Loyola Presents These Shining Lives by Melanie March

The Department of Theatre Arts and Dance at Loyola University New Orleans will be present the play These Shining Livesby Melanie Marnich September 21-29.

Directed by Kristi Jacobs-Stanley, an alumna of Loyola’s Department of Theatre Arts and Dance, and the 2017 Queen of Freret, returns to her alma mater to direct this story of courage and hope. These Shining Livesis based on the true story of the so-called “radium girls” of 1920s America. The play follows the fate of four women who pursued the upward mobility of the American Dream by working in a watch factory painting watch faces with radium powder so the numbers will glow in the dark – a task they were told was safe, even healthy. Their fate and their insistence on accountability paved the way for many of the workplace protections American workers take for granted today. 

“We are thrilled to have Kristi come home to Loyola to direct this beautiful play with our students. It is always a pleasure to get to work with our alumni and have them share their professional experiences and talents with our current students, said Dr. Laura Hope, Chair of the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance. “I find this play profoundly hopeful and encouraging, because it shows what a small group of determined women can do when they band together, regardless of the seeming impossibility of the task. The radium girls had every reason to give up their quest for social justice, but they pressed on and achieved results that still benefit all working people in this country today.”

These Shining Liveswill take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, September 21 – 22, at 2:00 p.m. Sunday, September 23, and Thursday through Saturday, September 27 – 29 at 7:30 p.m. at Loyola University New Orleans’ Lower Depths Theatre at 6363 St. Charles Avenue.  Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for Loyola students, faculty, and staff.  Group rates are available.  Tickets may be purchased online at cmm.loyno/theatre/events or by calling the Box Office at (504) 865-2074.  Doors open 30 minutes prior to performance.