{"id":6672,"date":"2017-11-09T11:59:01","date_gmt":"2017-11-09T19:59:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=6672"},"modified":"2017-11-10T20:34:37","modified_gmt":"2017-11-11T04:34:37","slug":"radium-girls-stand-spotlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/radium-girls-stand-spotlight\/","title":{"rendered":"Radium Girls stand in the spotlight"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/h5>\n
Stephanie Blair\u00a0<\/span>|\u00a0<\/span>Editor-in-Chief<\/span><\/h5>\n

On the mainstage of Rice Auditorium currently sits a simple set of three platforms and a plain black backdrop, obscured by a massive, reflective window. It\u2019s on this little set that a big story is going to be told: \u201cRadium Girls\u201d by D. W. Gregory.<\/span><\/p>\n

The premise is less simple.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThree girls die and sue a company,\u201d said Mindy Mawhirter, a junior acting BFA major who plays Kathryn at the start of the show.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn that order,\u201d added first-year theatre and mathematics education major Andi Moring, the play\u2019s lead.<\/span><\/p>\n

The play takes place over the course of 20 years but begins in New Jersey in 1921, following a small group of girls who work in a factory painting watchfaces with glow-in-the-dark paint for the soldiers of World War I. It\u2019s the radium which makes this paint glow, and claims the lives of so many workers in this factory.<\/span><\/p>\n

In one of the opening scenes of the play, the forewoman informs the girls that they have to go back to licking their paint brushes to form a point rather than wiping them in cloths due to their budget. When Grace, portrayed by Moring, objects, saying that her doctor warned her not to, she is snapped at and told that she must have misunderstood the doctor.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe know now that (radium) is very poisonous and radioactive, but they didn\u2019t know that back then,\u201d explained Moring. \u201cIt was the miracle drug, it was incredible.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This point is further driven home in the show when Marie Curie claims that radium is the cure for cancer. And so, the girls continue to radiate themselves, making them sick and ultimately driving them to their graves. This same event sparks a lawsuit, the main focus of the show.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of just the story of the first real lawsuit against a company for how they\u2019ve been treating their workers, and work conditions,\u201d said Moring. \u201cI don\u2019t want to give away too much but, yeah. That\u2019s our show.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a very different show than what we did last year \u2014 we did \u2018Machinal,\u2019 which was an expressionistic piece, and this is more of realism,\u201d said Mawhirter. \u201cSo that\u2019s been interesting to see: the differentiation between the two styles of theater \u2014 especially with having the same director (Michael Phillips).\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While the show isn\u2019t expressionistic, it is a touch abstract in terms of its performance. The set, as mentioned, is fairly minimal, and so is the cast. The show is performed by 16 actors who portray a total of 36 characters on a single set.<\/span><\/p>\n

Molly Duddlesten, junior theatre and English major, commented, \u201cI die on page 27 so like, that\u2019s cool. And then I\u2019m other characters in the show, which is fun.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The show opens on Thursday, Nov. 9, and runs for two weekends. Nov. 9-11 and 15-18, the curtain opens at 7:30 p.m. and a matinee performance will take place on Nov. 12 at 2 p.m. There will be no late seating once the show starts. Friday night performances will be interpreted. <\/span><\/p>\n

Adult admission is $14; senior, faculty and staff admission is $10; for Western students with ID, admission is $8. Visit the box office at Rice Auditorium or call 503-838-8462 to purchase tickets.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Contact the author at journaleditor@wou.edu<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stephanie Blair\u00a0|\u00a0Editor-in-Chief On the mainstage of Rice Auditorium currently sits a simple set of three platforms and a plain black backdrop, obscured by a massive, reflective window. It\u2019s on this little set that a big story is going to be told: \u201cRadium Girls\u201d by D. W. Gregory. The premise is less simple. \u201cThree girls die […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1017,"featured_media":6673,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1017"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}