Radium Girl drama with the Umbrella Group Next Month

We take it for granted that the time will shine at us. For most people it’s kind of a rare occasion when they think to check the time and aren’t consulting some backlit digital display. There was a time not too long ago when this was kind of a novelty. Back in 1992, Timex debuted Indiglo technology just a few seconds before the glowing watches’ popularity would be supplanted by mobile phones. A very, very long time before that, however, there was a company that thought it might be cool to make the time glow by way of irradiated paint. Back in the early part of the 20th century, the United States Radium Corporation employed a group of women to decorate watch faces with glowing paint. They would come to be known as the Radium Girls. Not knowing the dangers of what they were working with, they even painted their nails and teeth with the stuff. The ensuing litigation was covered in the national media. 

A group of women fought back against a corporation that considered them expendable. A drama based on the plight of the Radium Girls makes it to the stage next month as Umbrella Group Theatre presents playwright Melanie Marncih III’s These Shining Lives. Directed by Mallory Metoxen, the show has a remarkably talented cast including Libby Amato, Randall Anderson, Dylan Bolin, Anna Figlesthaler, Linnea Koeppel, Philip Sletteland, and Jade Taylor.

Umbrella Groups’ staging of These Shining Lives runs  Jul. 9 - 19 at the Next Act Theatre. For ticket reservations and further information, visit Next Act online.