Importance Of Physical Slide In These Shining Lives By Melanie Marnich

Ella Stephens

Mrs. Hamm

English Blue

5 May 2023

The Importance of Physical Slides Melanie Marnich, playwright of These Shining Lives, uses many elements to better explain the story with her audience, in many unique ways. One element she uses is physical slides. These slides add a lot of detail about the playwright and interest the audience. Physical slides contribute to this play in many ways, whether it is through providing the audience with additional information to help them understand what is happening onstage, adding an extra layer of meaning for the play, and it creates a more engaging scene with the audience. First, Marnich uses slides to provide the audience with additional information to give more insight into what is happening

It also gives more examples to the audience of how harmful this job is and how much labor it takes. Also, now the audience can better understand how sick these women are. Marnich uses Dr. Dalish to fully explain the sickness Charlotte, Catherine, Francis, and Pearl are dealing with:

DR. DALITSCH. The fainting spells and destruction of your teeth being connected to- connected to the malignancy of your hip and necrosis of your jaw- necrosis meaning-

Necrosis means…localized death of living tissue. To the best of my knowledge, this is a direct result of radium. Of radium poisoning. (Marnich 46).

The audience can now join the additional information of the slide about how many watches and the diagnosis from Dr. Dalitsch, to comprehend the result of their job at Radium Dial. This use of physical slides is very important to the playwright and brings in lots of additional details needed. Next, these physical slides can add an extra layer of meaning to the play and emphasize the plot better. For instance, when the girls are seeing the new doctor the slide helps show when and who, without saying it. As Charlotte, Catherine, Francis, and Pearl are going to meet with Dr. Datlisch, the stage directions indicate the girls'

So we had to go to the city. SLIDE: Chicago, 1931 CATHERINE. To find the one doctor who would risk his name. SLIDE: Dr. Dalitsch (Marnich 46).

These physical slides and lines from Catherine add more details to help the plot be better explained. Now the audience understands that they have been to multiple doctors and Dr. Dalitsch is the doctor who will change their lives and have a big effect on the story. Also, the audience can acknowledge the time stamps of the scenes and how many years it has been since Catherine started working. Another example is when Charlotte, Catherine, Francis, and Pearl are starting to go to court for their sickness, the slide indicates: SLIDE: Leonard Grossman Attorney at Law. (Marnich 54).

This physical slide tells the audience exactly where and what is happening in this scene. This layer of playwright truly helps the audience appreciate the characters and the story stronger. Lastly, these physical slides help the audience stay engage with the story throughout the whole performance. The audience is forced to read what is said on the slides, versus watching and listening to the story unfold. For example, as Tom comes home to Catherine, who is exhausted after a long day of working at Radium Dial, the slide