Radium Girls
by D.W. Gregory
Included in this packet
Audition Information
Crew Information
Play Summary
Character Descriptions
Monologues
Production Calendar
Interest Sheet
Important Dates
Informational Meeting
General Auditions
General Auditions
Callback Auditions
Performance
Performance
Performance
Tues, 11/20
Mon, 11/26
Tues, 11/27
Fri, 11/30
Thur, 1/31
Fri, 2/1
Sat, 2/2
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3:30-4:30
3:30-5:30
3:30-5:30
3:30-8:00
3:45/7:00
7:00
7:00
Aud
A106
A106
Aud
Aud
Aud
Aud
Audition Details
 A sign-up sheet will be posted on the callboard after the Informational
Meeting. You will audition in the order in which you sign up. If you have
a special circumstance (need to go first, need to go last, etc.) tell the
audition proctor on the day of your audition and they will do their best to
accommodate you.
 Check your schedule carefully before signing up for a slot. Example -those
in Sound will have to audition on Monday.
 Each person auditioning will perform a monologue from Radium Girls.
Monologues have been provided and are in this packet. There is one
monologue for girls, one for boys.
 If you are invited to the callback audition, expect to stay the entire time.
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Audition Tips
To memorize or not to memorize? Always a popular question. I do not
require the monologues to be memorized. That said, the more familiar you
are with the material, the more effective your audition will be.
Be as familiar with the play and the characters as is possible. I will have
scripts available for a 48 hour check-out period at the Informational
Meeting.
Be confident – even if you have never done this before, walk into the
audition as if you own the place.
Make bold choices – you need to show me your stuff. Don’t just stand and
read. I will be the only one in the room with you when you audition.
Come into the room, hand me your Audition Form, wait for me to signal
you to start. You begin by introducing yourself and your audition pieces. I
realize that virtually everyone is doing the same pieces, but it is good
practice to do the introduction the right way.
Don’t look at me when you are auditioning. I am the Director, not your
scene partner. Pick a spot just over my shoulder in which to focus.
You will be nervous. That is a good thing. The key is to channel your
nerves into good positive energy. It is important to remember that directors
(myself included) want you to be great.
Have fun!!
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Crew Details
 You sign up for crew work by filling out the Interest Sheet located in this
packet. Please rank your crew choices 1-4.
 Leadership technical positions generally are assigned to experienced
techies, but I do make exceptions from time to time, so sign up for
whatever you are interested in.
 Leadership list usually goes up within a few days of casting.
 Crew list is posted within a week after the leadership positions are filled.
 Running crew means that you work the run of the show. It means that you
will have to be at every rehearsal starting with production week. Running
crews are generally selected from the regular crews.
Tech Leadership Positions
Assistant Director – attends all rehearsals, works closely with the director. May
be in charge of some rehearsals.
Stage Manager – in charge of show once it opens. Calls cues, manages all
backstage activities. Starts attending rehearsals one month prior to opening.
Assistant Stage Manager – assists SM in all backstage activities.
Set Construction Crew Chief – in charge of set build. Also leads stage crew.
Light Board Operator (Master Electrician) – leads crew in hanging and
focusing show, runs light board for run of show.
Soundboard Operator – helps design sound for show, runs soundboard for run of
show.
Prop Master – secures all props for show, heads prop run crew for run of show.
Costume/Make-up Coordinator – in charge of helping actors manage costumes
and make-up for run of show.
House Manager/Publicity Head – coordinates publicity activities (poster run)
and manages ushers and Front of House staff during run of show.
Crew Positions
Stage Crew – responsible for moving set pieces and scenery on and off stage
during run of show. Stage crew is selected from Set Construction crew.
Set Construction Crew – responsible for set build.
Light Crew – responsible for hanging and focusing lights.
Prop Crew – responsible of securing all props.
Costume/Make-up Crew – assist actors with costumes and make-up during run
of show.
House/Publicity Crew – assist with poster run, ticket and program production,
usher during run of show.
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Play Summary
In 1926, radium was a miracle cure, Madame Curie an
international celebrity, and luminous watches the latest rage
until the girls who painted them began to fall ill with a
mysterious disease. Inspired by a true story, Radium Girls
traces the efforts of Grace Fryer, a dial painter, as she fights
for her day in court. Her chief adversary is her former
employer, Arthur Roeder, an idealistic man who cannot bring
himself to believe that the same element that shrinks
tumors could have anything to do with the terrifying rash of
illnesses among his employees. As the case goes on,
however, Grace finds herself battling not just with the U.S.
Radium Corporation, but with her own family and friends,
who fear that her campaign for justice will backfire. Written
with warmth and humor, Radium Girls is a fast-moving,
highly theatrical ensemble piece for 9 to 10 actors, who play
more than 30 parts friends, co-workers, lovers, relatives,
attorneys, scientists, consumer advocates, and myriad
interested bystanders. Called a "powerful" and "engrossing"
drama by critics, Radium Girls offers a wry, unflinching look
at the peculiarly American obsessions with health, wealth,
and the commercialization of science. Approximate running
time: 2 hours, 10 minutes. One intermission. Unit set with
simple props.
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List of Main Characters
GRACE FRYER, a deeply sincere woman, she is always concerned with doing what’s
right. At the start of the play, she, like almost everyone else, believes in the great
goodness of science, but through the course of the play, she faces the trials of questioning
what goodness really is as she suffers through her illness inflicted by the radium paint she
worked with.
