Competition spring break sharing!
SO MUCH LIGHT.....there is power within!
SO MUCH LIGHT!
Let's explore these people more, their stories, secrets, and dreams. By bringing light to their lives we can strengthen and empower their story.
Share your thoughts on it.
Send it to [email protected].
I'll share it here.
Feel free to post comments on others. :)
Fridays Challenge
Dreams--
Please write a journal or diary entry that shares your dreams and goals. With no
judgements or limitations. What do you want to accomplish and more important....WHY??
Dreams--
Please write a journal or diary entry that shares your dreams and goals. With no
judgements or limitations. What do you want to accomplish and more important....WHY??
Thursday's Challenge
Watch this short film.
Think about your characters story.
What would your film be called? Using only one word.
Share with us your characters film. Just write a description....you dont need to make a movie of your own...(EMMA). Just describe it. What would the theme of yours be.
Glow from Ariadna Fatjo-Vilas on Vimeo.
WEDNESDAY
Every one of your characters exist outside of this play. Who are they? What is their story? Our past is a part of us! It shapes us into who we are. So much can be learned by looking at our growing up. Is you character a real person? Find out. Who are they? Can you find pics, or info that is real? Do you need to make choices about them?
Let's explore their childhood and family.
Sadie Hyde
Dr. Cecil Drinker (1887-1956)
This was such an interesting character to find out more about. Drinker was actually a Harvard Professor, but plot twist, he's a guy! In the early 1920s, US Radium actually hired him to see what was happening with the factory workers. Drinker--at the time--was helping to develop the field of industrial hygiene. He had studied the poisonous effects of manufacturing-created dust on the respiration and blood content of workers in the zinc industry. He later found out that the culprit was manganese. US Radium didn't just take out pages in Drinker's report, but they changed it into it say that the conditions were perfect for the girls. The original report of Drinker's wasn't published until 1925.
Emily Robb
Kathryn
Dear Diary,
I've gotten myself a job painting dials for the war. It's a very important job and I'm excited to be a part of the war effort. To feel important and to help the men that are serving our country. After working for one month as an inspector I will be able to move up to getting to paint the dials. Sometimes some of the girls scratch their names and addresses into the back of the watches. Every so often a lonely soldier will send them letters. It seems so exciting!
Dear Diary,
It's been about a week since grandmother died and my mother has invited my grandfather and his orphaned granddaughter to come and live with us. Her name is Irene, she is close to my age. We have a large family and not a lot of room but we are going to try and make things work.. I got Irene a job at the dial painting factory so we will get to work together! I'm excited to have her around, she can be like a sister but without all of the real annoying sister stuff!!
Dear Diary,
We quit the dial painting factory. The war is dying down and the dials aren't as needed anymore. Hopefully Irene and I can find another job where we can work together!
Dear Diary,
It's been about six months since we quit. Irene is getting sick. She says her jaw hurts her. She keeps getting sicker and sicker.. I'm getting really worried the doctors don't know what's wrong with her and I don't know either! She can't work anymore, she's getting so weak. And she's had so many surgeries. She finally told them no more. I don't know what's going to happen to her. I'm getting really scared, I wish I could sit with her all day but mama says I have to go to work. Speaking of... I'm late now.
Dear Diary,
This couldn't have happened. It's not possible. All I did was go to work. I had to work really late. But I didn't think anything like this could happen. Why wasn't anyone there to help her! Why wasn't I there? If I had been there I could have done something.. I could have stopped it....Stopped her. This is all my fault. When I went into her room it was really late at night. I went in there to tell her goodnight, like I usually do....But she wasn't in her bed...She was just lying there. On the rug all crumpled into a ball clutching one of those wretched newspaper articles. I tried to wake her. But she never woke up.
Hannah .
This is part of an article that I found online about The Consumer's League of New Jersey- which Wiley is a big part of in the show- and it mentions the Radium Dial girls
CLNJ Accomplishments: Early Years
Quite a bit has been written about the history of the Consumers League of New Jersey. Starting in 1900, when child labor was common, when consumers and workers had few rights, CLNJ was way ahead of the country in its vision of justice. It was not until the New Deal that many of the reforms championed by CLNJ became law. CLNJ was a founding member of the National Consumers League, and worked with NCL and unions to bring about change.
