Life-Defining Moments: My introduction to "Dead Man Walking"

Several years ago, when I was in college, I had one of those life-defining moments...an “aha” moment followed by a change in my life practices.

My “aha” moment started when I watched the movie, Dead Man Walking in the living room of my college apartment. At the time, I was living in a pretty “shady” area of town. (It was the type of place where any mother would worry for her daughter’s safety, and any naive penny-pinching college student would blow it off as over-protective parenting.) Next door to me at that apartment was a man who would come and go often but seemed to be connected to no one. My 34-year old self would probably just write him off as a drifter unsafe and unfit for society. My then-21 self did the same...until I watched Dead Man Walking, and was challenged by the idea that all people deserve grace.

Grace was not a concept unfamiliar to me. I had grown up in a church from the time I was born, and my parents had taught us the meaning of grace throughout childhood. But for some reason, the concept hit me in its fullest when I made the connection between what Sister Helen did for Matthew Poncelet, and what I needed to do for my neighbor. Now, the obvious disclaimer to my high school students is this: Grace does not mean that we should disregard safety. And I didn’t. But my opportunities with this man, in the shadow of the powerful lessons I learned while watching Dead Man Walking, truly changed my life...and as he eventually shared, it also changed his. I won’t go into the entire story in this blog, but one powerful statement he made that still stands out in my mind is this: “When my girls grow up I want them to be just like you.”

I tell you this story to share not only how Dead Man Walking initially came into my life and changed it, but also to share how it came back into my life and changed it. Because of its impact all those years ago, I’ve been waiting for years for a play to be made of the story. Thank goodness (or Tim Robbins) that it finally did. And I’m proud to be the chief storyteller as I direct my students in the re-telling of this powerful story.

My hope is that audience members find it as moving as I did, and that we will all walk away changed...perhaps not in the same way I was, but at the very least challenged in our beliefs.

And so I invite each of you to the show. Performance dates are May 6-8, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. each night. On opening night after the show, a panel of experts (including an exonerated prisoner and a murdered victim’s family member) will be sharing their stories. Come see what grace looks like from many angles during this one-time talk-back event.

For more information on the Dead Man Walking Play project (a national endeavor), visit www.dmwplay.org. To get involved in the discussion, join the Ning social discussion group at www.dmwplay.ning.com.