As the spring rolls in, so does a new spring play. This year, a new director joins as well. Samarah Forster was chosen to direct the 2024 play, Radium Girls. Forster was raised in Virginia and earned her Theater degree at college there, then moved to Sleepy Eye when she got married. She now works at the Sleepy Eye Coffee Shop and Brewery, as well as being involved with Sleepy Eye, GFW, New Ulm Catherdal, and State Street Theaters.

Forster chose Radium Girls because she found excellent reviews and thought it would be the right fit. “Also knowing that we have 8 weeks, one of those being spring break, I wanted to find something that had enough ‘meat’ that people would be interested, as well as something we could pull off technically,” Forster said. She also mentioned the choice had good parts for female leads.

Radium Girls is based on a true story of women factory workers in the 1920s falling ill from Radium paint poisoning, and the opposing company owners being in denial as the case is taken to court.

Forster stated how it is hard to come into a new school and you don’t know the students, their talents, or their operations. “Right now, everyone is learning each other, and learning me, and I think they are getting used to my crazy,” she added with a laugh.

Radium Girls will premiere on April 5 at 7 p.m. and April 6 at 2 p.m. in the New Ulm High School Auditorium.