Open Forum

Has anyone done Radium Girls or another show that required "glowing" costumes on stage? I'd love to hear how others successfully made this effect work.

Was glow in the dark paint strong enough to be seen off stage? What brand did you use?
Did you use black lights? What substance can you put on costumes to make them glow under black light if it's not a white material?

Any insight or success stories welcome. Thank you!

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Leslie Kane
Theatre Director
Lemont High School
IL
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Hey Leslie!

I haven't done Radium Girls, but we did use the Rosco glow paint for Seussical.  Yes, we used black lights  as well as used other color materials when we made the fish for under the water.  The color was strong and I am trying to remember what else we did.  But that glow paint shows up really well!  It is work the price you pay for it.

That's about all I can help with.  It's the only time I have used glow paint, but Radium Girls is also on my "to do" list yet.  Let me ask a friend of mine who has done this show.  I saw it but never asked what they used for the glow. 


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Natalie (Saunders) Dommer
Pasadena Memorial High School
Pasadena, Texas
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We did a different play, These Shining Lives, better written in my opinion, but the glow paint and glow make-up worked beautifully.
Our background involved a clock and as the play went on the paint was charged by the lights and glowed brighter and longer in each scene change. It was very cool! We won lots of accolades that season. Kids' performances were nuanced and pretty brilliant! 

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Nell] [Lynch]
Notre Dame Preparatory School
MDMaggie
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Hello I am desperate for advice on how to apply UV makeup to make a "dust" effect, or did you just use streaks? I appreciate any specifics you can give! I am doing this with a community theater company and our resources are limited. Thank you!

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Bernie Hein
WI
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-28-2021 10:05
From: Maggie Ward
Subject: Radium Girls - Glowing on Stage?

We did a different play, These Shining Lives, better written in my opinion, but the glow paint and glow make-up worked beautifully.
Our background involved a clock and as the play went on the paint was charged by the lights and glowed brighter and longer in each scene change. It was very cool! We won lots of accolades that season. Kids' performances were nuanced and pretty brilliant! 

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Nell] [Lynch]
Notre Dame Preparatory School
MDMaggie
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Good evening,

I haven't done this show but we used glow paint for The Little Mermaid on the coral. It was such a cool effect as the paint was translucent and took on the color of the paint under. Also, with LEDs, we didn't have to use a black light but a deep blue which worked like a black light.

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Crit Fisher
Lighting/Sound Designer
New Albany High School
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We tried a number of glow in the dark options. I found the best was purchasing glow in the dark pigment and mixing that with modge podge. Since it's clear the glow is not affected by the color pigment of the paint. Since I was mixing myself I was able to use a high concentration of glow pigment. We added black lights to our stage and part of our pre show checklist was running those for 15 minutes to charge up the glow. My crew also had UV flashlights. 

the black lights were attached to the light board via Dmx so that we could turn them on and off throughout the show. 

I also think there have been a few threads about this previously so I recommend a search. 

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Aileen Zeigler
Theatre Arts Director
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We used some tiny Black lights.  I'd be interested in seeing that Rosco glowing paint... 

Doing the ultra small mobile lights gave us the choice to 'throw' as many lumens as we found useful from various angles.  Tiny LEDs are so inexpensive these days, too look on Amazon or a similar site.   Cheap and easy to experiment.

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[Drama] [Dan] []
[Drama Teacher/Director]
[Dublin Coffman HS]
[Dublin] [Ohio]
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We used this light and it made things glow wonderfully!

XYCN 200W LED Black Lights, Flood Light with Plug, IP66 Waterproof for Dance Party, Glow in The Dark, Stage Lighting, Body Paint, Fluorescent Poster, Neon Glow

Amazon		remove preview
XYCN 200W LED Black Lights, Flood Light with Plug, IP66 Waterproof for Dance Party, Glow in The Dark, Stage Lighting, Body Paint, Fluorescent Poster, Neon Glow XYCN 200W LED Black Lights, Flood Light with Plug, IP66 Waterproof for Dance Party, Glow in The Dark, Stage Lighting, Body Paint, Fluorescent Poster, Neon Glow - Amazon.com View this on Amazon >

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Carl Rankin
Tech Director
Bedford HS - Bedford, IA
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Original Message:
Sent: 10-07-2025 08:38
From: Daniel Stowell
Subject: Radium Girls - Glowing on Stage?

We used some tiny Black lights.  I'd be interested in seeing that Rosco glowing paint... 

Doing the ultra small mobile lights gave us the choice to 'throw' as many lumens as we found useful from various angles.  Tiny LEDs are so inexpensive these days, too look on Amazon or a similar site.   Cheap and easy to experiment.

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[Drama] [Dan] []
[Drama Teacher/Director]
[Dublin Coffman HS]
[Dublin] [Ohio]
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We used a combination of glow paint and a strip of black lights which were placed on the floor facing up. It worked really well, imho. 

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Kaila Schwartz
Theatre Arts, Director
Milpitas High School
CA
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Original Message:
Sent: 10-07-2025 08:38
From: Daniel Stowell
Subject: Radium Girls - Glowing on Stage?

We used some tiny Black lights.  I'd be interested in seeing that Rosco glowing paint... 

Doing the ultra small mobile lights gave us the choice to 'throw' as many lumens as we found useful from various angles.  Tiny LEDs are so inexpensive these days, too look on Amazon or a similar site.   Cheap and easy to experiment.

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[Drama] [Dan] []
[Drama Teacher/Director]
[Dublin Coffman HS]
[Dublin] [Ohio]
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Hi Leslie and Radium Girl Directors/Teachers!

Seeing the replies already the Roscoe flurorescent and the glow pigment mixed with modge podge I could see being effective for the dress effect. We bought a bunch of white dresses and then used ARTME Glow in The Dark Green acrylic paint to apply a pattern. But the glow acrylic paint comes in really small quantities and took a few layers to even have a slight effect and blue LEDs were not enough we had to add some true black lights to our lighting plot to pick them up. Blacklight flashlights could be a cheaper option to help boost the glow as someone mentioned. For some Beetlejuice tech projects we are working on I did find this site that I may check out this round instead: https://www.technoglowproducts.com/... But I have not tried or bought from them first hand yet...

We were much more successful in finding glow in the dark makeup we liked. I highly recommend Mehron Paradise FX UV Neon Glow.

I hope these thoughts are helpful and best wishes in your producing of such a cool show etc...

Cheers,

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Colleen Mylott
Secondary Theatre Teacher
Peak to Peak Charter School
Lafayette, CO
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We just did Radium Girls last fall and used Rosco glow paint.  It worked really well.  We painted parts of our set, as well as some costumes.  It is clear, so we painted it over other colors.  We added paint splatters to the factory and to the aprons, and footprints that matched the shoes of specific characters.  The clock on the stage floor also glowed (same Rosco paint). 

We had glow in the dark icing for the painting of the teeth, which didn't work as well... but it also didn't end up mattering for how we staged that scene. 

For photos, visit Radium Girls - Facebook Photo Album.

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Jessica Shaw
MVHS Theatre Arts Teacher & Director
Mount Vernon High School
VA
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