‘These Shining Lives’ play stirs emotion in Ottawa High drama students

Any quality theatrical performance will create a swell of emotion, but the amount of feeling generated by Ottawa High School’s rendition of “These Shining Lives” next Friday and Saturday should yield more tidal wave than swell.

Not only will this performance be the first since the retirement of Sue Williamson, who directed the OHS drama program for 38 years, it also will be the first under the direction of her successor, Suzannah Walter.

Walter is coming home. A Grand Ridge native and OHS Class of 1989 graduate who was involved in Montessori education for 26 years in Chicago and Joliet, Walter not only performed under Williamson back in the day, but her mother, Rosemary Walter, then the school librarian, assisted with the props and sets on many of Williamson’s productions.

“It’s very personal story for Ottawa. In a time when history is treated like a bad thing, history is more important than ever.”

—  Suzannah Walter, Ottawa High School director

Add in Walter’s choice for her initial effort – “These Shining Lives,” the tragic story of the young women who worked at the Radium Dial Company in Ottawa, some not much older than the students portraying them – and there shouldn’t be a sentiment left uncovered.

“It’s very personal story for Ottawa,” Walter said. “In a time when history is treated like a bad thing, history is more important than ever. It shows that people are capable of doing great things or capable of doing horrible things to each other, and we need to be remind of that in both ways, to remember our humanity.”

Tickets for the show, in the OHS Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 17, and Saturday, Nov. 17, are available at the door at $10 for adults, $5 for seniors, military, students and children.

The story, set in the 1920s, tells of Catherine and Tom Donahue (played by Sadie Johnson and Kyle Hobbs), their family and her friendship with three coworkers at the company, Frances O’Connell (Ava Wagner), Charlotte Purcell (Molly Ewen) and Pearl Payne (Sarah McGrath).

It depicts how each became sick due to radium poisoning contracted on their jobs, how manager Rufus Reed (Tobias Burkey) and the company denied its culpability and how a lone sympathetic lawyer Leonard Grossman (Alex Stafford) led them through a lengthy court battle to an unsatisfying justice.

The very conclusion of the play promises perhaps the most moving moment of the evening.

“There are some light, playful moments when the girls are bonding,” Walter said, “but then it goes into their becoming sick, being treated, finding a lawyer, having their day in court, which was very impactful on laws here in Illinois … The pain they endured was unfathomable, yet they were determined to see it through, even though they might not live to see it.”

Bringing with her the attention to detail gleaned from her work with her mother, Walter has reached out to Ottawa historian Darlene Halm, the niece of a Radium Girl, about the local history; to Kate Moore, author of “Radium Girls: The Dark History of America’s Shining Women”; and to Melanie Marnich, who wrote the very play they are performing.

All are not only wishing the show well, but also have drawn the students deeper into the story, creating a real connection with the victims.

Bringing them even closer will be that two children of radium girls will be in attendance. One, from Indiana who was only 2 when her mother died of radium poisoning, wrote a note thanking the cast for “making (her mother’s) life matter.”

“When our students hear things like that,” Walter said, “especially the ones playing the main four characters, they know they’re portraying real people who had children, who never got to have children … In our discussions, you can see it getting emotional for them. They realize how important this was and how important the story is. They want to do a really good job because it carries importance in a true story.

“These are real people and there will be people related to those real people sitting there watching them.”

Cast

Catherine Donahue: Sadie Johnson

Tom Donahue: Kyle Hobbs

Frances O’Connell: Ava Wagner

Charlotte Purcell: Molly Ewen

Pearl Payne: Sarah McGrath

Rufus Reed: Tobias Burkey

Dr. Rowntree: Rebecca Lynch

Leonard Grossman/radio announcer: Alex Stafford

Radio singers: Paige Rice, Lindsey Fabris, Bethany Poluga

Company doctor: Ash Rowold

Dr. Dalitsch: David Phillips

Tommy Donahue: Sam Wade

Mary Jane Donahue: Marr Walker

Reporter 1: Leiya Kelly

Reporter 2: Sam Halterman

Judge: Albany Smith

Stage crew: Ty Muffler, Damion Oberlin, Christian Gray, Cayla Weygand, Cheyenne Jeffries, Jenalyn Stahr, Calista Mackey, Lucy Frye, Ace Foster.

Special thanks to 229 Estates for help with props and Engel Lane for the loan of period costumes.