University Liggett School production selected as 2023 Michigan Thespian Festival main stage production

University Liggett School is thrilled to announce that the school’s impactful rendition of Radium Girls has been chosen as a featured main stage production at the Michigan Educational Theater Association State Thespian Festival, scheduled for December 8 and 9, 2023, in Lansing.

Radium Girls by D. W. Gregory tells the story of Grace Fryer and the female factory workers who contracted radiation poisoning from painting watch dials and hands with self-luminous paint made of radium and their fight for justice against the powerful radium corporations.

“The State Thespian Festival is an extremely exciting weekend in which students and educators from across the state can share their common love for the theater arts,” said Dr. Phill Moss, Creative and Performing Arts Department Chair at University Liggett School. “The festival also allows the students and directors the chance to network, attend workshops, and gain valuable practical information on how to improve their theater programs, and we’re thrilled to perform Radium Girls on the main stage.”

During the two-day festival, more than 2,000 students and their directors see multiple shows, choose from more than 200 workshops, compete in their choice of 18 different theatre-specific individual events, audition for scholarships from colleges and universities and mingle with industry professionals.

The festival will begin with a performance of Radium Girls on Friday, December 8th. This marks the Players’ first production since 2019’s 12 Angry Jurors to be selected as a main stage production at the State Thespian Festival. Other ULS main stage productions include Arsenic and Old Lace, 2015; Master Harold and the Boys, 2012; Lend Me A Tenor, 2009; Bus Stop, 2006; Company of Wayward Saints, 2003; Do Black Patent Leather Shoes, 1999 and A Beast on the Moon in 1996.

The show will first be performed at University Liggett School beginning Thursday, November 9 at 7:30 p.m. Additional performances are at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, November 10 and Saturday, November 11, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, November 12.

Tickets for the ULS performance dates are $8 and are available online at seatyourself.biz/uls.