CLNJ also took up the cause of the "watch-dial" radium poisoning of female workers right here in Essex County.
In the 1960 and 1970s, CLNJ leaders spoke out for consumer protection laws, credit laws, usury limits, and enforcement of minimum wage and child labor laws. CLNJ looked into supermarket prices. CLNJ went to the fields to support migrant farmworkers. Rutgers University has considerable archives about the early and middle years of CLNJ history.
This is a section in an article called 'WOMEN IN THE LEGAL PROFESSIONFROM THE 1920s TO THE 1970s: WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THEIR EXPERIENCE ABOUT LAW AND SOCIAL CHANGE'
Jane Foster graduated from Comell Law School in 1918, having served as an editor of the law review and being elected to the Order of the Coif. But no law firm wanted her services. She obtained employment not as a lawyer but as a legal assistant in a New York City firm, and that only with the aid ofa faculty member.' She worked at the firm from 1918 to 1929, in the postwar era of optimism, the New Woman, and economic expansion. One after another man made partner while she was there, but advancement was closed to her. After ten years ofexperience in corporate finance and banking and with strong recommendations from her Comell sponsors and former employer, she again sought employment as an attorney, only to be rebuffed repeatedly. "Here in this office we have steadfastly refused to take women on our legal staff and I know that we will continue to adhere to that policy," the Wall Street firm of White
& Case wrote to the law school's dean, who had contacted them on her behalf Discouraged, Jane Foster dropped outof law and put her business and financial skills to work for her own benefit, amassing the fortune that made her benevolence to Cornell Law School possible. In the 1950s she returned to the town in Ohio where she had been born, to care for her aged mother, and remained there until her death, never having practiced law.
My focus in this paper is the women who became lawyers in this period-after women had gained suffrage and been admitted to the bar in every state, yet before the passage of the civil rights laws forced law firms to admit women into practice on allegedly equalterms with men. A good deal has been written about the"firstwomen" in the late nineteenth century, who forced the profession to admit them. A number of these extraordinary women and their successors distinguished themselves, despite continuing exclusion from law firms, by going into politics or the judiciary or practicing law on their own
HANNAH CREATIVE STUFF
Miss Wiley definitely would've rocked the short bob even before it was a huge trend. She's a no nonsense, all about business, and totally brunette. I'm not even being biased.
I think Joanne- her now and forever first name-Wiley grew up in a home where she was encouraged to be strong and bold, in a time period where that definitely wasn't the norm. She was treated like a equal and so she grew up believing she was. She believed she could do anything she wanted. Then when she got a little older and entered society, began for jobs, etc. All of a sudden she was slammed with this wake up call of "You're just a woman" and you can't do it because "You aren't a man" which immediately translated to "You're not good enough." And Joanne Wiley was not going to stand for that. She knew she was, so the constant discrimination absolutely set aflame her soul, and the fire just grew stronger and stronger everytime someone told her she couldn't. It's what set her on this almost crazed quest for justice and gave her rock solid determination to create equality for everyone, everywhere. And I definitely think part of her craze is that she's a little angry a bitter towards the world for her lot in life, not the kind of angry and bitter that you let show on the outside, but the kind of angry and bitter that worms and squirms inside of you until you channel it somewhere else. So it doesn't slow her down, it just fires her up, until she's at the point where she just wants to prove so bad- she has to prove- to EVERYONE that she's good enough, that she is strong enough. Because she is. She is SO strong. And she knows that. But Joanne doesn't think anyone else does. But I think people do, just no one is quite brave enough to tell her, or really stand by her side, or maybe they just don't quite understand her. Even her parents, as supportive as they used to be, are conservative enough to say "That's enough, time to stop" and that drives her crazy! And that's why she keeps trying! Because she's been told no and/or failed so many times, that she HAS to prove them all wrong! NO ONE is listening to her, and now she HAS to make them. Or probably die trying.
