Dead Man Walking, Onstage

Midnight. 2am. These are the times when most executions take place in the United States, times when most Americans are sound asleep, unaware that a man is being strapped down, unaware that a nurse is trying to find a suitable vein, unaware that when the clock strikes a certain time, the final dose of poison will be injected through that vein. Another heart stops beating. Another person executed. Another person killed by the state. The official cause of death that will be recorded on the death certificate? Homicide.  Another homicide recorded while you were asleep, tossing and turning or dreaming.

Sister Helen Prejean, author of the best-selling book Dead Man Walking and acclaimed human rights activist, likes to tell people during her speaking engagements, "Prisons are places of great exile." I couldn't agree more. And if you believe prisons are places of exile, then death chambers — the cold and dreary rooms where people continue to be executed in the United States — are the place of ultimate exile.

Working together with her friend Tim Robbins, who wrote the play version of Dead Man Walking, the pair developed the Dead Man School Theatre Project as a way to bring people into the death chamber. Suddenly the midnight execution occurs at 7pm or 9pm, or whenever the curtain rises for another production of Dead Man Walking on high school and college campuses across the nation. That's the power of the arts, and this project.

The Dead Man Walking School Theatre Project uses an unusual approach to try and change U.S. attitudes toward the death penalty. Instead of directly advocating, for example, the project works to shift national discourse on the death penalty by harnessing the power of theatre arts and the classroom. I've seen that power myself as its national coordinator, and seen how it's affected countless students around the nation.

Since the launch of the Dead Man Walking School Theatre Project in the fall of 2003, more than 180 high schools and colleges across the nation have produced the play, taken academic courses on the death penalty and brought the issue to life on their campuses through art, music and public education events.

And you can, too. To learn more about the Dead Man Walking School Theatre Project, or how your school can join the project, please visit our website at www.dmwplay.org. You can also contact me anytime at playcoordinator@dpdiscourse.org. Together, we can ensure that the death penalty's reality isn't kept in the dark.

Photo Credit: lori_greig