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Yankowitz was inspired and commissioned to write the play that would become Night Sky after her friend and mentor, legendary director Joseph Chaikin, suffered a stroke during heart surgery and developed aphasia. Chaikin eventually recovered, but the experience affected him and his friends forever, and he desired to educate people about this very devastating condition. Yankowitz recalled how "When he would go out in public—similar to what I showed in the play—people would assume he was an idiot, he didn't understand anything. For somebody of Joe's outstanding intelligence and previous eloquence, it was just a horrible situation." Yankowitz uses these type of situations in her play.However, Chaikin wanted to distance himself somewhat from the play, so he gave Yankowitz three conditions: the play's protagonist was to be a woman, not a man, and he wanted the aphasia to develop due to an automobile accident instead of a stroke or surgery. The third condition, which surprised Yankowitz, was that the protagonist should be an astronomer. When asked why, Chaikin replied, "'Stars, stars. So many stars.' And he made a gesture, pointing above. I said, 'Yes, but what about them?' He couldn't find the words to express it.
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