HISTORICAL DRAMA SET TO OPEN at The Stagecrafters Theater
The Stagecrafters Theater of Chestnut Hill will produce “These Shining Lives,” a play by Melanie Marnich, opening September 18, 2026, as the first offering of its 97th season.
The play centers around Catherine Donohue and three coworkers at the Radium Dial Company of Ottawa, Illinois in the 1920s and 30s. This dramatic retelling of the women’s experiences at well-paying jobs for unskilled workers begins as they revel in their dream jobs and find camaraderie. Slowly though, each woman experiences unexplained health issues which are dismissed by the company doctor.
Catherine Wolfe Donohue was a real person employed at the Radium Dial Company, during the post-WWI and Great Depression period, other characters were also real or represent composites.
This true story of resilience and grit inspires gratitude for these women’s fortitude as they stood against the business that harmed them, and for the development of US government health and safety standards for workplaces that were a result of their and other workers’ fights for justice and fairness.
The Stagecrafters Theater was founded in 1929 and has served as a landmark organization in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood of northwest Philadelphia for nearly 100 years. The organization stages five theatrical productions per season, which encompass a wide range of styles, from classics to edgy contemporary fare – choosing plays that are theatrically exciting, artistically challenging, and ideologically relevant.
Located at 8130 Germantown Avenue, The Stagecrafters’ auditorium seats 180 and is wheelchair accessible. More information about the theater, subscriptions and upcoming productions can be found online at <thestagecrafters.org>.