Fieldcrest High School to perform ‘Radium Girls’ as fall play

Fieldcrest High School will present “Radium Girls” at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 4, and Saturday, Nov. 5, as well as 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 6.

Admission is $5 at the gym doors.

In 1926, radium was a miracle cure, Madame Curie an international celebrity, and luminous watches the latest rage-until girls who painted them began to fall ill with a mysterious disease.

Inspired by a true story, “Radium Girls” traces the efforts of Grace Fryer, a dial painter, as she fights her day in court. Her chief adversary is her former employer, Arthur Roeder, an idealistic man who cannot bring himself to believe the same element that shrinks tumors could have anything to do with the terrifying rash of illnesses among his employees. As the case goes on, however, Grace finds herself battling not just with the U.S. Radium Corporation, but with her own family and friends, who fear that her campaign for justice will backfire.

Making up the cast and crew are seniors Joseph Dohleman, Haley Doty, Aaralyn McCullough, Jolene Schmitt, Bella Tomlinson, Ashton Watkins, Hope Yunker; juniors Cole Aussiker, Kyra Cunningham, Tristin Freeman, Emma-Jo Gill, Kyleigh Hovey, Ava Marty, Cassidy Palm, Brianna Peck, Tatiana Serna, Addison Tjaden, Emily Wells; sophomores Dayna Baker, Jaxson Boland, Gwyneth Frei, Zachary Johnson, Hannah Schumacher; freshmen Gabriel Freeman, Emma Martyn; and eighth grader Ava Meierhofer.

The performance is produced by special arrangement with the Dramatic publishing company of Woodstock, Ill.

It is originally produced by Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey and developed with a commissioning grant from the Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science and Technology Project