On November 14, 15, and 16th Millbrook High School students performed “Radium Girls”, their fall play for this year. The play tells the true story of Grace Fyrer, a dial painter who worked for a luminous watch company. However, she was poisoned by the radium she used to paint. Several of Fryers coworkers were also poisoned, naturally they banned together in a long court case against the company they worked for. The show went on for three nights and was a success. Millbrook’s theater department put a lot of hard work into the play in more ways than one.
Nate Baker-Sample is the head Stage Manager, a very demanding and important role. Not only was Baker-Sample responsible for managing the schedules, he’s heavily involved in the technical side of the show, “Stage management is a job that requires you to be aware of pretty much everything going on in the theater, and it’s pretty difficult. In order for the show to run smoothly, I need to know what the lights need to look like, what sounds should play and which should stop playing, what set pieces need to be on stage, which actors need to be on stage, what props they need to be holding, etc.” It’s a very full job that requires a lot of commitment. Baker-Sample says he does it because he loves working with the crew and working with the new techies.
On the acting side of things, sophomore Ally Burman played the lead’s mother, Ms. Anna Fryer. This role was a very emotional role with several powerful scenes between Ms. Anna Fryer and her daughter Grace Fryer. Ally did lots of research on the history of the radium girls while preparing for her role.
When asked why she chose to participate in the play Ally said, “I really enjoy being involved in school, and I also love meeting new people. I’ve made so many new friends through the process, so that’s always my favorite part. I also was a dancer for many years so performing is something that comes naturally to me.”
The play got great feedback from the Wildcats! Seve Soler, Meghan Stanley, and Agape Saburi all attended the play. Stanley said, “It was really good, we had so much fun. It was especially nice seeing my friends perform, I never knew they were so good!”
If you liked Radium Girls, keep an eye out for the upcoming spring musical “Something Rotten!”
