Radium Girls: Valley’s McCall, Beauvais star in UAA’s first performance of the semester

ANCHORAGE — The University of Alaska Anchorage Fine Arts Department debuts its first play of the school year this weekend and next, with a pair of Valley natives in starring roles of ‘Radium Girls’.

Set in 1920s New Jersey, ‘Radium Girls’ tells the true story of young women hired as painters of watch dials, who were encouraged to use the self-luminous radium paint as cosmetic aids. They were told, by scientists as prominent as Marie Curie that radium was harmless, and even healthful. Of course, that was not the case and as the young women began developing serious health conditions, some decided to fight back and demand their day in court.

In this particular dial painting shop, Grace Fryer, played by Big Lake native and Houston High grad Alexandra McCall, in perhaps her biggest role in four years at UAA.

“It’s just a really fascinating story and it has great roles for women, which is important to me because you see a lot of shows that are male-dominated,” McCall said. “Grace is actually a person from history, one of the fighters who fought against the corporation and see the girls get paid for everything that happened to them with Radium Corporation.”

Playing the role of Arthur Roeder, President of the U.S. Radium Corporation is another Valley thespian in Wasilla High grad Jake Beauvais.

Beauvais said the biggest challenge in his role was to make sure Roeder didn’t come off as a cliché villain.

“What we see from Grace’s side of the story is the illness they get from the company, and Arthur’s view is into the corporate side,” Beauvais said. “While these illnesses are taking place, he’s investigating… He’s definitely not a moustache-twirling villain. It’s written so he’s a sympathetic character, but he’s definitely not without his flaws.”

D.W. Gregory’s script spans decades, decades which see McCall’s character be ravaged with crippling illnesses. That, she said, has proven to be her biggest challenge in preparation.

“She’s still young but nearly crippled; her bones deteriorate, so it’s a challenge to portray those injuries,” McCall said. “A lot of those changes are seen in physicality, though her evolution as a character is that she has to go through this struggle of why this happened. Because this is a cause that deserves attention she becomes, I don’t want to say hardened, but stronger, fighting for herself and what she knows is true.”

Director Nova Cunningham said the story was particularly appealing as a season-opener because it’s a piece of history now mostly forgotten, and when reminded of it, people who see the play are wont to learn more about the subject. On top of that, a 2017 book called ‘The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women’ written by Kate Moore, and a major motion picture currently in post-production, make the timing perfect for the play’s first run in Anchorage.

“There’s something just capturing about the script,” Cunningham said. “People really enjoy the story and just about everyone goes on to research it a little more; they’re fascinated with this piece of history that’s kind of unknown.”

As for ways the world of ‘Radium Girls’ translates as a metaphor in the world we live in today, Beauvais said the ongoing struggle of people who’ve had their lives damaged by large companies is quite relatable.

“I would like to think this show still resonates, is still timely,” he said. “The instances of people vs. large corporations, the kind we see with Monsanto with Roundup and how that’s causing cancer and only now countries are starting to ban it is a good example.”

McCall and Beauvais were last seen in last semester’s final production, ‘Picasso at Laipin Agile’, written by Steve Martin. Both were involved in theater in some form or another growing up in the Valley. McCall took part in what she describes as ‘on-again, off-again’ programs at Houston High, now, she reports sadly, ‘off-again’, while Beauvais was part of a dynamic program at Wasilla High, that, too, has had to scale back.

“I did a lot of stuff when I was at Wasilla High,” Beauvais said. “When not in shows, I was helping out with tech and started an improv troupe out there, which was a lot of fun. We had a good program out there, but with cuts, there’s not much going out there anymore, which is a real shame.”

Now as theater students in college, they’ve been faced with the perhaps the steepest budget cuts in the history of the University of Alaska system.

The ability to adapt to those changes, Cunningham said, is something theater is uniquely capable of teaching.

“The great thing about the arts is it is always accustomed to thinking outside of the box,” she said. “So sometimes you meet different challenges, but in theater you overcome it with creativity.”

‘Radium Girls’ debuts Friday night at the UAA Fine Arts Center starting at 8 p.m. Saturday’s shows are also at 8 and Sunday performances start at 5.

No late seating.

“A lot of people forget we’re here at the UAA Fine Arts Building and how many talented students we have up here who are going to be the stars of tomorrow,” Cunningham said. “It would be lovely to have the community come out and support.”

If you go:

UAA Fine Arts Presents: ‘Radium Girls’

Opening Night: Friday, 8 p.m. Main Stage Theater $10-$20