Story by Micayla Hanover
Photos by Taylor Cook
Each fall, Bluffton University students perform a play chosen and directed by Melissa Friesen, professor of theatre and communication. This year’s play is unique because it is based on a true historical event.
“These Shining Lives,” written by Melanie Marnich, is a dramatization about a group of women known as the “Radium Girls.” This group of women were workers during the 1920s to 1930s in a watch factory producing watches with glow-in-the-dark faces. Their job was to paint the numbers on the watch face with paint laced with radium. The play centers around Catherine Donohue who led the lawsuit against the watch company after the women were fired for being too sick to work. This case led to the eventual improvement of working conditions.
Friesen chose the play because of its well written script and its uniqueness from plays done in the past.
“The fact that it’s based on real people and historical events is different from any play I have directed before,” Friesen said. “I am often drawn to plays with vivid, witty or poetic language. Because this script spans such a long time, from 1922 to 1938, the play has a poetic and timeless quality to it.”
Friesen held open auditions Sept. 11 and 12. Open auditions included cold reads of excerpts from the script and theatre exercises to help Friesen gauge the actors’ skills.
Erika Byler is a junior convergent media major with a theatre minor who transferred to Bluffton from Hesston. Last year, Hesston performed “These Shining Lives” with Byler as the stage manager. This year Byler is the assistant stage manager for Bluffton.
Byler said Hesston’s approach to the production was more surreal with the stage being painted as a clock.
“Bluffton is doing it [the play] more as a realistic approach,” said Byler.
Bluffton is using a bare set with no backgrounds and minimal furniture. Bluffton’s cast is much smaller, many of the actors are performing as several characters.
Brianna Lugibihl is a senior middle education major with a communication and theatre minor portraying Catherine Donohue. Lugibihl was attracted to the play’s theme of resilience in the face of hardship. She connected with her character from their mutual push for change whether or not they can see the change in the end, she said.
There was a note in the script that really appealed to Lugibihl and helped her to choose how she would portray her character.
“This play is at times choral, at times docudrama, at times just a play. It should be delivered with spirit, energy and verve ̶ ̶ ̶ and the women are the embodiment of this. DO NOT play these women as victims in any way. They have more strength than that. They never sink into sentimentality or weakness,” the note read.
For Lugibihl, this embodied not only how to approach the characters but also how she believes everyone should be treated.
“These Shining Lives” opened Thursday and continues with shows at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 4 and 5 and 2:30 p.m. Nov. 6 in Ramseyer Auditorium located in College Hall. Tickets are $8 for adults and $6 for senior citizens and non-Bluffton students. Tickets are free for Bluffton students.
