an EST/Sloan First Light Reading
developed with support from BECHDEL PROJECT'S year-long ROO Residency
The Kit: Made by Martha
written by Jeanne Dorsey, directed by Jackson Gay
Developed with support from BECHDEL PROJECT'S year-long ROO Residency, The Kit: Made by Martha, written by Jeanne Dorsey and directed by Jackson Gay, explores the life and work of Martha Goddard, inventor of the first standardized rape kit.
While working a crisis hotline for runaway teenage girls in 1972 Chicago, Goddard ponders the question of how rape could be investigated as a real crime rather than a made-up story. At a time when sexual violence in America was rarely prosecuted, her innovative thinking sets her on a path to create a powerful scientific procedure that could transform criminal forensics and bring justice to countless victims of sexual assault.
Jeanne Dorsey's play deftly weaves Goddard's obsession with crafting miniatures (like those Goddard saw at the Art Institute) and her journey through the gritty world of sex crimes, the Chicago PD, a surprising alliance with Hugh Hefner's Playboy Foundation, and her own rape later in life which she ironically never reported.
May 7, 3pm and May 8, 7pm
This event is free, but reservations are encouraged.
Please note, this satellite event will be at Alchemical Studios.
Jeanne Dorsey is a New York based writer of plays, screenplays, teleplays, and essays. She was awarded a 2023 Marble House Project residency, a 2022 fellowship to Monson Arts in Monson Maine, the inaugural 2022 Room of One’s Own residency with the Bechdel Project, and a 2021 Sloan Commission, all in support of her play The Kit: Made by Martha. Her play A Little Bit of Forever received a 29-hour Equity workshop with the support of New Georges and was nominated by New Georges for the 2019 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Her television pilot “Highest and Best” was a finalist for the Made in NY Writers Room television training program. Her play, Away Towards Home was nominated by George Street Playhouse for the 2016 Susan Smith Blackburn prize. It developed at Ensemble Studio Theatre and was included in the EST 2014 summer workshop series at The Space at Ryder Farm. Her play Footprints in The Snow was a semi-finalist for the 2017 Ashland New Play Festival. It was nominated by EST for the 2010 Susan Smith Blackburn prize and was a semi-finalist for the O’Neill 2009 National Playwrights Conference. She wrote, directed and produced the short film Blood from a Stoner that screened at the Anthology Film Archives in New York and was an official selection in the 2015 Chain Film Festival, the 2014 Big Apple Film Festival, the 2014 FilmColumbia festival in Chatham, New York and the 2014 Hoboken International Film Festival. Blood From a Stoner is based on her play, which was produced by the Ensemble Studio Theatre in the 2009 Marathon of One-Act Plays. Other productions include: The Longbottom Way at The SoHo Playhouse, EST’s March Madness Festival and Apartment A Theatre, Los Angeles; The Soul Savers at Apartment A; Too Small to Drive at The Play Group, NY; Compliments to Amanda (finalist for the Heidemann Award) at Gilgamesh Theatre Group, NY; Stepping Out with Mr. Markham at New Georges. Her essay “Motherhood, Adoption, Ambivalence” is included in No Kidding: Women Writers on Bypassing Parenthood published in April of 2013 by Seal Press. Her monologues have been published by Smith and Krauss, Heinemann Press and Applause Books. She has received fellowships to Fundación Valparaiso in Spain, Ragdale, the Santa Fe Art Institute, Ucross, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She is a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre Playwrights Unit, the Dramatists Guild, Honor Role* and is a New Georges Affiliated Artist.
*HONOR ROLE is an action and advocacy group of women+ playwrights over 40 whose aim is to significantly increase our inclusion and representation on stage and in the theatrical canon.
