The Chapel Hill High School theater department debuted its winter play Radium Girls February 1-3, marking the first dramatic play the program has done since the production of Sense and Sensibility in November 2019.
Written by D.W. Gregory, Radium Girls tells the story about factory girls painting radium clocks for soldiers in World War I. The factory girls fall ill because of their exposure to the deadly chemical radium and then pursue a tough legal battle to get reparations for the harm they received from the U.S. Radium Corporation.
Theater Department Head Thomas Drago said he picked this show because he wanted to challenge his actors to perform.
“Recently, [the Theater Department] has done a lot of comedy…[and] that [has] been highly entertaining,” he said, “but I wanted to do a show that would be more of a challenge for the actors at a dramatic level.”
Drago’s team consisted of senior Stella Benson, the student director of the production, and junior Jieun Lee, the stage manager.
Lee said she loved working with Benson, saying that Benson was a “crucial part of the show.” Lee also shared this sentiment about Drago and technical theater director Allison Frimmel.
“Both Drago and Frimmel were extremely supportive and reassuring throughout the production,” Lee said.
The cast included many actors from all four levels of the school’s theater classes. Leading the production was sophomore Amaya Rice, who played the role of Grace Fryer, a “very tenacious and surprisingly brave” young woman, in Rice’s words.
“[Rice] gave a really good and emotional performance,” sophomore Cooper Rector–who played a variety of roles such as Bailey, The Drinker, The Shopper, Lovesick Cowboy, and the Judge–said. “I am really impressed with [her] because she memorized her lines really quickly.”
Supporting Rice were seasoned members of the theater department such as junior Dylan Morse, who played maniacal Arthur Roeder, and senior Eliza Miller, who played a variety of characters such as MacNeil, Clerk and Mrs. Fryer. Both actors performed in the 2023 fall play Clue! and the 2023 spring musical Grease.
Junior Oliver Powell, who played the greedy Tom Fryer, expressed his delight for the cast and crew that helped bring it all together. “This has been such a fun show to produce,” Powell said. “I will miss the people who I maybe won’t get to act with in the future.”
The production took place in the black box theater. Drago decided to host Radium Girls in the space because it was unique and challenged the actors to perform in front of “an intimate audience, as opposed to being in a gigantic auditorium where there’s distance between the performance and the crowd.”
Even with the challenges of working in the space, Radium Girls proved to be a successful hit, with all three shows being completely sold out. There were many positive reviews of the show, with the most common affirmations being about the plot, the set and the actors themselves.
Senior Eliza Hedenman-Brown, said that “the story was riveting” and kept her captivated. “[The show was] beautiful and truly made me cry several times,” Hedenman-Brown said.
Hedenman-Brown also emphasized the many brilliant performances from the production, such as Rice’s leading role of Grace Fryer and sophomore Eliza Scott’s variety of characters, including Irene Rudolph, Mrs. Michaels, and Board Member #2.
Junior Grayson Johnson also praised the performances of the Radium Girls cast, singling out Morse’s performance as the evil Arthur Roeder specifically. “I think he is an outstanding actor, and he is good at displaying all of the emotions for the character he played,” she said.
The set was also a big standout for many audience members. Junior Tyler Evans said that the set design—particularly the glowing clock toward the back of the stage—provided the perfect atmosphere for the show to run smoothly.
“The glowing clock and the consistent green coloring of the backdrop, [along with the] outfits helped provide an amazing tone of radioactivity,” he said.
Junior Caelen Ewing also liked the design of the set and emphasized how the crew “made a great use of limited space.”
Ewing also appreciated the backdrop of a glowing green clock. “It was a fantastic centerpiece,” he said.
Radium Girls not only engaged audiences, but it also showed off the amazing talent across all four levels in the Chapel Hill High School theater program.
