Kaneland High School’s theater department will produce D.W. Gregory’s fast moving, highly theatrical two-act play Radium Girls from Oct. 26-28.
Radium Girls, which takes place in 1926, follows the story about women and men who worked for the U.S. Radium Corporation in Orange, N.J. The play was originally written with nine roles but slowly turned into a 38-person cast on Broadway.
Kaneland students auditioned on Aug. 29 in order for Theater Director Rachel Giles-Bachman and Assistant Director Christina Staker to determine the cast before the production began on Sept. 3.
“We do have an idea of who we have before we decide on a show, but we are also surprised when we audition,” Giles-Bachman said.
The beginning of the process includes everything from the excitement of finding out what the play is to the nerves before auditioning. While the end of the process might mean teary seniors and red roses thrown on stage, all of the hard work that is put into the play from the beginning to the end is noteworthy.
The fall play cast is usually a tight-knit group. This connection is important because of the amount of time that Giles, Staker and the cast members must put in together to have a successful production.
“I put about 80 hours of rehearsal time in a week, plus our tech week. So kids who participate in the fall play probably clock in about 100 hours of rehearsal time,” Giles-Bachman said. “While you direct and produce, your show is a lot more than that. I probably put in 200 hours or more for every fall play.”
Giles-Bachman makes it clear that theater is not only time consuming, but also challenging in different aspects of her life and the lives of her students. The audition process is particularly nerve-racking to some of the freshmen and sophomores who sign up, but that does not stop some underclassmen from getting larger roles in the fall play.
Senior Ava Salchert, who was a supporting lead her sophomore and junior years, is looking forward to putting on a show like Radium Girls.
“I’m really excited for it,” Salchert said. “We’ve done some comedy plays in the past, but this one is more dramatic, a little serious and a little sad. I think it will be really good because we can showcase different aspects of our acting from all grade levels.”
Many people outside of theater might not consider the other parts that go into a show that can be covered by students in any grade level. With Giles-Bachman focused on auditions, students who are not auditioning can participate as members of the stage crew, learn how to be stage manager or help with sound and light to make the production work for tech week and the weekend of the shows.
“I give stage crew their roles and make sure the stage is clean and the props are in the right place,” senior and stage manager Megan Johnson said. “I make sure everyone in the crew knows how to do their job.”
There is constant work put in behind the scenes of each extracurricular activity, but the fall play exceeds what many people outside of the cast know. Each year the curious minds of these teenagers work hard to put on the perfect fall play for their loved ones and peers. The relationships that are created through the process leading up to the production are special to everyone who participates.
“Honestly, I wouldn’t even call [Giles-Bachman] my teacher because I just had her freshman year for one class. But it is like spending time with friends,” Salchert said. “You just spend so much time with this person, and they are helping you create this character. It’s a nice relationship.”