KATHRYN SCHAUB, a friend of Grace, she is the dreamiest and most romantic of the
three girls, always filled with ideas of love. Kathryn is the first to really sense the danger
they’re all in, and becomes truly afraid. As her own illness progresses, she becomes more
and more cynical, believing that people will do and say anything, except what’s right.
IRENE RUDOLPH, Kathryn’s cousin, is age seventeen at the start of the play. Later,
she is in her twenties. She is the more pragmatic of the three girls – down-to-earth,
straightforward, almost cynical, and sometimes tactlessly blunt. She is the first of the
three dialpainter girls to die.
KATHERINE WILEY is the executive director of the New Jersey Consumer’s League.
She is a strong-willed woman with moral fiber, and works to help Grace go to trial
against the U.S. Radium corp.
SOB SISTER (Nancy Jane Harlan), is a tabloid reporter. She follows the story of the
“Radium Girls” and gives them publicity, though the presentation of her stories tend to be
a little more scandalous and outrageous.
REPORTER (Jack/Jane Youngwood), works for the Newark Ledger He, like the Sob
Sister, follows the story of the “Radium Girls” and gives them publicity. He is perhaps a
little more dignified in his journalism than the Sob Sister.
MRS. ANNA FRYER is Grace’s mother, and the mother of many other children. She is
a pragmatic woman, concerned with finances and all things practical.
MRS. ALMA MACNEIL is the supervisor of the dialpainter girls, and possibly Irish.
She is a hard woman who is concerned with her work and its quality, likely to a fault.
MRS. ARTHUR (DIANE) ROEDER is Arthur Roeder’s wife. She enjoys being the
wife of a company president, and because she cares about her husband, she cares about
the company. She believes in the good that her husband is able to do.
DR. MARIE CURIE is Polish by birth (she has the Polish accent), She is credited with
the “discovery” of radium.
HARRIET ROEDER is the daughter of Arthur Roeder, age nine at the beginning of the
play, and later in her thirties, telling her father how he needs to find a hobby and forget
the past.
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ARTHUR ROEDER is age thirty-four at the start of the play, and sixty-five at its close.
Becomes president of the U.S. Radium Corp. It is when he takes over the company that
the switch from dialpainting to more medical pursuits is made. He is a husband and a
father, and a good man, believing that what he is doing is the right thing (he views Knef’s
offer to be immoral), and the greatness of the American Dream.
TOM KREIDER is Grace’s fiancé, and a postal worker. Though he is somewhat
concerned about money (certainly not to the extent of Grace’s mother), he is more
concerned with getting married to Grace and starting a life with her.
C.B. “CHARLIE” LEE, at first Roeder’s vice president of the company, later becomes
president. He is a true businessman, concerned most of all by the good of the company
and the company’s purpose: to sell watches.
EDWARD MARKLEY works as counsel for the U.S. Radium Corp. He’s a calm,
rational, matter-of-fact sort of man. Though when threatened or in the face of danger, he
can be cold, very cold.
DR. VON SOCHOCKY is the founder of the U.S. Radium Corp., and the inventor of
the luminous paint. When the girls all get sick, he is burdened with guilt, so he offers to
testify for them. He himself gets sick from the radiation; with the girls, it was in their
jaws, for him, it’s in his hands.
RAYMOND BERRY is the attorney for the dialpainters. He is generally concerned
about the welfare of the girls, to the point of disagreeing with Ms. Wiley’s tactic of using
journalism and public sympathy for reform.
DR. JOSEPH KNEF is at first Irene’s dentist, then Grace’s. He is the one to advice
Grace to go to the company for help on the grounds that the company should feel
obligated to help, that there’s a moral obligation. Later, he tries to make a deal with the
company to come up with “favorable diagno[ses]” for any of the factory girls who come
to see him.
DR. FREDERICK FLINN, PH.D is a fifty-something academic, warm and friendly.
Works in physiology at Columbia University, industrial hygiene. He tells Grace that the
radium has nothing to do with her ailment, but he is working for the company.
There are many additional roles. Several actors will be playing multiple
roles.
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Radium Girls – Female Monologue
Grace:
One by one I watched my friends get sick. And die. In the most
horrible way. And you think I should be grateful? For any spare
change they throw at me? You’re trying to tell me if I don’t sign
these now – but I came back a week from now and said I changed
my mind, they’d rather go to court? They’d still rather some judge
get a look at me…and take their chances I won’t win on sympathy
alone? I want those people to look at me. I want them to look at
me and explain how it’s my fault I got sick working in their
factory. All my life, I’ve done what other people told me to do. I
quit school. I put that brush I my mouth. I never argued even
though I knew something wasn’t right. I’d see my dress hanging
on the closet door, all aglow. And I never once questioned. I
never once asked. Don’t you see? They knew I wouldn’t. That’s
what they are counting on.
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Radium Girls – Male Monologue
Roeder:
Radium is present in good amounts all over the property. It can’ t
be the radium. There are dozens of applications plants across the
country. And none has ever reported anything like this. They
want to see the report? (removes a page) We’ll send then this.
The most important page. We just need a little time, Charlie.
These scientists, they have no idea what it takes to run a business.
They think advertising is a dirty word. They laughed at the idea of
promotion. I can’t tell you how many times I walked into their
office and they turned a deaf ear on everything I told them. But
Charlie, we showed them. Look at us. We are the world’s largest
supplier of radium. You know what it took for us to get here. Do
you think I am going to stand idly by and let our good name get
dragged through the mud? Trust me, Charlie.
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