Pekin Panther Players to present play ‘Radium Girls’

The Pekin Panther Players will be performing the play Radium Girls on Nov. 15, 16 and 17 in the Pekin High School commons.

Friday, Nov. 15, doors will open at 6 p.m. and the show will commence at 7 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 16, is a dinner theater; however, regular seating will be available as well as space permits. Doors will open at 4:30 p.m. Dinner will be at 5 p.m. with the show to follow. Those attending the show only on Saturday should arrive by 6:45 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 17, is a matinee performance. Doors will open at 1 p.m. with the show beginning at 2 p.m.

Tickets are available for reservation. Tickets will be available for reservation on a first-come-first-serve basis for all audience members from Oct. 17 through November 7. Tickets will also be available at the door Saturday evening if seats remain. Tickets for the show only are $10 for adults and $7 for children 10 and under.

Dinner Theater tickets are $30 for adults and $25 for children 10 and under. Dinner Theater ticket prices cover both admission to the show and dinner. The meal will again be catered by Grant Ranch in Sigourney and will include a choice of chicken breast or ham balls, cheesy potatoes, green beans, a dinner salad, roll and desserts.

Ticket sales and the Dinner Theatre are the Pekin Panther Players’ primary annual source of income, so please consider coming to the show and supporting the performing arts.

Radium Girls is D.W. Gregory’s gripping drama based on the true story of female laborers who were poisoned and killed by their factory’s radium-based paint. Though Radium Girls ranges from 1918 through the 1940s, the bulk of the narrative is centered on events in New Jersey in the mid 1920s.

The play highlights Grace, Irene, and Kathryn who paint dials in the U.S. Radium Plant and are instructed to finely point their brushes by molding the bristles with their mouths while painting. The factory’s new owner, Arthur Roeder, is excited by radium’s promising future and believes in the company’s potential for growth. Roder’s mindset is supported by Marie Curie, the internationally famous scientist, who believes radium provides many health benefits and could even cure cancer.

But soon, many of the girls begin to notice disturbing health issues, and one of their coworkers dies, but her death is brushed aside. The plant tries to keep the girls who are getting sicker from talking to the press, push back their court dates, and deflect any negativity toward the company. Some of the surviving girls finally get settlements and medical coverage for the rest of their shortened lives.

Radium Girls fiercely examines the commercialization of science, the pursuit of both health and wealth, the power of the underdog, and the fierce injustice laborers in America have faced, and may even continue to face in the present.

To reserve dinner theater tickets or presale admission tickets, please email Mrs. Staci Wright at staci.wright@pekincsd.org or christy.gambell@pekincsd.org. You may also call the high school office at (319) 695-3705. Dinner theater tickets MUST be reserved and paid for by November 7. Presale admission tickets for all other performances must be reserved and paid for prior to November 14.