By Magdalene Ko, News Editor
On September 23 and 24, Thursday and Friday at 7pm, Mills will be treated to Athena’s Island: a musical, written by our very own Mr. Huddleson. As our first in-person musical in over a year, it’s sure to be one of the highlights of the new school year. Based off the #1 New York Times bestseller The Codebreaker by Walter Isaacson, the musical focuses on Jennifer Doudna’s extraordinary life.
The story is about a simple Hawaiian girl who defies society’s expectations and develops groundbreaking discoveries such as the shape of RNA. As a professor at UC Berkeley, Doudna continued studying the properties of RNA. To add to her list of accomplishments, not only is she a cofounder of CRISPR, a gene editing tool, her work has been the basis of the COVID-19 vaccine and other abilities to rid humans of viruses. As for the cherry on top, she won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of a method for genome editing in 2020.
As Mr. Huddleson was reading The Codebreaker in March, he stated, “It just inspired me. I had songs in my head when I was reading the story of Jennifer Doudna.” As a Berkeley professor and molecular biology major himself, Doudna’s story hit “close to home.” He just wanted to “write about this person and her interesting life, and what made her heroic.”
While we continued the interview, I found myself more and more interested in the musical and Jennifer Doudna. When I asked what we as an audience should take away after watching Athena’s Island, Mr. Huddleson remarked “science is amazing.” All the scientists in biochemistry, especially women, are rock stars. “We praise our athletes in our culture, we love politicians, but I think some of the most important heroes are the people in the medical field and in the sciences because they’re creating cures.” He continued on to point out that we should respect our scientists and believe them because they’re regular people too.
These scientists are the unsung heroes of our lives, dedicating their lives to research to save ours. One of our very own Mills graduates, Craig Venter, has become one of the leading scientists in genome research and wrestling with the controversial issues that come with it. When Venter was a soldier in Vietnam, he’d jumped off a boat to give up on life, but swam back to dedicate his life to science. “Even in the darkest despair, you could become someone that changes the world” was the inspiring statement after such an encouraging story.
Just like Venter, Doudna has persisted with her work, as well as weighed the moral problems that come with gene editing. “Like Jennifer Doudna”, Mr. Huddleson revealed, “people kept telling her oh, you’re a girl, don’t go into science. She was discouraged.” After her dad motivated her, she continued on, and is the most predominant chemist in biochem.
Since he read The Codebreaker in March, he had plenty of extra free time during distance learning when he didn’t have students to interact with. He decided to utilize that time to compose. “My process was just ok, making deadlines, May 29, I’m going to write this complete thing” he explained. He managed to write a couple of songs a week, on top of teaching all his English classes.
Even Mr. Huddleson’s naming process was unique. Athena has always been a symbol of strength, wisdom, and feminism. When he went to Nashville, he visited the life size replica of the Parthenon and Athena. He was struck by her symbolism and thought “what a powerful symbol of power and wisdom”, and was even more affected by the Me Too Movement, a stand against sexual assault and harrasment that was gaining influence.
He even incorporated an underlying fiction Athena storyline, such as the Athena Project. It was a project created to connect people to Doudna’s technology. Her dad also hands her a figurine of Athena, allowing her to learn about the Greek goddess and all she represents.
The musical is “a way to bring back the live arts and bring the community together”. This musical will be the first live one in over a year, and will be socially distant, free, and in the courtyard. There’ll even be displays all around center court about different scientists. “Come out if you feel like musicals, if you like rock, if you like stories, if you like science, anything. It just brings art and music and science together” he stated.
Athena’s Island is a complete musical, with about 20 songs. He thinks it’ll be “a lot of fun”, but is also hoping for it to be published. Remember, come September 23 and 24, at 7pm in center court to enjoy a return to pre-pandemic life. Good luck to Mr. Huddleson, the Mills band, and drama team! We’re looking forward to experiencing all your hard work!
