The Stern College Dramatic Society (SCDS) is bringing live theater back to Yeshiva University with a production of Radium Girls by D.W. Gregory, directed by Reuven Russell. First produced in 2000, the play is based on the true story of female laborers who were poisoned and killed by their factory’s radium-based paint, used on watches and other objects that needed to be seen in the dark. The production, which features a cast of 10 people playing 30 roles, runs for four performances at the Schottenstein Theater on the Wilf Campus: Sunday, Dec. 19, at 3 p.m.; Monday, Dec. 20, at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 21, at 7:30 p.m.; and Thursday, Dec. 23, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available at TicketLeap.  

  Reuven Russell, the artistic director of SCDS as well as being a professor of speech and drama at Stern College, is thrilled both by being back in the Schottenstein Theater after a two-year absence and by the compelling theatrical challenge of directing a large cast in so many multiple roles. He is also energized by the subject matter of the play, which an SCDS student had introduced him to.  “Although the play dramatizes the time when radium and its uses were first discovered over 100 years ago,” he noted, “its relevance pitting corporate profit versus the health and well-being of the people it serves is quite eerie.”  

Director Reuven Russell gives the cast of Radium Girls some final instructions before they launch into their final tech/dress rehearsal. (Photo: Jennifer Weisbord)

  Rachel Gilinski ’23SB, who is playing the lead character, Grace Fryer, finds the story of the young girls condemned to pain and death at one and the same time “philosophical yet comedic yet tragic yet hopeful yet hopeless,” much like the character of Grace herself. “Grace is painfully three-dimensional,” Gilinski observed, “and it’s a challenge to portray every element of her at once: playful and shy, bitter yet in love, simultaneously furious at her circumstance but wholly accepting of it, always trying to do the right thing regardless of how much it hurts her.” This play is “raw and emotional, swiftly shifting from one subplot to the next, and I'm sure anyone, no matter their taste in visual media, can find something they relate to within it.” While Gilinski gets to play one of the good guys, so to speak, Elisheva Hirsch ’23S, a vice president of SCDS, has the unenviable task of playing Mr. Roeder, the company president of the U.S. Radium Society, one of the people at fault for the suffering of the women. “The most challenging part of playing Roeder,” she observed, “is trying to portray his humanity and moral conscience even while he makes many questionable decisions. He’s not your typical ‘bad guy’ character and I hope my acting does that justice.” She is extremely excited by the return to live theater, though, as she admits, she had forgotten over the two-year hiatus just how demanding it is to be on the stage. “Rehearsing scenes where I have to get worked up and yell, or invest a lot of emotional thought multiple times in a row, can be quite draining. The good thing is that that investment of hard work is what makes it feel incredibly rewarding and fun.” Baila Landa ’23S, who is the president of SCDS, has a different challenge in front of her since she has to play four different characters, two of which—Irene Rudolph and Miss Wiley—are crucial to the story of the young women looking to find justice for their injuries. “It is a bunch of characters,” she pointed out, “but I change my tone of voice and body language a bit for each one, which makes it easier to differentiate them.” For Landa, the message of the play is still relevant in 2021 though set a century earlier. “It's a timeless tale of corruption. There are plenty of companies today that have the same disposition as the U.S. Radium Corporation, and this play gives us a thought-provoking insight into the mind of a corrupt CEO.” Not all the glory in a theater production happens in front of the audience. Just ask Tzivia Major ’24S, the show’s stage manager. “A production requires the partnership and communication between the production crew and the cast members—the stage manager serves as that bridge,” she explained. Prior to the performance, it is up to the stage manager to know the actors’ conflicts and availability in order to schedule rehearsals, and when the curtain goes up, so to speak, “I will be calling the cues telling the actors when to enter with what props and communicate to the lights and sound booth when it is time for a cue.” Major spoke for all the cast and crew when she said, “The actors and tech from this production has never ceased to impress me. Their dedication and passion towards making this production possible is truly unbelievable. I am so thankful to be working on such an amazing production.” Hirsch added that as an Orthodox woman, she was thankful she could pursue her work with SCDS and wanted to thank Stern College and Prof. Russell “for enabling women like myself and my cast and crew mates to uphold our values to the highest standard while growing in an art form that inspires and impacts the world.”