galileo first demonstrated the telescope, at the Leaning Tower of Pisa, where he reputedly demonstrated the nature of falling objects, and in Florence, Rome and other key places where Galileo lived and traveled. Guiding us through the past is the recorded “voice” of Galileo’s daughter, recalling how, as a young girl, she and her father observed the stars together

Through their own words, Galileo and his daughter tell the touching story of how their telescope revealed a vast new universe.

This 30-minute planetarium show is a unique blend of a live stage actor with multimedia visuals and the planetarium sky. The show is suitable for all ages, and includes an opportunity for audience members to look through an authentic replica of Galileo’s first telescope. Galileo Live! is being staged at:

• the Planétarium de Montréal [http://www.planetarium.montreal.qc.ca/index_a.html] (starting in autumn 2009, in both French and English)
• the Planetarium of the Manitoba Museum, Winnipeg [http://www.manitobamuseum.ca/pl_info.html] (starting in late spring 2009)
• the Telus World of Science-Calgary [http://www.calgaryscience.ca] (opens March 20, 2009)
• and the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre, Vancouver [http://www.hrmacmillanspacecentre.com/] (opens March 13, 2009)

The program is a co-production of the four planetariums, with script by Alan Dyer. The program was made possible through funding from:

• the Museums Assistance Program of Canadian Heritage, Government of Canada
• the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Canada
• and the Canadian Space Agency.