ELHS Theatre Program to Perform ‘Radium Girls’ in November
The East Lansing High School Theatre Department’s fall production of “Radium Girls” is just around the corner.
The eerie and harrowing show is based on a tragic true story that unfolded in the 20th century. Girls and young women were hired to paint numerals on watch dials and clocks using radium-laced paint. The paint emitted a green glow-in-the-dark effect, allowing soldiers fighting in the war to tell time without revealing their position.
The women were instructed to lick their paintbrushes to keep a fine tip, unaware that they were steadily swallowing radium. Because the radioactive element mimics calcium, the women’s bodies absorbed it directly into their bones. This caused a horrific condition known as “radium jaw,” characterized by bone fractures and necrosis of the jaw.
ELHS theatre and English teacher Sara Jane Thompson is directing the show. She hopes audience members walk away having learned something new, noting that much of women’s history has been erased through the years. She also wants the play to encourage people to question what they’re asked to do in their daily lives.
“[A lot of] these girls started working in the factory at 15,” Thompson said. “They were told the paint was safe and so they ingested it for years before they found out it’s not safe … and even after the company found out it wasn’t safe, they continued to use it and lie to the women.”
Playing the lead role of Grace Fryer is ELHS junior Jocelyn Edwards. Fryer was one of five New Jersey workers who filed a landmark lawsuit against the United States Radium Corporation in 1927. Edwards admires the character for her strength and intelligence.
“She went through all this and still she fought for what she believed should be right,” Edwards said.
The show presents interesting parallels with high school aged students, noted Morgan Wiard, who is the ELHS instructional clerk.
“What an intense thing for high schoolers to have to step into,” Wiard said. “These girls were also 15 and 16 and 17 when they started working at that radium plant.”
She added that students are excited about the period costumes, which allow them to be immersed in their characters.
ELHS junior Sarah Johnson has been involved in theater since her freshman year, working on the costume crew. Johnson beamed when asked about her favorite costume. While she has sewn before, this production marked the first time she sewed an entire article of clothing: a blazer for the character Katherine Wiley, a human rights advocate who encouraged the girls to stand up for themselves and sue the companies. Additionally, the show will feature special effects makeup to visually depict the women getting progressively ill.
Despite the tragedy, the women’s deaths were not in vain. Their fight helped lay the legal groundwork for workplace safety protections, eventually leading to the creation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA.
The theater department is entirely self-funded through ticket sales and fundraising, said Amber Rockey, the Performing Arts and Technical Manager for East Lansing Public Schools. Their latest fundraiser was a magic show by Chad Banister.
Radium Girls runs from Thursday, Nov. 12 through Sunday, Nov. 15. Evening performances start at 7 p.m., with a Sunday matinee at 2 p.m. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased on GoFan.