Scientists and technicians came together in a race against other countries to build the most lethal weapon ever devised.
The Manhattan Project was the creation of the atomic bomb during World War II. The play "Daughters of Trinity: The Women of the Manhattan Project" will be performed this week after months of collaboration between the faculty and students of the Ball State University theater department, and it features a handful of women playing parts that are historically accurate to the real Manhattan Project that took place in Los Alamos, N.M.
The process began last summer when Jennifer Blackmer, Ball State assistant professor of theater, gathered 11 students to research the Manhattan Project and find a way to write a script that was truthful, yet dramatic.
The play ultimately centers on four women who took part in the construction and creation of the atomic bomb.
Junior acting major Samantha Cains plays Joan. Cains also helped with research and writing the script.
"We all thought up women who we wanted to research and then cut most of them down until we found four characters who all had different parts in creating the bomb," Cains said.
The cast consists of six women, four playing the women who worked on the bomb, a narrator and junior acting major Kate Moore as the bomb itself.
In the original prologue, they had a character that was a little girl, and Cains said she thought it was genius to make the bomb double as a child.
"I thought, ‘That's perfect — taking the most lethal weapon ever devised and doubling it as an innocent child,'" she said.
Though there are male characters in the play, the creators of the script decided against having any men on stage.
"When you put a man on stage, you immediately create stereotypes of gender," Cains said. "We wanted this play to be about what the women did, and not that the women were women."
In order to keep men offstage, but continue to tell the story accurately, the women take on the roles of the men when their female character is not on stage.
Senior musical theater major Devan O'Mailia said there is a point in the show where she is playing a man, but the audience can still see her original character's pregnant belly.
Junior acting major Sarah Nickell plays a mechanic and has changed her mind based on how her character, Francis, felt about building the bomb.
"I've gained quite a sense of patriotism from the play," she said. "I've realized that's how the mindset was. It's us or them. I've never thought in that black or white philosophy."
Many felt this bomb was the only way to end the war and save lives that would be lost had it continued, O'Mailia said.
Creating a show about these women did have an effect on the actors playing them. They agree they have a newfound appreciation for strong women that came before them, who paved the way for others to make progress.
O'Mailia said the play wasn't about feminism, it's just about amazing women, living their lives.
Blackmer and the students who helped in writing the play wanted the story of these women to be more important than anything else.
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