Radium Girls

Within the last couple of weeks (while catching up on newspaper articles missed from my trip) I came across an article/notice about an upcoming play. Intrigued that it was a drama about Marie Curie put on by a the middle school theater department of a private school one of our Children's Fellowship children attends, I thought Perry and I should give it a chance. So Friday night after substituting all day for a fellow teacher who was out sick and staying late trying to catch up on lesson plans and grading, Perry and I were off for the 8:00 pm show.

As with most events with Perry we arrived about 15 minutes late. Partly we were late because we were having a heated discussion over what to do with our Diversified retirement fund that is changing to another company. We were also late because we couldn't find the middle school at this huge private school campus. Wouldn't you know we went right when we should have gone left and had to completely circle the campus.

The play, Radium Girls, is actually based on real events. Marie Curie's discovery of radium had led to an industry in the United States of watch dials painted with radium so that the time could be seen in the dark. Young women, usually between 14-18 years old, were hired to hand paint the numbers on the dials. The brushes needed to have a sharp point in order for the numbers to be painted accurately. The employees were trained to put the brushes between their lips to sharpen the brush to a point.

Over time several girls became sick and eventually died. Grace, one of the young workers, became frightened that the work was making the girls sick. She eventually quit and tried to find other work. Unfortunately, Grace was already poisoned by the radium.

After starting to get sick, Grace went in search of help to stop the American Radium Company from continuing their work and poisoning other girls. With help from the press and some women's organizations Grace brought a very public law suit against the company. While she eventually settled out of court and all the other girls passed away (including Marie Curie from radium poisoning) the lawsuit eventually led to labor rights and protection for workers throughout the United States.

The middle schoolers did a great job with the serious subject matter. We enjoyed the play even if sitting for so long was hard on my leg.

-- Stephanie