Tuesday/Macneil:
Radium? Poisonous? Living dead?! No, that is preposterous. Blasphemy! I've worked here for so many years and never would I have imagined...I never...I never could imagine such a terrible fate...Oh, sweet mercy. Their jaws? Teeth? The paint brushes. The radium in the paint brushes caused...this? I pointed those brushes too, and told the girls they were fine. "Nothing to worry about. It isn't for us to ask questions. Make the point by twirling the brush on the tip of your tongue." Sweet merciful heavens...I killed these girls. I-I killed them. I killed those darling girls that only wanted to have a little fun. I killed them.
Radium? Poisonous? Living dead?! No, that is preposterous. Blasphemy! I've worked here for so many years and never would I have imagined...I never...I never could imagine such a terrible fate...Oh, sweet mercy. Their jaws? Teeth? The paint brushes. The radium in the paint brushes caused...this? I pointed those brushes too, and told the girls they were fine. "Nothing to worry about. It isn't for us to ask questions. Make the point by twirling the brush on the tip of your tongue." Sweet merciful heavens...I killed these girls. I-I killed them. I killed those darling girls that only wanted to have a little fun. I killed them.
Katelynn Perkins Tuesday
Irene DOOMED GIRL GIVEN FIRST HOSPITAL TEST/ LIVING DEAD UPHELD I finished another round of coughing blood into my handkerchief when I saw that crumbled newspaper sitting across the room on my dresser. I sat up a little higher in my bed to see if I could make out any words on the headline but it was so wrinkled, I just couldn't, and I knew if I sat up any higher I would be looking at my reflection in my mirror and these days, I did whatever I could to avoid that. I scooted myself back down so I lay flat on my back. Who would have left that in here? Kathryn? All at once, an overwhelming feeling of curiosity subdued over my whole body. I HAD to KNOW, no, I NEEDED to KNOW what was on that paper. The adrenaline rushed to my head and exerting all my strength I put my feet on the floor and stood up. I hadn't stood since my last surgery, since I told them to stop cutting at my jaw...Since I knew there was no point...But...maybe...maybe this article has a glimmer of hope, maybe doctors are trying different methods on other girls that are starting to get sick...Maybe...maybe I could make it through this. These thoughts burned in my head and I stumbled across my room, I had to get over there. I got so dizzy that I fell hard on my carpeted floor. But I was so close, I crawled the rest of the way to my table. It probably took me five minutes to army crawl over there. I took a few moments to breathe once I made it. Then, pushing up with my left hand, and reaching with my right, I felt around on the top of the table until I grabbed it. I pulled it down and anxiously unwrapped the crumbled ball. FOUR WORDS. Ha, that's all I needed to see to make my eyes burn with fear and confirmation....DOOMED....GIRL......LIVING.....DEAD. That's all I needed to read. Then I just stared at the picture of that girl with the same stupid doctors, I stared, and stared. I didn't feel anything anymore. "That's you, Irene. That's you." the thought kept repeating in my head until I started saying it, and then I started screaming it, "YOU ARE DEAD GIRL, IRENE, THAT'S YOU! THAT'S YOU!" Then the tears came, they came and came. Then I started coughing again, so I just curled down into the fetal position on the floor. I hated this ugly old carpet, I always thought it was so tacky. I decided not to move. "Kathryn will be here in a little bit" I thought, "I'll just wait for her" I wondered if maybe I would ask her to stay the night as well, I didn't want to be alone any longer. I shut my eyes, I was so afraid. "Come quick, Kathryn." I whispered. |

TUESDAY
Go to
http://www.lgrossman.com/pics/radium/
Where a collection of newspaper articles about the case and other cases are collected
Pic one and respond to it as your character would after seeing it in the paper for the first time.
Charlie Lee
Money does funny things Charlie. This isn't about safety, or sanitary, or even about doin' what's right. It's about the money. And why should I give any of those spoiled little brats any of my hard earned money if they don't earn it themselves?! This is a business, not a charity! Don't feel bad about ANYTHING Charlie! You've got to watch out for number one. Charlie Lee. If Arthur wants to feel bad about them, he can pay them. Meanwhile, you keep every last penny that you've worked so hard for.
