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Radium Girls: a tragic tale finds new life in the spotlight
Shedding light on injustice, Lipscomb University’s theater department aims to tell the forgotten story of the 1920s Radium Girls — women who suffered at the hands of their employer. The play follows Grace Fryer, portrayed by Anna Jones, an 18-year-old dial painter who worked for the United States Radium Corporation during World War I. The company used radium to create glowing paint for watch dials and other military equipment, and workers were responsible for painting the tiny numbers on watch faces with this luminous substance. They were instructed by leadership to put the paintbrushes between their lips to create a finer point for a more precise application. Unbeknownst to them,…