{"id":800,"date":"2014-11-05T19:47:12","date_gmt":"2014-11-05T19:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/?p=800"},"modified":"2015-12-16T18:59:24","modified_gmt":"2015-12-16T18:59:24","slug":"setting-the-stage-original-documents-inspire-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/2014\/11\/05\/setting-the-stage-original-documents-inspire-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"Setting the Stage: Original Documents Inspire Performance"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1982, Sr. Helen Prejean, a member of the Congregation of St. Joseph, began corresponding with a death row inmate, Patrick Sonnier, at Angola (the Louisiana State Penitentiary).\u00a0She became his spiritual adviser and accompanied him to his execution, later writing a non-fiction account of her experience with Pat Sonnier, and with another death row inmate, Robert Lee Willie.\u00a0Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty<\/em> in the United States<\/em> was first published in 1993.<\/p>\n

\"Students\"The students from The Prairie School<\/a> in Racine, Wisconsin, who will perform the stage version of Dead Man Walking<\/a><\/em>\u00a0 November 13-15, 2014, weren\u2019t born when Sister Helen began her ministry, when the book was first published, or when the film version was released 1995 to critical acclaim and wide distribution.\u00a0 But the events and Sr. Helen\u2019s story are fresh in their minds, thanks to the Dead Man Walking School Theatre Project<\/a>. In the past ten years, more than 240 high schools and colleges across the country have produced the play, supporting discourse on the death penalty, and challenging themselves and their communities to engage with the issue through art, music, and public events.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

This October, the students at The Prairie School became the first participants in the School Theatre Project to travel to DePaul\u2019s Special Collections and Archives<\/a> to get deeper into their characters and explore the societal context for Sr. Helen\u2019s work by examining selected items from the Sr. Helen Prejean papers<\/a>.\u00a0Seven members of the cast examined correspondence, articles, and photographs saved by Sr. Helen as well as movie artifacts, posters and set designs from previous productions of Dead Man Walking<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Students\"Drama Teacher\/Theatre Director Rebecca Greasby invited her students to share one or two items that most affected them, or that they thought their fellow students should see.\u00a0 The items selected ranged from official, formal correspondence (such as from Sr. Helen and Tim Robbins to the Vatican), moving personal correspondence between Sr. Helen and Pat Sonnier and between brothers Pat and Eddie Sonnier, and hate mail to Sr. Helen sent both anonymously and on official letterhead.\u00a0Several students mentioned photographs of inmates, and of Pat Sonnier\u2019s daughter.<\/p>\n

One of many letters sent anonymously to Sr. Helen by \u201cGuess Who?\u201d from 1989 to 1996.<\/p>\n

\"Guess
One of many letters sent anonymously to Sr. Helen by \u201cGuess Who?\u201d from 1989 to 1996.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Students\u2019 comments showed that this \u201cfield trip\u201d would have a lasting impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty cool to hold the actual letter that Helen wrote.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt so authentic and valuable\u2026I felt very, very lucky.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI will take everything to heart and incorporate it into my character and my interactions with other characters.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cI will never forget this experience.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBeing able to actually touch someone\u2019s writing and clothing makes me connect with them on another level.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

A selection of materials are viewable online in the \u201cIn Deeds and Words: Sr. Helen Prejean’s Ministry Against the Death Penalty<\/a>\u201d exhibit.<\/p>\n

To learn more about Sr. Helen Prejean\u2019s papers <\/a>, faculty or student research opportunities, or class instruction sessions, contact\u00a0Special Collections and Archives<\/a> at archives@depaul.edu<\/a> or stop by our department in the John T. Richardson Library, room 314.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1982, Sr. Helen Prejean, a member of the Congregation of St. Joseph, began corresponding with a death row inmate, Patrick Sonnier, at Angola (the Louisiana State Penitentiary).\u00a0She became his spiritual adviser and accompanied him to his execution, later writing a non-fiction account of her experience with Pat Sonnier, and with another death row inmate, <\/p>\n

continue reading<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-special-collections-and-archives"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8GMS7-cU","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2402,"href":"https:\/\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800\/revisions\/2402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}