Class Of 2025

The PHS Spring 2024 Recap Newsletter highlighted Liesel Arauz Vallecillo for directing the Barnstormers performance of “Radium Girls” in February 2024. Our full interview with her is captured below:

We understand you directed a Barnstormer’s play at Hopkins this spring, called “Radium Girls.” Can
you tell us about how this production came to be and what drove you to direct it? Can you elaborate
on the story of Radium Girls and its link to public health?

One of the first pieces of advice I got for directing was to choose a play that you absolutely love.
For me, a public health student at Hopkins who has been interested in the intersection of art and advocacy since high school, Radium Girls by D.W. Gregory seemed like the obvious choice. Radium Girls tells the powerful story of the young women who were exposed to radiation through their work for the US Radium Corporation in the 1920s. It is a story that is still immensely relevant today as it is filled with themes of resilience, justice, innovation, and morality.

I was drawn to this play in particular because it tells a story that is far too well-known throughout time: one filled with denial, cover up tactics, litigation, public awareness, and then finally a concession from a company who reveals later that they knew all along that the product they were selling was in fact dangerous. As the wonderful author of this play points out, this story has happened time and time again with the introduction of various products and public health issues throughout history. What is especially interesting about this play is that it tells not only the story of the women involved and the corporation, but the other important players such as scientists and society members who also could’ve and ultimately did influence this case. It focuses on how compliance to the status quo may be the easy choice and that the truth may be a bitter pill to swallow but that this story will just continue to happen in our modern-day lives until we all can accept the responsibility that comes with discovering hard truths and advancements. I wanted to do this play because knowledge and scientific advancement is deeply ingrained into our campus culture. I know that many members of the Hopkins community will no doubt go on to do and discover life-changing things for our world, so I wanted to direct a play that would serve as a reminder to our community of the importance of ethical considerations inherent in scientific exploration and the importance of prioritizing human welfare in research and industry.

Additionally, I chose it because in high school I was interested in work like those done by Laurie Anderson, who was unafraid to mix scientific and technological tools and technique with visual art mediums and performance. My sophomore year of high school I wrote the script and directed a part of a musical that was inspired by observing the stigma surrounding mental health at my high school. Although I never finished the musical, I made it my goal while at Hopkins to continue doing projects that mixed art with science or public health. Additionally, I will never forget when I saw one my first ever live professional plays which was Luis Alfaro’s Mojada at The Public Theater, a re-telling of the Greek myth Medea that tells the story of a Hispanic mother who gives up everything to cross the border into the US for her child. Having spent all my childhood in downtown L.A. and having family who emigrated from Nicaragua, I and many others left that theater moved, in tears, and with a fierce passion for standing up for the rights of immigrants. It was watching that play that made me realize that the performing arts have the powerful ability to make audience members feel, think, and be inspired for change. I wanted my play to affect people the same way I had been affected.

What are your thoughts about your experience directing it? What did you find rewarding? Do you
think you’d like to do something like this again?

Directing my first full-length play was a daunting yet absolutely riveting experience. One of the
aspects that I found rewarding about this process was the amount of dialogue and collaboration that it
stirred up. When I first was informed that I got the position of I-Show director for Radium Girls , one of
the first things I did was reach out to every professor or advisor I knew on campus who had ever inspired
me to choose this play in the first place.

I reached out to Jim Glossman, a professor at the theater department, who was the person who inspired me to try directing in the first place. He actually knew the author of the play personally so it was super amazing and insightful getting to speak to her over email! I also was lucky to connect with Dr. Latshaw (professor of The Environment and Your Health) who directed me to Dr. Locke, a professor who teaches about this case on the Bloomberg campus. I was able to interview him in the early stages of the production process and his insight on the three main stories involved in this story (industry, scientists/doctors, and general society including the factory girls) really helped shape my vision for the play. I also reached out to my advisors like Cara McNamara, Keri Frisch, and Joan Freedman as well as my professor Dr. Mercelis (professor of Photography of Science and Medicine) who helped me find library resources to study the case further and share about production opportunities with a broader sphere of students.

It’s this aspect that was extremely rewarding for me since my goal with this show was to either directly involve or invite audience members who may not have typically shown an interest in either the arts or public health to still be able to enjoy and learn from the show. I wanted history majors, premeds, prelaw students, public health faculty and students, physics researchers, artists, and storytellers alike to see the value of mixing disciplines and to feel like it was a show meant for them. The goal was to show how theater on campus could be such a powerful interdisciplinary space for discussion, reflection, creativity, and enjoyment.

I think we accomplished this and I’m so proud of my production team for bringing my vision for this show to life. It truly would not have been possible without the amazing cast and crew I was honored to have worked with throughout this production. Getting to see the numerous characters gradually materialize from actor performances and costumes, see lighting concepts and set changes shift from just paper-drafted ideas to show conditions, and seeing new props or costumes to interact with become available sparked such joy for me over the Intersession period. Truly, what made this experience so rewarding was getting to see the process in real time, bond with my crew and cast, and showcase everything that the Barnstormers can do to the broader JHU community.

Any further thoughts about the performance and/or your path ahead (or behind), as a PHS student at
Hopkins?

I definitely want to do something like this again. I directed the Whip-Poor-Will by Gemma Watson, a play about transphobia and the social construct of gender, and A Woman’s Place by Cassandra Mitsinikos, a play about women’s role in 1920s society, for Witness Theater which helped prepare me for later on directing Radium Girls . I’m hoping to continue directing similar genres of plays with themes of social justice this upcoming year and reaching out to see if there are any other directing opportunities at
JHU.

Additionally, learning about the Radium girls case study has inspired me to really take advantage of this summer and start reading about other important public health case studies. Right now, I’m reading And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts. In the future, I’m planning on pursuing a MSPH in Health Education and Health Communication and then applying for an MD/MPH program. I hope that through the work I’ll do in a future masters program I can continue to study how art can be used to promote discussion and awareness of public health issues.