MENDOTA – When Mendota High School Drama Director James Younger was thinking about choosing the fall play, an old idea came to him.
“Radium Girls” had been on the back burner for a few years. He thought it was a good play, but it just wasn’t the right time.
Now it is, as MHS welcomes you to “Radium Girls” at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 4 and Saturday, Oct. 5 at the MHS Auditorium.
“I’ve been thinking about this show for a couple of years. I have the right cast at the right time,” Younger said. “It allows for lots of participation. I have a lot of hungry students who are willing to bite into something a little more serious with a difficult subject matter. They were willing to put in the work to understand the depth of their characters.
“We have 15 actors on stage, and we have almost that many helping with technical duties and in the back. We have around 30 students involved in the production. The play has local connections. This one is set in New Jersey, but they had the same story in Ottawa. It gives the students a chance to be really dramatic. We’ve done some comedies in the past, which they’ve enjoyed. This lets them flex a different muscle. I thought they were ready for it.”
“Radium Girls” is a play. There isn’t music involved. There isn’t any choreography, dance, or song.
It is all dialogue where Younger has seen all of his young actors and actresses grow as performers.
Gracie Botts, a MHS junior, has been in the drama program since her freshman year. She has enjoyed all of the productions she has been in over the last few years, but this hits a little different.
She enjoys telling the story of the girls from the 1920s and wearing the period wear dresses of the time period.
“I feel this has been the most coherent and well put together play. This is my favorite production I’ve been part of,” Botts said. “Mama Mia and Radium Girls are pretty close, but I think Radium Girls tops Mama Mia because of the relationship we’ve all developed.
“We did it a little different with rehearsals. I felt we were missing some connection, but as soon as we started full group activities, this has been the most positive production. Not that any of them were negative, but this is especially positive because it’s such a heavy play.
“We’ve all lifted each other up. It makes the backstage environment happy and uplifting even though this is not a funny or happy production.”
Junior Spencer Kain has been on stage since fifth grade but nothing has given him the emotional roller coaster at the same speed or height as “Radium Girls.”
“I really enjoy this performance. I think it gives a lot of people, the actors and actresses, opportunities to play different characters and not be the same character throughout the entire performance,” Kain said. “For some of the bigger roles, it offers a lot, lot, lot of lines to really go over and really get in depth with the character to see the growth they go through in this two-hour journey.
“The very last scene of this play is a very emotional moment because it really allows the main two characters and a few other characters to kind of reflect what’s happened through the entire play. By the end of the last monologue, everyone is sad. Then we finish and we’re like, yay, we did it. The vibe just shifts in two seconds.”
With a serious play, it would have been easy for the cast and crew to be melancholy backstage.
Instead, the MHS student actors and production members have been anything but as they have made sure to share smiles, laughs, and congratulations after a great scene.
“I think everyone is having a lot of fun. It’s not just a play, it’s history. The names are not the same, but this actually happened,” said Jillian Younger, who has been in plays since she was 7 years old. “I think it’s really cool that we get to tell this story. I think people are really starting to understand that this is true and there were girls who went through this.
“Also, there are people that are going through similar things today. It’s not with radium, but it could be anything else. We actually had Madeline Piller, who helped with the Radium Girls statue, the memorial, come and talk to us. I think it gave everyone a deep, profound understanding that it’s not about us, it’s about the girls and telling their story, and also for the family members of those people.
“Many of them never got answers to what happened to their family members. It’s telling the story, so it doesn’t happen again in the future.”
The cast and crew consist of Abe Botts, Sophie Pappas, Daisy Mendez-Santana, Nicki Reyes, Norah Olson, Sami Nelson, Grace Schlesinger, Hunter Goellner, Brianna Russell, Meghan Dewey, Allyssah Arteaga, Korinne Miars, James Whitmore, Quin Holland, Dessa Komitas, Jillian Younger, Gage Richey, Spencer Kain, Gracie Botts, Miranda Wheeler, Shelby Bentley, Cailynn Rodrick, Hayden Senders, B.J. Bresley.
Younger is the director and Jennifer Masini is the stage manager of “Radium Girls.”
