Henrietta Swan Leavitt was born in Lancaster, Massachusetts on July 4, 1868 as one of the seven children to George Roswell Leavitt, a Congregationalist minister, and his wife Henrietta Swan Kendrick. She attended Oberlin College from 1886-1888 and later Radcliffe College, where she discovered astronomy during her senior year in 1892. Silent Sky finds Henrietta when she begins working at the Harvard Observatory, but in the real story she began volunteering in 1895 and was not officially hired until 1902. Her biggest contribution to astronomy is, of course, the Cepheid variable period-luminosity relationship which she discovered in 1912.

Jennifer Asouzu is the actress who portrays this point of Henrietta’s life in the College’s production. She says this play is important to be performing right now because of the recent election and also because of the important of a pro-women message. She says, “I just feel like it’s a good lesson and picture to show people how much we have contributed to the world and how a lot of things you couldn’t do without what women have provided.” She goes on to say the simple fact that women bring life into the world is cause enough to celebrate them; “you wouldn’t have all these powerful men without women.”

Jennifer went on to speak highly of the writing in the play, comparing it to poetry a couple of times. She compares rehearsing and the script to being in a “bubble,” where she can see everything in the play and in history happening so clearly.

In regard to the similarities between Henrietta and herself, Jennifer says she identifies with her character’s persistence above all. She is also a self-proclaimed “go-getter” and says, “if I really want something I keep pushing and pushing until I get it and [Henrietta] definitely is that with every single character in the show.

Henrietta is obviously the star (pun intended) of this show and therefore she has the most well-defined relationships with everyone in the story. When prompted to describe her favorite relationship, Jennifer was quick to say Henrietta’s relationship with Peter. She cites this as her favorite because “[Henrietta] puts him right back in his place” as soon as they meet. Quite simply put, she says “[Henrietta] rearranges his world.”