LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE
Daria SOmmers
“Women whose experiences have been denied (most were not even allowed to introduce the abuse incidents at trial) and whose voices have been silenced are finally being heard. While they can’t change the circumstances of their own lives, their stories may help change the lives of others caught up in the vicious cycle of domestic abuse.”
Carole Di Tosti
“Doody’s work is impressive in reminding us of the importance of self-hood, empowerment and expression in forestalling even the beginnings of such degenerative relationships which can only end in a network of torment and self-harm.”
Melanie Hooks
“Women sat attentive and engaged, but it was the men who leaned in. Hands holding their chins, elbows on knees, hanging on every detail of how the women became isolated, bullied, terrorized, and finally, desperate enough to fight back in the most final way.”
Nahtori Johnson in Life Without Parole performed by Vanguard University. Photo by Susie Hudson.
Synopsis
Life Without Parole tells the story of Helen Broker, 50s, a woman serving twenty-five years to life for the second-degree murder of her husband. The setting is a room in CIW, where she faces a parole board hearing committee for the first time, and one in which her upbringing, abusive relationship, act of homicide, and the subsequent trial and incarceration are revisited and dramatized. While Helen struggles to communicate her life story to the committee, she is aided in her quest for truth and freedom by the voices of the inmate-led “Convicted Women Against Violence,” a support group whose members share experiences similar to her own. As Helen’s hearing unfolds, the inmates respond with their own life stories, and the play builds towards an answer to its major dramatic question: will Helen finally be granted her freedom, or is it just another day in her life without parole?
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
During my first meeting with Dr. Elizabeth Dermody Leonard, she told me that it was her good friend, Brendan Kennelly, the award-winning Irish poet, who’d suggested that she find a playwright to transform her academic research into drama. This research would soon become her book, Convicted Survivors: The Imprisonment of Battered Women Who Kill. This first meeting was designed to discuss the adaptation of her work for the stage.
Nahtori Johnson and Kevin Lopez and cast and crew in Life Without Parole performed by Vanguard University. Photo by Susie Hudson.
She presented me with her book and a box of materials numbering over one thousand pages of text: the transcribed interviews, Senate Hearing transcripts, Parole Board Hearing transcripts, articles on domestic violence, incarceration, and a wide variety of miscellaneous legal documents. A week later, she took me to the prison, where I met the women at a support group meeting of “Convicted Women Against Abuse,” which would later become a key part of the script.
It took me a year to do the requisite research, (including several more trips to the prison), and an additional six months to write what would prove to be the first producible draft of the many iterations of this play. In doing so, I changed the names of the women involved, created composite characters, and recontextualized the dialogue and research to fit the parameters of the stage.
Amanda Zarr, Maria Mayenzet, Vivian Vanderwerd, Lola Kelly, and Cyntia Moreno, the cast of Life Without Parole at the Edgemar Center for Performing Arts. Photo by Susie Hudson.
The first public reading of Life Without Parole took place at NAU – Northern Arizona University – in the classroom of my friend, Dr. Nancy Wonders, who teaches Criminal Justice. Shortly after that, in March 2003, Life Without Parole was staged for the first time as part of Vanguard University’s Domestic Violence Awareness Seminar. Since then, it has been staged in a wide variety of venues: at battered women’s shelters; at conferences; at universities; in numerous theaters, including Manhattan Repertory, the New York Fringe Festival, and the Edgemar in Los Angeles; and, most importantly, three times at the California Institution for Women at Chino. The play has had a long, successful run, and, through it all, has stayed true to my original three-fold goal: to give voice to the “Convicted Survivors” that Dr. Leonard represents in her work; to give voice to those women who do not live through that last violent assault; and to provide a red flag for those currently faced with the silent epidemic of domestic abuse.
Development History
October 2016 – Produced by American Coast Theater Company, Santa Monica, CA.
October 2015 – Produced by Vanguard University, Costa Mesa, CA.
August 2014 – Produced by Working Artists Theater Project at the New York International Fringe Festival, New York, NY
February 2014 – Produced by Manhattan Repertory Theater, New York, NY.
2011 - Inclusion in “Thespians,” a documentary film Produced by Tiger Lily Media.
October 2009 - Produced by University of California @ Riverside, Riverside, CA.
April 2009 - Produced by Sonoma State University, Sonoma, CA.
February 2009 - Produced by KCACTF (Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival) Region VIII Finalist, California State University at Fullerton, Fullerton, CA.
February 2009 - Produced by Santa Monica College, Santa Monica, CA.
February 2009 - Produced by USC – University of Southern California - Los Angeles, CA.
November 2008 - Produced by National Communications Association Convention, San Diego, CA.
November 2008 - Produced by California State University at Fullerton, Fullerton, CA.
November 2008 - Produced by CIW – California Institute for Women - at Chino, Chino, CA.
October 2008 - Produced by Cal State San Marcos, San Marcos, CA.
October 2008 – Produced by Vanguard University, Costa Mesa, CA.
April 2007 – Produced by Salt Spring Island Community Theatre, Salt Spring Island, British Columbia.
March 2006 – Staged Reading at California Institution for Women at Chino, Chino, CA.
April 2005 - Winner of the Gold Medal Award at Worldfest -Houston Film Festival, Houston, TX.
Feb. 2005 – Staged Reading at Beyond Abuse Conference, Newport Beach, CA.
July 2004 – Staged Reading at Free Battered Women of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.
April 2004 – NPR story. April 2004 – Produced by Theatrikos Theater Company, Flagstaff, Arizona, as part of the theater’s “On Community, Culture and Color” series.
Jan. 2004 – Staged Reading at California Institution for Women at Chino, Chino, CA.
Sept. 2003 – Staged Reading at WISEPlace Event Hall, Santa Ana, CA.
April 2003 – Staged Reading at Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ.
March 2003 – Staged Reading by Vanguard University, Costa Mesa, CA. The reading served as the headliner for VUSC’s Domestic Violence Awareness Seminar.
Feb. 2003 – Staged Reading at Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ.