![\"MSS0064_0708303_001copy\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/04\/MSS0064_0708303_001copy-300x238.jpg?resize=473%2C376\" "\\"Photograph")
<\/a>Brennan became a fixture in the Special Collections and Archives reading room for the better part of two weeks. He explored the collection, looking for primary source materials that could be shared with the production\u2019s designers and actors. Brennan relates that the primary sources \u201cinspired and guided all aspects of our design process: Costumes, Props, Scenic, Lighting, and Projections. Our actors have been able to portray their roles with more truth and dimension by reading primary source documents by and about their characters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Special Collections and Archives has worked with high school student actors<\/a> preparing for a Dead Man Walking<\/em> School Theatre Project production, who were moved by their time with materials. We\u2019re pleased to be able to extend this experience to the Piven Theatre Workshop designers and actors as well.<\/p>\n While a selection of materials from the Sr. Helen Prejean papers<\/a> are viewable online in the \u201cIn Deeds and Words: Sr. Helen Prejean\u2019s Ministry Against the Death Penalty<\/a>\u201d exhibit, these are but just a small sampling of the wealth and breadth of materials in the collection. With correspondence, photographs, newspaper clippings, artifacts, posters, and audiovisuals arranged and preserved in 152 boxes, the online exhibit is just a gateway for those with an interest in Sr. Helen and her work. DePaul Special Collections and Archives<\/a> is open to the community and researchers are welcome to visit our reading room to use the Sr. Helen Prejean papers.<\/p>\n If you missed Sr. Helen at this weekend\u2019s Piven Theatre Workshop events, be on the lookout for details about her April 21-26th visit to Chicago.<\/p>\n To learn more about the Sr. Helen Prejean papers<\/a> or social justice collections<\/a> at DePaul, contact Special Collections and Archives at 773-325-7864, or archives@depaul.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When most of us think of lucky breaks, a stage probably comes more readily to mind than non-descript grey archival boxes in closed stacks in a library. But for DePaul Theatre School student Brennan Jones, the materials found in the Sr. Helen Prejean papers \u201cmight have been the luckiest break I’ve ever gotten as a <\/p>\n