Dead Man Walking playwright Tim Robbins directed the critically
acclaimed movie and wrote its screenplay. Both the play and movie are
based on Sister Helen Prejean’s best-selling book of the same name,
where she records her journey as an advisor to a death row prisoner,
taking us through her personal and spiritual evolution into both a
death penalty opponent and victims’ advocate.
Sister Helen
approached Robbins to write the play, explaining that it could be
reproduced endlessly, and everyone involved in performing it, as well
as the audience, would be brought into deeper reflection about the
death penalty. She gave him a New Yorker article about Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, which recounted that the play has been performed one million times and that on each day of the year, somewhere in the world, the play is performed.
Robbins agreed, and enlisted a selected number of schools and
universities across the United States to perform the play, and give him
feedback for an eventual Broadway run. However, reports of the amazing
power of the play to stir discussion in the local communities of the 30
schools where it was performed, convinced Tim to make the play
available to schools and non-profit theatre groups across America.
Thus, the Dead Man Walking School Theater Project was born.
There was one caveat for companies like Pisces Moon: that the play
not be produced for commercial gain, and that we align ourselves with a
school or schools in which at least two academic departments, in
addition to the drama department, provide courses related to the themes
and issues of the play. Art and/or music departments are also
encouraged to sponsor creative projects related to the play. This resulted in
Cabrillo College’s sponsorship and Delta School’s involvement, where
the themes and issues of the play were introduced across the
curricula in the 2007/2008 school year.
Cabrillo College
Cabrillo's division of Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) partnered with Pisces Moon, co-producing the show and collaborating around classes and events. A Wintersession course, TA 85P, Backstage Production, was held at Cabrillo in January 2008 and taught by Skip Epperson, Theatre Arts Program Chair and Dead Man Walking set designer. The course description can be found on page 15 of Cabrillo's Wintersession Schedule of Classes. The class, which was created specifically for Dead Man Walking, was open to students of all ages, including Delta students and Pisces Moon Young Company. The course accommodated the students to successfully mount the production in four weeks. The course production work included all set building, prop building and acquisition, costume construction, lighting and sound design. An evocative display in the theater lobby during the performance run was mounted by Greg Banks, Assistant Director and Jakob Duron, Actor, with the assistance of Tobin Keller, Director of the Cabrillo Gallery, and Rose Sellery, Assistant Director. The display showcased artwork by Delta students, including poster designers Kalli Dequine and David Chavez. Haiku poems, written by Delta students around the issue of the death penalty, were displayed. Karen Williams, a member of the backstage running crew, contributed a pencil drawing related to the theme of the play. Barrios Unidos exhibited the work of artists who are in incarceration, as well as a photographic display of children who have been given life sentences in American prisons without parole.
Sarah Albertson, a Theatre Arts instructor at Cabrillo, as well as an acclaimed actor and director, coordinated all of the outreach efforts with the Cabrillo community.
Discussion forums and presentations before the production and during
the run helped generate further interest in the production and built a greater environment for discourse. On April 19, Cabrillo will host a Social Justice Forum, which will feature actors reenacting a scene from the play.
Delta Charter High School
Delta Charter High School partnered with Pisces Moon in an ongoing collaboration. Part of the Santa Cruz City School District, Delta was founded 13 years ago on the principles of social justice. Delta's principal, Mary Gaukel, and her faculty created thematic
units as part of the school's year-long curricula in Drama, Social Studies, Art,
Science, Math and Literature. Course work has included "Capital Punishment, Growth and Redemption", "The Death Penalty in the United States", "The Pen is Mightier than the Sword: Activism in Writing", "Forensics", which examined the role of forensics in both conviction and exoneration, and "Political Cartooning and Art". Pisces Moon's Artistic Director provided an audition and script analysis class for Delta students, four of whom were cast from open auditions. Delta students also took the Backstage Production course at Cabrillo, building the set, creating signs, making and acquiring props, and working on costumes, make-up and hair.
Mary Gaukel helmed the community outreach aspect of the project, talking about it to church coalitions and business groups and coordinated with Sarah Albertson of the Cabrillo Theatre Arts department to bring it to Cabrillo's second annual Social Justice Forum on April 19.
Audition Technique and Script Analysis Class
As part of the educational component of the project, an after-school class in script analysis and audition technique was
taught by director Susan Myer Silton and offered to Delta High School and Pisces Moon students as well as young people who have
auditioned for or performed with the Pisces Moon Young Company. Students paid a very small stipend, and two were given scholarships.
Susan Myer Silton also taught a class in script analysis and audition technique at Delta School.
