Famous Story to Hit Wisconsin Avenue before
Broadway
Released: Nov.
3, 2004
Marquette University is honored to be selected to present Dead
Man Walking, a play that chronicles the journeys of individuals
struggling with the issue of the death penalty.
The play is based on a book of the same title by Sister Helen
Prejean, CSJ, a writer, lecturer and activist. In 1982, she became
the spiritual adviser to Patrick Sonnier, sentenced to die in
the electric chair of Louisiana 's Angola State Prison for the
murder of two teenagers. In the process, she came to know Sonnier
as well as the families of the victims and the prison staff.
Jesuit Schools Chosen
Marquette is one of several Catholic, Jesuit high schools, colleges
and universities that will be performing the play during the academic
year. Tim Robbins, the actor, producer and director who wrote
the play and earlier had made a film adaptation, decided to delay
professional production for a year in order for students to perform
it first.
"Tim has chosen Jesuit schools for the play because he has
regard for the way Jesuit schools emphasize social justice as
integral to Catholicism,” Sister Prejean says. “The death penalty
is one of the key moral issues of our day and what better way
to probe its meaning than to have living drama on stage and in
the classroom.”
The Play
"The play is many things on many levels,” says Rev. George
Drance, S.J., an artist-in-residence at Fordham University in
New York who is directing the play at Marquette. “It
is a piece about the inconsistency of capital punishment with
other issues of life within the social teachings of the Catholic
Church. It's a courageous challenge to a system that ignores the
social complexity of something like capital punishment and doesn't
see that it is inconsistent with the Gospel. But it's also a story
of someone who has committed to a vocation again and again no
matter how difficult the circumstances become, so that it's basically
one person's yes to God over and over again.”
The play itself is already challenging the cast and crew. Sarah
Winiarski, a junior at Marquette, has been cast as Sister Prejean.
“There is a lot of inner conflict going on because she definitely
wants to help this man on death row,” she says. "But at the
same time, a lot of the victims' families are getting upset with
her because they feel like she is neglecting what they are going
through. There is a lot going on inside her: ‘Am I doing the right
thing? What is the right thing?' And she's struggling with herself
to find out.”
Working on the play is providing students with new perspectives.
“I'm in a course right now on the history of crime and punishment
and I'm amazed how little things have changed,” says Michael Miro,
a junior at Marquette. He has been cast in the role of Matt Poncelet,
a dramatization of the inmates Sister Prejean met. "There's
a reference in the play to the fact that there is nobody on death
row who has money. And that was true even in the 16th, 17th or
18th century. The inequality before the law and the fact it still
exists and people are dying because of it really struck me.”
Supporting Curriculum
In addition to the play, Robbins and Sister Prejean are encouraging
discussion about the issue of the death penalty on campus. The
work itself integrates issues of social justice, religion, politics,
economics and personal and social concerns that give foundation
to that discussion.
"One of our goals is to develop a cadre of young leaders
for our world who are prepared to make good decisions,” says Dr.
Susan Mountin, director of the Manresa Project, which is co-sponsoring
the events. “When you think about what it means to live a life
that is engaged in justice activities and caring for the human
dignity of every human being, it means not being judgmental. Is
it ever moral to kill another human being? Is it ever ethical?
How we look at those questions shape ourselves as leaders.”
The discussion the play will prompt is perfect for Marquette,
says Phylis Ravel, artistic director and chair of the Department
of Performing Arts. “The arts are not separate from the university,
the arts are an integral part of it,” she says. “Part of our mission
is to select plays that are teaching discernment, responsibility
in this world, and what it means to be a person of faith. When
we then choose a play that feeds so many areas and disciplines,
we really feel we're part of the Marquette mission.”
Dead Man Walking is being performed by the Department
of Performing Arts from Nov. 11 to 21 as the second production
of the 30th anniversary season of the Helfaer Theatre. Call (414)
288-7504 or visit www.marquette.edu/theatre for information.
