The Radium Girls (left-right): Irene (Jeanelle Long), Grace (Mikah Vaclaw), and Kathryn (Meg Flinders). Photo by Jaren Wilkey/BYU
A play opening this week at Brigham Young University aims to transport viewers back in time to a 1920s radium factory to witness a somber yet hopeful moment in American history.
"Radium Girls" tells the story of Grace Fryer, one of many women who worked in the factory as luminous watch dial painters and subsequently suffered from adverse effects of radium, a potential hazard concealed from the workers.
"If you realize how much these girls had to live for, then you realize how devastating it was," dramaturg Pollyanna Eyler said in a recent BYU Arts news release. "And yet, there's a lot of humor in the show, despite the heavy subject matter."
The production requires the student cast of nine actors to play 38 roles throughout each show.
Read the full story on the Daily Herald website.