Another fixed day has come to an end, but the information and influences will stay with what could be the next group of future female astronomers. On Friday, January 13th, every grade held discussions about women throughout history. Students observed power points made by students about historical events during the 1800’s-1920’s, students also watched an episode of Cosmos surrounding Annie Jump Cannon, one of the first female astronomers. This led up to the play, “Insignificant”, which centers around the hardships female astronomers went through.
The eighth grade and upper school headed over to St. Jean’s Theatre to watch a staged reading of Insignificant directed by one of Hewitt’s drama teachers, Ms. Britt. The play was performed by the theater company Ms. Britt is apart of, Infinite Variety Productions. “Insignificant”, which takes place in 1925, is about the steps taken by women to claim the recognition they deserve in the astronomy field that was claimed by the men they work for.
The play included humor paired alongside the senseless sexism the female protagonists faced. Although many laughed, students recognized that it’s not such a far-fetched idea for women to be talked and referred to by men in such a degrading way.
Students were able to ask the cast and playwright questions about the play’s production. One student asked how the playwright tried to incorporate the features of a deaf woman in the play since two of the leading roles were deaf. They decided the best way to approach this was to make references to the deafness rather than physically incorporating it because there wasn’t enough time to approach it in a way that was both respectful and did not take away from the play itself.
Lilah H.L. ‘19 said, “The play was both inspiring and entertaining and led to me doing more research about Annie Jump Cannon.” Hewitt plans to continue focusing in on the feminist stance for future fixed day events.