Radium Girls

by D.W. Gregory

University of Central Oklahoma, 2020

Director: Alicia Tafoya

Lighting Design: Christina Watanabe

Projection Design: Gillian Andersen

Costume Design: Becky McGuigan

Photos Courtesy of KT King and Devin Scheef

Based on true events.  1926.  Grace Fryer, a watch dial painter at the US Radium Corporation in Orange, NJ, becomes the latest worker to fall ill from the mysterious but fatal disease that seems to plague the factory.  When she discovers radium exposure is the potential culprit, her fight for justice ensues against corporate executives desperate to protect themselves and the profitability of their deceptive product.

Mounted during the COVID-19 pandemic, this production was staged under the strict guidelines that performers must never come within six feet of one another, and must never handle the same props or costume pieces.  The set design divided the stage into nine tiered performance zones, each of which was occupied by a single actor throughout the performance.  A custom bench seat in each zone could extend to bed-length when needed, and stored each performer's props and costume overlays.  Long plastic tarps suspended around the perimeter of the stage provided multiple projection surfaces to reveal setting and enhance action.

Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival National Commendation for Distinguished Achievement in Production Design

Broadway World Oklahoma Nominee - Set Design of the Decade