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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW California man dies in I-5 rollover ... Medford man wins Megabucks jackpot ... Budget tops $339 million for 2016-17 ... California man dies in I-5 rollover ... Medford man wins Megabucks jackpot ... Budget tops $339 million for 2016-17 ... ASHLAND HIGH SCHOOL AHS's 'Radium Girls' to open state thespian festival Production will open Thespian State Festival in Salem Comment By Joe Zavala for the Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Joe Zavala for the Mail Tribune Posted Mar. 29, 2016 at 12:01 AM By Joe Zavala for the Mail Tribune Posted Mar. 29, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Social News Amelia Sorensen vividly remembers watching Rex Putnam High School perform “The Diviners” at the Thespian State Festival in Salem last year. The Ashland High School senior was so impressed by the Depression-era tragedy about a water-diviner she re-read the play and still thinks about it often. Now, Sorensen and her fellow AHS thespians will perform their own award-winning play, “Radium Girls,” at the four-day state festival, and Sorensen hopes that somebody in the audience will be as impacted by their production as she was by Rex Putnam’s. “I remember it so distinctly,” said Sorensen, who plays Grace Fryer, a young woman who contracted radiation poisoning, leading to a landmark case against her employer. “It was probably one of my favorite shows I’ve ever seen, so to be that (opening show) this year … I never know who’s watching, if it’s going to affect anyone. But just to be in that place is so exciting because it’s such an amazing theater.” Sorensen and the rest of the “Radium Girls” cast and crew will get a chance to make their own mark in Salem Thursday at the Elsinore Theatre, but they have a lot of work to do first. It takes 47 students to stage Ashland High’s production of “Radium Girls,” and all of them will have to pack up the hundreds of pieces required to pull it off, squeeze them into the back of a semi-truck and shoot 240 miles up Interstate 5 before unpacking and rebuilding the set in the Elsinore Theatre in time for the state festival’s opening night. It’ll cost about $15,000, says director and AHS humanities teacher Betsy Bishop, so the production team performed “Radium Girls” at Mountain Avenue Theatre Monday and will again at 7 p.m. today (general admission is $10, students and seniors $7). Not long after tonight's show concludes, cast and crew will get to work breaking down the sets and packing everything, from costumes to the LCD projector, into the back of the truck. “Oh man, I don’t even know where to begin with that,” said sophomore Kyle Storie, who plays United States Radium lawyer Edward Markley. “It’s definitely going to be a lot of work, but at the same time it’s an experience. And I think it’s all going to be worth it.” “It’s insane,” Sorensen said. "Radium Girls" was selected out of 18 full-length entries during a regional competition in Independence to be the opening night show at the state festival, marking the sixth time since 1998 that an AHS play has been picked for the annual gathering, according to Bishop. Several Ashland thespians also scored in the top 10 percent of their category at regionals to qualify, and senior Ceili Widamann was named a state finalist in playwriting for her one-act play “Violence,” which she will present at the four-day festival. Written by D.W. Gregory in 1999, “Radium Girls” tells the story of United States Radium factory workers who, throughout the 1920s, hand-painted watch dials using glow-in-the-dark radium, ingesting dangerous amounts of the toxic, cancer-causing chemical that they had been told was harmless. To sharpen their paintbrushes, the women moistened the bristles by inserting them into their mouths. The results were tragic: loss of teeth, bleeding mouths, deteriorating jawbones and, in some cases, death. While the subject matter’s heavy, there’s some humor, too, and Bishop said Ashland High’s production is a stripped down, shorter version of the original. It also has a fast-paced, cinematic feel, bolstered by an original soundtrack written by former Oregon Shakespeare Festival composer Todd Barton. “The play is only 95 minutes, but it packs a punch,” Bishop said. “It moves quickly.” Bishop said the stage, which she described as “minimalistic,” cycles through seven different locations and makes use of slides to set scenes. “It has four levels on it,” she said. “It moves quickly and we have all these slides that show the time period, so we have all this photography from the '20s that you see from the real stories. So you see that in the background on the screens … it’s really a multimedia experience.” The play originally ran in Ashland back in November, but Sorensen is excited about taking it on again, both in front of her hometown audience and in front of a much larger group of fellow performers in Salem — about 400 spectators can fit into Mountain Avenue Theatre. Elsinore Theatre holds 2,000. The role, says Sorensen, is taxing. “I feel like I live a whole life within two hours,” she said. “Every time I go home I’m so tired because the arc of the show is incredible. When you come offstage you’re tired. You’re physically tired, you’re emotionally tired. And then you go home, you sleep and you do it all again. But it’s worth every moment.” Bishop says performing at the Thespian State Festival will be a memorable night for her team, and a great bonding experience. “They love acting and they love theater,” Bishop said of the festival audience. “So these kids are the most upbeat, excited audience you can possibly perform for. They clap before you start. They laugh at all the appropriate places. They laugh and cry and then they stand up and cheer at the end. And it is an adrenaline rush for these kids." Joe Zavala is a reporter for the Ashland Daily Tidings. Reach him at 541-821-0829 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @Joe_Zavala99. By Joe Zavala for the Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Joe Zavala for the Mail Tribune Posted Mar. 29, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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