Giving a voice to the voiceless, the School of Music, Theatre and Dance at Colorado State University will perform “Silent Sky” by Lauren Gunderson at the University Center for the Arts at the end of September and beginning of October. The play focuses on Henrietta Leavitt, an astronomer from the early 1900s, and her underrated contributions to the field of astronomy.

Henrietta’s research is the reason humans can measure distance through space.

“Gunderson is essentially imagining, ‘What would it have been like to be just as smart as all of the male professors in the room but not be given any of the accolades or access to resources to funding or even telescopes in order to do her work and her research effectively?’” said Debbie Swann, director of “Silent Sky” and senior instructor of theater at CSU.

Swann and the School of Music, Theatre and Dance chose the play to represent this year being CSU’s year of democracy.

While it can be difficult to imagine the life of a historic figure, Gunderson recontextualizes Henrietta’s life and depicts a more human portrait of a woman whose contributions have been widely unheard.

“It’s about the sacrifices she made with people she loved in order to make such a huge contribution,” Swann said. “It really explores this idea of the family she left behind or perhaps the relationship she didn’t pursue because back in 1900s. Women needed to have families, and if women wanted to pursue a career, they were giving up a lot because they weren’t going to be pariahs in society.”  

Alaina Noble, who plays Henrietta, said she hadn’t known Henrietta or her work before auditioning but was drawn into the play from the astronomy angle.

“I was super interested in astronomy and astrology, and so I loved the environment that the play’s in, but I actually had to learn a lot about the real person before starting the rehearsal process,” Noble said. “(Henrietta) is very strong and curious and very intellectual. I haven’t really played a lot of smart intellectual characters, and so understanding the science behind everything she is saying has been completely new to me.”

Kelsey McKercher, who plays Henrietta’s sister Margaret Leavitt, also didn’t known who the figures were before the audition, but she was drawn in after learning more about her from family and friends.

McKercher credits her relationships with her brother and father as being an inspiration for her performance as Margaret.

“I don’t have a sister, but I do have a brother, and so I kind of understand the love there and the need to be close with them,” McKercher said. “I sometimes use that to help fuel my emotions in the scene. Just picturing if my brother were to leave for ages and just not talk to me and never reach out and just be so invested that he seems to become a different person.”

McKercher said getting so close to Noble has helped bring the character and their relationship to life in the play.

“There’s an emotional bond that grows when you are scene partners with someone taking part in these vulnerable moments,” McKercher said. “Emotions come out of you, and sometimes you’re crying on stage, like, real tears coming out. It’s just kind of amazing to watch each other as actors grow and then just as people.”

While not a musical, the play has McKercher singing the church hymn “For the Beauty of the Earth” by Folliott Sandford Pierpoint.

“(The song) is religious but also talks about the beauty of nature and the sky,” McKercher said. “I think that’s why it was chosen for this show because there’s a connection of religion and faith as well as nature. I think the song is just a nice way (to), like, tie them together.”  

The character Margaret is a composer, so the production had a student compose an original score for the play. Isabella Knott is the assistant sound designer and composer for the production, with “Silent Sky” being her first design job.

“It was just kind of, like, an idea that was floating around with our design meetings, and I got super excited, so I was like, ‘Of course I’ll do it,’” Knott said. “My instrument is not a piano, and (the score is) majority piano and strings, so this is my first time doing anything orchestral. It’s been one of the hardest experiences I’ve ever been through, but it’s, like, so rewarding, and I’ve learned so much.

“Silent Sky” will be showing at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 29 and 30 and Oct. 5-7, with two matinee performances at 2:00 p.m. Oct. 1 and 8 at the Studio Theatre in the University Center for the Arts. The Oct. 1 performance will feature a Women and Science panel following the matinee. CSU students are eligible for a free ticket.

“(Henrietta’s) a marvelous, marvelous woman and it has been such an such an honor to actually get to play her because everything that she had to go through is something that I think is still happening in our times,” Noble said. “It’s really interesting how she stood up for what she believed in — even in the 1900s — and how we’re still having to fight those things today.”