Director’s Notes

What is a human life worth?

A year’s wages? A sum that’s better than nothing? Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars?

Grace Fryer had to grapple with these questions as she battled her way through the court system in the 1920s in an effort to receive some compensation, and some acknowledgement of wrongdoing, from her previous employer, the U.S. Radium Corporation. What was her life worth? What amount of money would be worth taking a settlement from the company whose materials and practices left her in constant pain, crippled, and eventually dead?

It’s a heavy challenge, and one which the cast and I have taken seriously, to portray real people. Grace Fryer lived and breathed, as did Kathryn Schaub, and Irene Rudolph, and Albina and Quinta and Amelia Maggia. I wanted, needed, to do them and their stories justice. The more I researched about these women, the more I am in awe of them. I can’t even begin to comprehend the pain they endured - physically and emotionally. I am overwhelmed by their courage and strength.

I’m pained writing these director’s notes - as I was in working on this show - to realize over and over just how relevant this story from the 1920s still is. Almost a hundred years later, and as a species we are still grappling with the same issues. Corporate greed, labor and women’s rights, the commercialization of science, and more. At the end of the show (no spoilers, I promise), a character says “Science just wasn’t as advanced, the way it is now” as she pulls out a cigarette and goes to light it. It seems that each generation thinks it’s more advanced than the last, but repeats the same mistakes - just with a different item or topic. Our ignorance, sadly, feels unchanging.

How is it that as humans we so often find ourselves in situations where we feel in too far to quit? Where we can justify valuing money over humans, prioritizing power over truth, and choosing business plans over empathy?
I can only hope that when we find ourselves in these situations, we have a Grace, or a Kathryn, to woman up and tell us to do better, to be better. And more than that, I hope that we all can be the Grace and the Kathryn. The world needs that of us.

Thank you to my family and friends, my dedicated and talented cast, and my tech crew who never ceases to amaze me with their brilliance and creativity. And as always, unfailingly, to my mentor and friend, Wendy Poole, who continues to trust me to direct shows.

- Karin Baard