Obie Award winner Metropolitan Playhouse returns to in-person performance with the New York premiere of D.W. Gregory's RADIUM GIRLS, newly revised for a limited run from October 28 through November 21, 2021, in person at the Playhouse: 220 E 4th Street. Laura Livingston (State of the Union, The Jazz Singer) directs.
Radium in 1920: a miracle discovery with limitless applications, from iridescent paints and make-up to cancer treatment and health tonics. The craze for radium in the 1910s and 20s meant big business for companies across the US. It brought exciting opportunities to painters of illuminated watch faces: dexterous young women, often under 18, who kept the paint brushes pointed and supple with their lips. But when more and more of the girls found their bodies literally falling apart, their struggle for recognition and compensation pitted them against some of the most successful corporations of the day, as well as their own communities and families. Their battle set the model for future worker's protection laws in the United States, but not in time to save their own lives.
RADIUM GIRLS is the story of the key opponents. Grace Fryer of Orange, NJ, wages a dogged fight through the newspapers and the courts against US Radium and its lawyers, and she struggles to keep the support of her own family. US Radium CEO Arthur Roeder, driven by his corporate ambitions, refuses to yield to the girls' demands, even as he faces the terrible realization that he has poisoned his devoted workers. The play is a celebration of fortitude and determination, a study of denial and rationalization, and a timely alarm for multiple immediate crises. Struggling to understand and combat the novel coronavirus, comprehending the scope of climate disasters, confronting the staggering power of social media, we face dilemmas in public health, reliable information, faith in science, and corporate transparency that are all prefigured by the plight of the Radium Girls.
Metropolitan's production is not only the New York premiere of Radium Girls but a new version of the play with edits written for the production by playwright D.W. Gregory. The play is directed by LAURA LIVINGSTON, artistic director of Freestyle Repertory Theater and director of 2019's hit revival of State of the Union. The production stars
Olivia Killingsworth (The Jewish King Lear, Icebound, Within the Law) as Grace Fryer and KELLY DEAN COOPER (Thunder Rock, End of Summer, A Man's World) as Arthur Roeder. The cast includes Metropolitan newcomers and veterans:
Sydney Badway, MICHELLE BAGWELL,
Grace Bernardo,
Kate Falk , MARIE LENZI , KYLE MAXWELL, DAVID LOGAN RANKIN (Poor of New York, Shadow of Heroes, Within the Law), and
Benjamin Russell (The Poor of New York, The Awful Truth).
Set is by VINCENT GUNN (Shadow of Heroes, State of the Union), costumes by NYIT Award winner
Sidney Fortner (The Jewish King Lear, The Climbers, A Marriage Contract), lighting by HEATHER M. CROCKER and sound by
Bill Toles (Walk Hard, Shadow of Heroes).
D.W. GREGORY was hailed by the New York Times as "a playwright with a talent to enlighten and provoke" for Radium Girls, her most produced work. Other plays include Memoirs of a Forgotten Man; Molumby's Million, (Barrymore Award nominee); The Good Daughter; October 1962; and a new musical comedy, The Yellow Stocking Play. Two-time finalist for the Heideman Award at Actor's Theater of Louisville, who presented So Tell Me About This Guy. Salvation Road was the winner of the American Alliance for Theatre in Education's Playwrights in Our Schools Award. A member of the Dramatists' Guild, Gregory is also an affiliated writer with The Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis and an affiliated artist with NNPN.
COVID-19 PROTOCOLS: to lower the risk of the spread of COVID-19 Metropolitan requires full vaccination of all cast, crew, and audience. Audience members will be required to present proof of vaccination on arrival to be admitted into the theater. All staff and audience will be required to wear masks inside the building.
The theater, house, and backstage are supplied with fresh air and all the theater is amply equipped with air purifiers. A certified Covid Safety Compliance officer will be onsite for all performances.
METROPOLITAN PLAYHOUSE, beginning its 30th season with Radium Girls, explores America's diverse theatrical heritage through lost plays of the past and new plays of American historical and cultural moment. The theater received a 2011 OBIE Grant from The Village Voice for its ongoing productions that illuminate who we are by revealing where we have come from. Called "invaluable" by the Voice and Backstage, Metropolitan has earned further accolades from The New York Times and The New Yorker. Other awards include a Victorian Society of New York Outstanding Performing Arts Group, 3 Aggie Awards from Gay City News, 21 nominations for NYIT Awards (3 winners), and 6 AUDELCO Viv Award nominations.
Produced by special arrangement with The
Dramatic Publishing Company of Woodstock, Illinois.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Metropolitan Playhouse programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
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