Hannah
LIVING DEATH VICTIMS
Miss Wiley is waiting for any chance to prove that she, as a woman, can defeat the "man". If Miss Wiley saw this paper she would immediately do whatever it took to get herself on the case. She'd see the 'Living Death Victims' as a opportunity to not only help her fellow oppressed sisters, but as an chance to gain power for herself. This case is a magnificent opportunity Miss Wiley to shove justice straight up rich, conniving, Y chromosome butt. This horrible tragedy is Wiley's lucky break. It gives her perfect opportunity to prove that women are just as strong, just as smart, and just as powerful. Except Wiley is a little bit of an extremist, so what she's really trying to prove is: women are STRONGER, SMARTER, and MORE powerful than any man could ever be.
Monday.
"Painting these dials we are artists...."
Select a painting that represents your character, or character that speaks to Grace at the end of the show.
Connor Bennion
Charlie Lee
Abraham Lincoln is my probably my favorite President because he always tried to do the work. When I plugged Charlie Lee into President Lincoln's spot I noticed something, in this picture (and in the play) Charlie Lee seemingly begins to try to fix his mistakes, that is why he is trying to get out of his chair, but, the wealth, power, and popularity get to his head, so instead of getting up and fixing the problem, Mr. Lee thinks about the situation, "sits back down in his chair", and watches as the girls suffer. President Lincoln (Like Mr. Lee) had plenty of power to try to at least stop what was happening, but instead of acting on his power, Mr. Lee focuses to much on himself, and decides to sit back and relax.
Go to
http://www.lgrossman.com/pics/radium/
Where a collection of newspaper articles about the case and other cases are collected
Pic one and respond to it as your character would after seeing it in the paper for the first time.
Charlie Lee
Money does funny things Charlie. This isn't about safety, or sanitary, or even about doin' what's right. It's about the money. And why should I give any of those spoiled little brats any of my hard earned money if they don't earn it themselves?! This is a business, not a charity! Don't feel bad about ANYTHING Charlie! You've got to watch out for number one. Charlie Lee. If Arthur wants to feel bad about them, he can pay them. Meanwhile, you keep every last penny that you've worked so hard for.
Hannah
LIVING DEATH VICTIMS
Miss Wiley is waiting for any chance to prove that she, as a woman, can defeat the "man". If Miss Wiley saw this paper she would immediately do whatever it took to get herself on the case. She'd see the 'Living Death Victims' as a opportunity to not only help her fellow oppressed sisters, but as an chance to gain power for herself. This case is a magnificent opportunity Miss Wiley to shove justice straight up rich, conniving, Y chromosome butt. This horrible tragedy is Wiley's lucky break. It gives her perfect opportunity to prove that women are just as strong, just as smart, and just as powerful. Except Wiley is a little bit of an extremist, so what she's really trying to prove is: women are STRONGER, SMARTER, and MORE powerful than any man could ever be.
Monday.
"Painting these dials we are artists...."
Select a painting that represents your character, or character that speaks to Grace at the end of the show.
Connor Bennion
Charlie Lee
Abraham Lincoln is my probably my favorite President because he always tried to do the work. When I plugged Charlie Lee into President Lincoln's spot I noticed something, in this picture (and in the play) Charlie Lee seemingly begins to try to fix his mistakes, that is why he is trying to get out of his chair, but, the wealth, power, and popularity get to his head, so instead of getting up and fixing the problem, Mr. Lee thinks about the situation, "sits back down in his chair", and watches as the girls suffer. President Lincoln (Like Mr. Lee) had plenty of power to try to at least stop what was happening, but instead of acting on his power, Mr. Lee focuses to much on himself, and decides to sit back and relax.
Click to set custom HTM
Hannah Wood
Miss Willey
I chose this picture because I think it represents the way all the women, especially Grace and Miss Wiley, in Radium girls feel. They feel trapped in a powerful male dominant society. And at first I was like: Yeah, this picture sums it all up, but for Miss Wiley, it doesn't. Miss Wiley wants to fight, Miss Wiley wants to win and break free so bad. Grace too! But Miss Wiley is the biggest feminist you'll ever meet, and she is just ready to rip off the hands that have held her captive for so long. So here's my second painting. They're a little in your face. But so is Miss Wiley.
Mrs.Day
I chose this piece because it reminds me of graces speech at the end of the show at the grave. The leaves are changing....
This reminds me of how much each of you have changed through this process, and how your characters have changed from green and generalizations to different hues and each one has its own special shades.
