WVCSD Artists of the Week: Sariah Grant & James “Finn” Kennedy

When the curtains go up on the Warwick Valley High School Drama Club’s production of Radium Girls on Friday, November 7, lead actors Sariah Grant and Finn Kennedy will be front and center. Sariah will be portraying Grace Fryer and Finn will be portraying Arthur Roeder. Both actors have been practicing and performing their craft since they were single digits old, and both are excited to add new roles to their resumes with this year’s fall drama. 

Set in the 1920s, Radium Girls follows Grace’s story. Grace is a dial painter at the US Radium Corporation in New Jersey, owned by Arthur. She and her coworkers are instructed to use a technique called “lip-pointing” to paint watch dials with radium-based luminous paint—unknowingly ingesting the radioactive material daily. As the women begin to suffer from mysterious illnesses, Grace fights for justice against a powerful corporation that denies responsibility. 

“At the time, people believed that radium was the cure for everything. They believed that it was just, like, holy water,” said Sariah. “They thought you could use it to cure cancer, people were drinking it, they were putting it in chocolate. So, these girls who were working in the factory, painting watch dials for the war effort, would put their paintbrushes to their lips to get a point. They were ingesting all this radium.”

The play dramatizes a true story and offers a compelling look into both scientific ethics and labor history. It is considered a powerful resource for high school history and science classes.  

“I think something this show is trying to say is, you know, we don't know everything all the time, and that sometimes people do make mistakes; big mistakes that affect a lot of people,” Finn said. “And also that we have to, as a society, learn from the mistakes we make and turn away from them. As a society, but also even just as individuals.”

Sariah is new to Warwick Valley Central School District this year. Her family moved upstate from Queens just in time for her junior year. While this is her first year as part of the WVHS Drama Club, she’s been involved in acting for a long time.

“I've been acting since third grade,” said Sariah, sharing that it’s not just a hobby, but a career aspiration. “I'm really, really interested in acting as something I’d love to do in the future! I'd like to keep doing theater and just see what other kinds of opportunities I get.”

Sariah said that she wanted to get into performing from as far back as she can remember.

“I mean, I was interested right away in elementary school, but they wouldn’t let you start until third grade,” Sariah said. “So, third grade was when I first hit the stage and started acting, and I've never quit.”

Last year Sariah played Betty Paris in The Crucible. She has also starred in productions of SpongeBob the Musical, playing Plankton, and The Addams Family, playing Wednesday Addams. She said it’s difficult to choose which roles have been her favorites, especially considering how dramatically different they have been.

“Yea, that’s hard, but I guess I’d have to say it’s between Wednesday and Betty,” Sariah said. “When I played Betty, I got to show more acting because it was a drama, there was no singing. But with Wednesday, I got a lot more stage time and she was just a fun character.”

Sariah said she's grateful for the connections she's made since arriving in Warwick Valley, being part of Drama Club and the performing arts community.

“Everyone’s been so welcoming,” said Sariah. “The thing about drama kids is that they love talking to people. So, you make so many friends and get so many other benefits out of it. It's so much fun.”

Finn has been part of Warwick Valley’s school and community theater scene for most of the past decade. His interest in performing, however, also goes all the way back to elementary school.

“Well, in elementary school, honestly, I did try to get into the musicals, but I didn't always go through with it,” he said with a shy smile. “I would get very nervous at the auditions, and I would… well… I would just bail!”

That all changed when Finn hit middle school and tapped into a motherlode of confidence and commitment to his craft that has kept him auditioning and performing steadily ever since.

Well… almost!

“In middle school, I did, I really started to hit the ground running,” he said. But then lamented, “We were going to do Frozen, which we never got to do on stage because COVID times hit.”

Finn was part of the following year’s WVMS Drama Club production of SpongeBob, playing Mr. Krabs. Finn, a member of the Class of 2026, has been an active WVHS Drama Club member since his freshman year. He’s played many roles, including Chad in Goldilocks and the Three Pigs and Wayne Hopkins in last year’s production of Puffs.

“I think that’s one of my favorite shows we've done,” Finn nodded. “Wayne is this kid who thinks he's kind of the chosen one, like Harry Potter, but, of course, he's not. But then he kind of goes through this process of realizing he is still important. You know? He's not the chosen one, and that's okay.”

Sariah and Finn both go back on forth on whether they prefer plays or musicals. They both say that characters, and the script or book for each show matter, but the fun of the moment often wins out.

“This year and last year, I love the plays, Radium Girls and Puffs,” Finn said with consideration. “But this spring we’re doing Les Misérables – amazing – and last year we did Legally Blonde. Two very different musicals, both very fun. It really just depends for me.”

Sariah couldn’t agree more. Whatever creative collaboration happens to be going on at the moment, is more often than not counted among her favorites.

“I mean… I just love every show,” Sariah laughed. “Like, right now, I would say plays, too. But once we start Les Mis, yeah, I'm sure I’ll be saying musicals. It definitely depends on what I'm doing.”

Spoiler Alert: Finn will be playing the role of Marius Pontmercy, the protagonist suitor and eventual husband to Cosette. Sariah will be performing two ensemble roles.

Like Sariah, Finn also aspires to a career in performing. And, with a third of his senior year nearly over already, he is increasingly enthusiastic about how his post-grad plans are coming together.

“Oh, that’s, like, definite. I’ve known for a while now that I want to go to school for acting,” he said assuredly. “I already applied to all my schools for acting. Actually, I already found out that I got into my dream school, SCAD – Savannah College of Art and Design! We'll see what happens, but I'm really hoping to go there.”

The Warwick Valley High School Drama Club presents Radium Girls on Friday November 7 at 7:00 pm, and twice on Saturday, November 8 at 1:00 pm and 7:00 pm. You can read all about it, including a full cast listing, here.

Break a leg, Sariah and Finn!