Meridian students owned the stage as they performed “These Shining Lives” on November 14th. Meridian actors told the story about survival, strength and determination amongst a group of girls exposing the dangers of the workforce.
It displayed an act of courage and justice, set in the 1920s. Ms. Fajardo Meridian’s middle school theatre teacher explains that the story “ follows Catherine Donohue and her coworkers as they discover the dangers of radium and fight for justice.” Catherine and her friends stand up to resist their company, to protect workers from the illness radium had inflicted on them.
Corban Mcdonald, a 10th grader at Meridian, who helped with props, says that the actors “work together to prevent the company from silencing them.” That the play stands to display mistreatment in the workforce and inspire women to let their voice be heard.
These Shining Lives starred Charlotte Hayden as Catherine, Claire Sugamele as Charlotte, Ava Veliz as Frances, Evie Noonan as Pearl, Nathan Pailloncy as Tom and Gable LaValle plays Mr. Reed. Smaller parts like reporters were played by Sadie Bailey and Sachin Velayutham. Certainly, a star studded cast.
Emma Turner, an 11th grader at Meridian, worked on the production of the play. She shared how the crew “spent months analyzing the script, researching, creating the set, and making the props.”
Ms. Fajardo mentioned, “Having a tech class made everything smoother. More students were involved in lights, sound, costumes, makeup, props, and set work, which made the process more collaborative and creative.”
Since tech class wasn’t around last year, its impact on the plays for this new school year was definitely beneficial! Backstage lights and props weren’t the only thing, Madalynne Donnelly a Senior and Gracie Fitzgerald a Sophomore at Meridian worked with the actors, doing their hair, makeup, and clothes! Picking up handy skills for the future, Maddie shares that they “had to learn how to do finger waves.” which took her a long time to learn.
While the finger waves took a long time, rehearsals took even longer. Starting in mid September, meeting every week for several days. Corban shared that he stayed “sometimes as late as 7:30.” while others like Sadie who got small roles “spent around an hour or two memorizing my lines” and their delivery. But with practice there are still setbacks, technical issues, and prop mishaps even roles like Radio Announcer, originally played by Sadie Bailey, was removed since it didn’t fit well into the rest of the show, these hurdles weren’t to be unexpected since its theatre and surprises pop up all the time.
And despite the long, or short hours spent rehearsing. The fall play, These Shining Lives, was a memorable one for the students taking part. Corban says how “Theatre people are some of the kindest, funniest people you meet, and you find a real sense of community with each other”.
