Newport Beach CA
6-06-2025 5:51am

These Shining Lives | Curtis Theatre | Jun 13 - 22

These Shining Lives chronicles the true story of women working at the Radium Dial Company in the 1920s. 

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Lured by good wages, these women painted watch dials with luminous, radium-based paint, unaware of the devastating health consequences.

As they fall ill, the play follows their fight for justice against a corporation that values profit over the lives of its employees, bravely illuminating a dark chapter in American labor history and exploring themes of corporate negligence, female resilience, and the enduring need for workers’ rights.

by MELANIE MARNICH

Directed by Amanda Hallman 

ARTICLE  COURTESY OCTG

‘These Shining Lives’ at Curtis Theatre

From Left: Magan Tran, Shelby Perlis, Emma Laird, Genevieve Kauper (Photo by Francis Gacad)

Begins And Ends With ‘A’ Productions Unveils Melanie Marnich’s 2008 Examining Societal Good Versus Corporate Greed

By Eric Marchese

How often have we heard or read stories of greedy, corrupt business owners taking unfair advantage of their employees-- or worse yet, exploiting them to the point of causing physical harm?

Our history is rife with such tales. Some have remained in obscurity, while others have been mined as gripping true-life material for plays, movies, and literature.

The tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire drew national attention to the plight of workers in New York City’s garment district. Budd Schulberg’s “On the Waterfront” focused on the exploitation of dock workers by corrupt business owners and mobsters alike.

More recently, we have “These Shining Lives,” which tells the story of the Radium Girls, whose safety, health and lives were endangered through their day-to-day work at an Illinois clock and watch factory.

Melanie Marnich’s 2008 drama spans the 1920s through the ’30s. 

From Left: Magan Tran, Shelby Perlis, Genevieve Kauper, Emma Laird (Photo by Francis Gacad)

Popular In Orange County And Beyond

Now, Amanda Hallman and her company, Begins and Ends with ‘A’ Productions are bringing “These Shining Lives” to the Curtis Theatre in Brea, giving those who have never seen the show a chance to experience this outstanding true-life account.

Hallman is both producing and directing the show, her third collaboration with the Brea venue and its staff. She took some time to discuss the script, its themes, her cast, and what it has been like to cast, assemble, rehearse, and prepare the new production.

The director says “the compelling play is based on the true stories of the so-called ‘Radium Girls,’ four women who worked at the prestigious Radium Dial Company, a watch factory in Ottawa, Illinois.” Catherine, Charlotte, Frances, and Pearl are considered the lucky ones, holding lucrative and glamorous jobs as dial painters in post-World War I Chicago.

Dial painters, Hallman said, “were well-known about town for the glow that emanated from them as they walked home from work or went out dancing. But when they began to develop mysterious medical symptoms, who would help them? What’s more, who would believe them?”

From Left: Spike Pulice, Emma Laird (Photo by Francis Gacad)

Production Credentials That Add Value

Hallman calls the focal quartet of “These Shining Lives” “strong young women beginning to live full lives, and I love that the play has so many moments of humor, joy, and love. We’ve assembled an incredible cast that makes these moments shine.”

She noted that during casting, she “wanted to find strong, young actors who could have fun. I was really sure that I wanted the actors playing these women to be young because the real women were young. I could have easily cast this show with a variety of other actors, but I felt that the message would be even more impactful if the audience could grasp how young they were and how tragic it was that their lives were just starting.”

The cast is headed by Emma Laird as Catherine Wolfe Donohue, with Genevieve Kauper, Shelby Perlis, and Magan Tran as her friends and co-workers Charlotte, Frances, and Pearl. Spike Pulice plays Tom Donohue, and Brian Fichtner is Mr. Reed.

With this cast, Hallman “absolutely found what I needed in these cast members. Not only are they incredibly talented, strong, and generous actors, but we all have a really good time together, and we trust each other to be supportive when called to really lean into the heavy moments.

As far as the production and design teams, Aja Bell is Hallman’s co-producer and the show’s costume designer, Curtis Theatre manager Kris Kataoka is the sound designer, Lisa Kataoka is stage manager, Colin Lawrence is the scenic designer and Jon Infante is the projection designer.

Heather Harless is working as both lighting designer and technical director. Christine Breihan is intimacy and movement director, and Hallman and Colin Lawrence are prop designers.

Kerri Helmuth is both the theatre coordinator and social media manager. Elliot Forrester is theatre specialist, and Sarah Amaya and Melissa Meza are handling the production’s wardrobe.

Orange County native Hallman has an impressive and varied résumé that includes work as a director, educator, producer, and theatrical intimacy professional. She earned an AA from Fullerton College and a BA from UC San Diego, both in Theatre with an emphasis in Acting and Directing, followed by an MFA in Performance Pedagogy from Loyola Marymount University.

More recently, she co-founded Begins and Ends with ‘A’ Productions with Aja Bell-- a female-driven theatrical production company committed to telling meaningful stories of feminism, art, equity, and humanity.

From Left: Magan Tran, Shelby Perlis, Emma Laird, Brian Fichtner, Genevieve Kauper (Photo by Francis Gacad)

The Impact Of ‘Lives’

Hallman calls the play “a story of survival, love, and friendship in the most transcendent sense, as they refuse to allow the company that stole their health to kill their spirits – or endanger the lives of those who come after them.”

The play, she says, “is a harrowing but inspiring history that still has profound resonance within our society today. Their case would go on to have far-reaching consequences on workers’ and women’s rights in our own time. Their lawsuits played a significant role in establishing OSHA – the Occupational Safety and Health Administration – and changed laws surrounding the treatment of workers and corporate culpability.”

Marnich’s play, Hallman says, “showcases the dangers women face in this workplace and highlights the wider lack of concern companies had for protecting the health of their employees.” It also “explores the true story of these four young women, along with that story’s continued resonance.”

She was driven to direct the play “because it is an opportunity to tell another story of women who achieved great things not receiving the credit they deserve in history. Many people I speak to are shocked when they hear their story and told that it’s a true story. And not only is the story one that needs to be told; it comes in the form of this beautiful script by Melanie Marnich that highlights the joy, friendship, love, and tenacity of these four women.”

Hallman concludes “it’s an honor and a privilege to be able to tell the story of these women-- a story that, unfortunately, remains all too timely.”

“Their lives were deemed to be worth less than the dollars the watch companies were raking in. Against all odds, these women fought not for themselves, but for those who would come after them, and I hope we never forget them.”

Eric Marchese has written about numerous subjects for more than 40 years as a freelance and staff journalist at a wide variety of publications, but is best known as a critic, feature writer, and news reporter covering theatre and the arts throughout Orange County and beyond.

‘These Shining Lives’

Begins and Ends with ‘A’ Productions

Curtis Theatre

1 Civic Center Circle, Brea, CA

June 13 - 22, 2025

(714) 990-7722, www.CurtisTheatre.com

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