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GREENSBURG, PA- The ��������Ƶ College (SHC) Theatre Program production Radium Girls opens Tuesday, April 3, 2001. ��������Ƶ alumna Dolores Whiskeyman wrote Radium Girls. Curtain time is 10:30 a.m. in Reeves Theatre. The year is 1926. Marie Curie is world famous. Radium is a miracle cure. And glow-in-the-dark watches are everywhere. But at the U.S. Radium Corporation a group of girls who paint them become fatally ill. The Company has taught them to roll a point on their brushes with their mouths. The story of this labor abuse reaches the media, and some of the afflicted girls bring a landmark suit and win. Their misfortune would eventually link radiation with cancer and pave the way for enhanced industrial safety standards. SHC’s Radium Girls is under the direction of Dr. Gene Saraceni. The following 10 SHC students have been cast in the production: Kate McLenigan, daughter of Gerald and Joan McLenigan of East Norriton, PA and junior theatre performance major, has been cast in the role of Grace Fryer; Erin Maureen Burke, daughter of Tom and Barb Burke of Bothel, Washington and sophomore theatre performance major, has been cast in the role of Kathryn Schaub and other roles; Courtney McElravy, daughter of Gregg and Barb McElravy of Chicora, PA and senior theatre performance major, has been cast in the role of Mrs. Kathryn Wiley and other roles; Marla Long, daughter of Gary and Paula Long of Perry, Ohio and junior theatre performance major, has been cast in the role of Sob Sister and other roles; Janis Coffey, daughter Susan Coffey of Philadelphia, PA and junior theatre major, has been cast in the role of Mrs. Diane Roeder and other roles; Adam Altman, son of Linda Altman of Latrobe, PA and freshman theatre performance major, has been cast in the role of C.B. “Charlie” Lee and other roles; Keith Gray, son of Angela Engelke of Sykesville, Maryland and freshman theatre performance major, has been cast in the role of Raymond Berry and other roles; Shaun M. Keenan, the son of Karen and Greg Keenan of Philadelphia, PA and junior theatre performance major, has been cast in the role of Tom Kreider and other roles; Ryan Ingram, son of Denise Miller of Coraopolis, PA and senior music/ theatre major, has been cast in the role of Edward Markley and other roles; and Justin Davis, the son of Joan Nolan and Ronald Zook of Greenville, PA and senior theatre performance major, has been cast in the role of Arthur Roeder. Dorien Belle, son of Darlene and Lawrence Belle and sophomore music/ theatre major is the Stage Manager and Kristen Secrist, daughter of Robin and Gerald Secrist of West Newton, PA and freshman music/ theatre major, is the Assistant Stage Manager. Radium Girls was a critical success and box-office sell-out at Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey. The Newark Star-Ledger named it "The Best New Play" in the state for the 1999-2000 season. Based on the true story about the women who worked as dialpainters at the U.S. Radium Corp., Radium Girls received a production grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and was a finalist for the prestigious Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference and the New Harmony Project in 1999. “I’m very excited to return to ��������Ƶ for a production of Radium Girls,” Whiskeyman said who graduated from ��������Ƶ in 1980 with a Bachelor’s of art in English and a minor in journalism. “This is a great chance to see it on its feet again. I’ve made some revisions since the New Jersey production and I think the play actually works a lot better.” Whiskeyman's first full-length play, The Truth about Charlie, received the Zappa-Amato Award from the Catholic University of America. Among her many other full-length plays, The Good Girl is Gone, was a finalist for the O'Neill conference in 2000. Whiskeyman is also the author of several award-winning short plays such as Driven to Abstraction which won the ATHE award for student work in 1993 and The Savage Sex which was a finalist for the George R. Kernodle One-Act Play Award in 1997. So Tell Me about This Guy, was one of only a handful of plays selected for production out of nearly 2000 entries to the Actors Theatre of Louisville National Ten-Minute Play Competition. Since then, the play has received numerous productions around the world and is published in four American anthologies. Whiskeyman's most recent short play, The B Word, is scheduled for production off-off-Broadway. Radium Girls will be presented on April 3, 4 and 6 at 10:30 a.m.; April 5, 6 and 7 at 8:00 p.m.; and April 8 at 2:00 p.m. All performances are staged in Reeves Theatre on the College campus. Tickets are $10; group rates are available. Reservations are recommended. For group or individual reservations, contact the SHC Box Office at (724) 838-4241, Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.