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Hi everyone,

We are starting work on These Shining Lives by Melanie Marnich (which tells a similar story to Radium Girls) and we need to make one girl glow in the dark. I've seen pictures of a variety of effects, but am having a difficult time getting the details on how each was accomplished.

If you have directed Radium Girls and could tell me about your own method, that would be excellent. Thanks!

Emily Stam, Summit Christian Academy, Lee's Summit, MO

We recently produced "Radium Girls" and used blacklight glow makeup for their faces, clear neon spray paint on the set and their aprons, and a disgusting mixture of glow stick juice, crushed vitamin B tablets, and tonic water for the paint jars and Radithor bottle (non-edible!!!).  You would need black lights on in addition to other lighting to make the effects noticeable. It worked very well, and it was a great effect during actual blackouts. We spray paint footsteps and hand prints on the set. It was very striking.

Hope this helps.

WildFire make-up (www.wildfirefx.com - go to STORE, look under COSMETICS) and blacklight (UV / ultraviolet light) illumination.

Used glow-in-the-dark paint/light sensitive (Rosco) in the jars, on set to mark levels. Painted face masks for the "face" scenes--very eerie--and used Mountain Dew in little recapped glass bitters bottles, an Italian product : Sans Bitter. Worked for us, and our audience is very close to performers: seated on stage 3/4 in round. Good luck! Great show for teaching purposes.