I also like the trees and the shadows. This shows the images through the sunlight....we may allow our show to merely be the temporary shadows on the ground....or we can choose to use the light to let our story be strong and lasting.
I chose this piece because it reminds me of graces speech at the end of the show at the grave. The leaves are changing....
This reminds me of how much each of you have changed through this process, and how your characters have changed from green and generalizations to different hues and each one has its own special shades.
I also like the trees and the shadows. This shows the images through the sunlight....we may allow our show to merely be the temporary shadows on the ground....or we can choose to use the light to let our story be strong and lasting.
Emma Dawson
Mrs. Macneil
Following blindly shows a major role in the show. No one knew, but no one questioned. Mrs. MacNeil was just following her orders to keep her job, and had been working there for some time and had never questioned. It wasn't her place. But, if someone would have questioned, many incidents would have been prevented. Following blindly killed several people, and can kill several more.
Mrs. Macneil
Following blindly shows a major role in the show. No one knew, but no one questioned. Mrs. MacNeil was just following her orders to keep her job, and had been working there for some time and had never questioned. It wasn't her place. But, if someone would have questioned, many incidents would have been prevented. Following blindly killed several people, and can kill several more.
Emily Robb
Katherine
Katherine
In the start of the show we see Katherine, with so much power and spunk. She's full of fire and wants to live life to the fullest. She has somewhat of an attitude and doesn't take no for an answer. As the shows goes on and she gets sick, the fire inside her starts to go out. She starts questioning every thing she's ever done. Even though she is sick and dying she still knows what she wants and fights for it the best she can. Much like the suns cycle throughout the day. Even though it's going down, it shines brightly for everyone to see and it will not be ignored
Katelynn Perkins
Irene
Independent, witty, simple, perhaps plain, put-together, strong, truthful , and sometimes harsh. These are easy traits to pick out within the character of Irene. She is your average run-of-the-mill tree. She is strong and sturdy , and she can take care of herself. But if you take a moment and look a little deeper, you are soon confronted with an anxious shade of fuchsia, and roots that run deep in hard soil, they are made of fear, and intertwine every which way. She is trying to grasp on to something, anything, but she doesn't know what. This painting depicts not only Irene and her story, but various characters throughout the show. Deep down, way underneath, there was something always wrong, something uneasy, and in the end, the tree is still left alone.
Irene
Independent, witty, simple, perhaps plain, put-together, strong, truthful , and sometimes harsh. These are easy traits to pick out within the character of Irene. She is your average run-of-the-mill tree. She is strong and sturdy , and she can take care of herself. But if you take a moment and look a little deeper, you are soon confronted with an anxious shade of fuchsia, and roots that run deep in hard soil, they are made of fear, and intertwine every which way. She is trying to grasp on to something, anything, but she doesn't know what. This painting depicts not only Irene and her story, but various characters throughout the show. Deep down, way underneath, there was something always wrong, something uneasy, and in the end, the tree is still left alone.
Nathan Reeder
Reporter dude
In the end, all he cared for was money. He heard stories of people dying everyday, robberies, murders, and suicide was a daily thing. He's heard every story, all he cares about is to get his picture and his paycheck. The girls were only another story that he had to report in. When someone disagrees for a picture, he just keeps pushing to get his answer, to get his way, and to get his paycheck.
Reporter dude
In the end, all he cared for was money. He heard stories of people dying everyday, robberies, murders, and suicide was a daily thing. He's heard every story, all he cares about is to get his picture and his paycheck. The girls were only another story that he had to report in. When someone disagrees for a picture, he just keeps pushing to get his answer, to get his way, and to get his paycheck.
Sadie Hyde
Dr. Cecil Drinker
When we see Drinker, she is sending US Radium Corporation a report warning them about Radium. Drinker always wanted to make a change in the world. She wanted to be the "light" of a cause. That is why she became a scientist. She became a scientist because she wanted to make a change in the world somehow and someway. And warning the radium plant, she does exactly that.
Dr. Cecil Drinker
When we see Drinker, she is sending US Radium Corporation a report warning them about Radium. Drinker always wanted to make a change in the world. She wanted to be the "light" of a cause. That is why she became a scientist. She became a scientist because she wanted to make a change in the world somehow and someway. And warning the radium plant, she does exactly that.