Dec. 5, 2025
By Leah Campos
Staff Writer
A dark chapter in New Jersey’s history came to life in LHS’ production of D.W. Gregory’s “Radium Girls” at Lyndhurst Middle School on Nov. 13-14.
Set in the industrial city of Orange in the 1920s, the play tells the true story of a group of young women who fell gravely ill from radium necrosis. Their suffering stemmed from prolonged exposure to radium while painting watch and clock dials for the U.S. Radium Corporation.
Junior Isabella Fata, who has performed in every LHS play since her freshman year, starred as Grace Fryer, one of the women affected by radium poisoning. Fryer ultimately took her case to court, fighting for justice on behalf of the friends she had lost to the disease.
Fata said she loved portraying her character’s evolution throughout the play.
“Grace is very timid in the beginning. She’s very unsure of herself,” Fata said. “And then towards the end, she just speaks out for what’s right.”
Fata said she not only recognized growth in her character but also in herself.
“She slowly learns to stick up for herself, so I feel like acting in that role helped me realize how to stick up for myself more and be more confident,” Fata said.
She said the play also taught her about responsibility, as she had to be diligent in memorizing her lines.
“I did feel overwhelmed with my lines at first, but I took it day by day. Then, when I had free time in class, I would go over them,” Fata said.
Freshman Ben De La Cruz, who played the clerk, the industrial toxicologist Dr. Flinn and a male shopper, said he respects Grace because she grew more confident and found her voice despite her hardships.
“She always listened, [but] it built up so much that now she’s not taking the offer [to settle her lawsuit]. She’s going to court, and she’s fighting for her justice and the justice of all the people around her who have died because of the negligence of big corporations,” De La Cruz said.
He said his roles in “Radium Girls” were very different from his experience last year in middle school, where he took on the supporting role of Tonton Julian, a kind and simple peasant farmer, in Lynn Ahrens’ coming-of-age musical, “Once on This Island.” De La Cruz was also part of the stage crew for Mary Lynn Dobson’s comedic play “The Somewhat True Tale of Robin Hood.”
“This one’s definitely more serious,” De La Cruz said. “It’s more straight-through acting. The other two were more jolly, more happy… and I liked the tone change from what I’ve worked on in the past.”
Senior Lyz Herrera, the play’s student director, said that last June, when director Ms. Coppola asked her to take on a leadership responsibility in the production, she did not hesitate to say yes.
“She slowly learns to stick up for herself, so I feel like acting in that role helped me realize how to stick up for myself more and be more confident.”
“I was in the same room as one of my friends [and] Ms. Coppola when they were talking about it. She was trying to look for a student director, and my friend wasn’t sure about doing it,” Herrera said. “So, she asked me, and I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it.’”
Herrera said she enjoyed watching the cast and crew build relationships.
“I’ve never been an actor, but I think it’s really amazing how people’s connections outside of acting can impact their [onstage] chemistry,” Herrera said. “That was one of my favorite parts, just seeing everything come together.”
Herrera said her main job was to relay messages between Coppola, assistant director Mr. DeVito and the cast via the BAND app and Google Classroom.
She said she would stop by Coppola’s classroom in the mornings to discuss what needed to be completed that day and what aspects of the play needed improvement.
“I would go visit her on my way to [Residential] Construction class just to double-check a few things with her. We would constantly talk about ideas for the show, costumes, props, what we needed and what we might not need,” Herrera said.
Although Herrera enjoyed being the student director, she said her role sometimes made it challenging to maintain her relationships with her friends in the play.
“[I] was just trying to find that balance between ‘I’m your friend,’ but also, ‘I’m trying to be your student director and have you be successful in this show,’” Herrera said.
Nonetheless, Herrera said she is glad she agreed to serve as student director during her senior year.
“I did enjoy being a student director a lot, and I didn’t expect to. I had Ms. Coppola as a teacher, but I’ve never had to work alongside her in a role where the cast relied on me,” Herrera said. “I was extremely nervous about it, but honestly, this was a really great experience for my senior year.”
Irene Rudolph (junior Adrionna Muraglia), Katherine Schaub (freshman Izzy Cruz) and Grace Fryer (junior Isabella Fata) detail watch faces with radium paint.
PHOTOS BY NATALIA HERNANDEZ, BLAKE NEGRON AND ALEXANDRA RUIZ
