“This isn’t a fairy tale, though it starts like one. It’s not a tragedy, though it ends like one.”
The first two lines of “These Shining Lives” sets the tone for the rest of the play, a true story by Melanie Marnich about four women empowered by entering the workforce in the 1920s.
The play is based in an Illinois watch factory, where women paint watches with radium, a material that makes the time pieces glow in the dark. At the time, it was unknown that radium was unhealthy. Eventually, the four women got cancer and other diseases, took their cases to court and win. This play shows the survival of the women and how they refused to allow the company to kill their spirits.
Michael Swanson, director of theatre and dance at Elizabethtown College, believes audience members will be informed of an incident that they probably don’t know much about.
The show’s title carries two meanings. “When women painted with radium, it would show up on their hands and in their hair. In fact, some of them started to use it like makeup. These women literally shined,” said Swanson, who, as director of the show, enjoys being “the outside eye and helping out the cast while producing the show.”
These women literally shined.”
The women created a shining example for women today. “Maybe as a beacon to follow; as a role model, something to consider as we go through our societal problems. It shines in that way as well,” said Swanson.
Senior communications major Kelly Enterline said she enjoys working with the play since it “allows you to be creative and explore all boundaries.”
“These Shining Lives” will be performed at 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 13; Friday, Feb. 14; Saturday, Feb. 15; Thursday, Feb. 20; and Friday, Feb. 21; and at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 23, in the College’s Tempest Theatre.
Tickets are $6; call 717-361-1170
717-361-1170 or email boxoffice@etown.edu.