From the Director
Radium Girls is based on a true story. Grace Fryer, Katherine Schaub, and Irene Rudolph were a few of the many women who were employed at dial painting factories early in the 20th century who were inadvertently poisoned with radium. They believed, as initially did their employers, that not only was radium safe but that it was a miracle cure for all that ailed you. Even famed scientist Madame Marie Curie believed radium to be safe. Many of these women, including those mentioned above, subsequently contracted radiation poisoning and died painful early deaths.
What makes Radium Girls so intriguing to me is that it almost allows us to understand the position, at least early on, of those who ran the radium plants. Arthur Roeder, C.B. Lee, and the others were under the impression that radium was not harmful in the least. In fact, when the girls started taking ill, they found it impossible to believe that the radium was the cause because the science and their own experiences seemed to point to its safety and beneficial qualities. No one else in the other parts of their factory seemed to be getting ill, only the girls in the dial painting studios. So, when reports started coming back pointing to the danger of radiation they were naturally skeptical of the reports and dismissed them as erroneous or as attacks on their industry.
What's less forgivable, however, is how many of the owners of these factories reacted when the proof of radium's danger became irrefutable. When they began to cover-up the stories and buy off the victims and postpone trials waiting for the victims to die, the owners seemed to have "lost their souls."
A number of very important advancements in workplace safety can be directly attibuted to the plight and the fight of the Radium Girls, not the least of which was the enactment of federal regulations governing labor safety standards. The right of individual workers to sue for damages from corporations due to labor abuse was established as a result of the Radium Girls case.
Radium Girls is this year's Theatre for a Cause production. With each of our winter shows since 2004 Borgia Theatre has selected a cause that we believe could use some help. The past two years we've donated our proceeds to two families of ailing students from our own high school: Brandon Huels and Stephanie Lindemann. This year we have chosen the family of a high school student in need from our area, but not from our school, Paige Babs. Paige is a Washington High School student who is suffering from cancer. Just as Radium Girls shows us, illness and disease knows no boundaries or rivalries. Nor should our compassion and generosity know boundaries or rivalries. We are pleased to be able to help the Babs family in any way that we can. We hope you will donate generously to this cause.
Tag,
Tim Buchheit, Director
Department of Theatre
St. Francis Borgia Regional High School
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Thank you!!!!
The Cast and Crew of Radium Girls would like to thank the following for helping bring this production to the stage:
Kimi Wibbenweyer
Missy Wibbenwyer
Fr. Kevin Schmittgens
Sarah Serbus
Mr. & Mrs. Don and Mary Buchheit
J. T. Buchheit
Families of the Cast and Crew
SFBRHS Administration
SFBRHS Staff
SFBRHS Faculty
Mrs. Moira Vossbrink
Anyone who wasn't mentioned
