Jeanne Dorsey (Photo courtesy of Cassis Birgit Staudt)
Why were so few rape cases successfully prosecuted in the United States prior to 1970? How was evidence handled then? What changed to enable rape to be investigated as a real crime? Developed with support from the Sloan Foundation and Bechdel Project’s yearlong Room of One’s Own (ROO) Writer’s 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.
THE KID: MADE BY MARTHA is a satellite event in the 2023 EST/Sloan First Light Festival and will have readings at Alchemical Studios on May 7 and 8. The readings are free but reservations are encouraged.
Jeanne Dorsey took time out from preparing for these first readings to answer our questions about her play.
(Interview by Rich Kelley)
Can you tell us the story of how you came to create THE KIT: MADE BY MARTHA?
I’ve been a member of EST for years and friends encouraged me to apply for the Sloan grant. I was always hesitant since I never considered science and technology to be in my wheelhouse. But when I read Pagan Kennedy’s article about Marty Goddard in the New York Times, I immediately thought that it would make a good Sloan play. Goddard’s work transformed criminal forensics, she was overlooked, her story was theatrical, tragic and needed to be told. Most importantly, there are aspects of her story to which I felt a visceral connection.
What kind of research did you do in writing THE KIT?
Marty Goddard in an interview for the Oral History of the Crime Victim Assistance Field Project in 2003. U.S. Department of Justice / Public Domain
I tracked down and interviewed Scott Goddard, Marty’s nephew; Cynthia Gehrie who worked with Marty in the early days, Mary Dreiser who was Marty’s assistant at the Citizens Committee for Victim Assistance (CCVA); and Margaret Pokorny who was the Assistant Director of the Playboy Foundation. I had numerous lengthy Zoom conversations with them. Through Margaret, I was able to connect with Christie Hefner. I found archival interviews with Marty. I went to the Thorne Miniature Rooms at the Chicago Art Institute, I met with Catherine Ott at the Smithsonian and viewed the first standardized rape kit. I spoke with emergency room doctors who have administered rape kits. There’s more to be done.
In your play, the young Marty Goddard seems so focused, so determined, so persuasive, and so effective, why do you think her contribution to the creation of what’s come to be known as the rape kit is so little known?
Because her name wasn’t on it. Back then, it was a given that men often took credit for women’s work. The circumstances were such that the option for her to take ownership simply wasn’t available to her the way it should have been. She was an advocate, a powerful one for sure, but she didn’t have any leverage to push for ownership and she knew that. Her focus was on getting the kit out to the Chicago community and beyond. But because her name wasn’t associated with the kit, she was essentially erased from her own narrative.
Chronologically, you begin Marty’s story with her volunteer work on the phone lines at a crisis center in Chicago helping with teenage runaways. How significant was it that this happened around the time of Roe v. Wade in January 1973?
It was on the heels of the 60s and the height of second wave feminism. Women were organizing, women were speaking out, The Janes were doing their underground abortion work, the traditional 1950s family model was starting to show cracks because women within the model found it stifling and untenable. Women were seeking bodily, emotional and financial autonomy and divorce was happening in record numbers. Amidst all this chaos of change, kids were running away from home. I was one of them. At the same time, Chicago literally had a rape epidemic on its hands, local government was at a loss, women were clamoring for a solution and Marty had one.
Vitrullo Evidence Collection Kit Smithsonian National Museum of American History / Educational Fair Use
When the rape kit was first introduced in Chicago in 1978 it was called the Vitullo Rape Kit and its invention credited to Sgt. Louis Vitullo of the Chicago Police Department crime lab. When and how did Marty’s critical role in the creation of the kit begin to emerge?
Until Pagan Kennedy’s article appeared in the NY Times in 2020 I don’t believe it was widely known. I’d never heard of her. It was known among a small circle of Chicago advocates at the time of its creation that it was Marty’s brainchild.
There are so many surprising turns in Marty’s story. Did she get any flack from the fact that the Playboy Foundation was the only organization willing to fund the production of the first batch of rape kits?
She did. She talks about it in an archival interview that I found. She was defiant, as well she should have been. The fact is, and I state this in the play, the Playboy Foundation, the giving arm of Playboy Inc., funded many progressive causes, including The Janes, and early LGBTQ organizations.
Marty had a hobby of creating these amazingly skillful miniature dollhouse rooms. How did that contribute to her advocacy work?
They were two separate things but I chose to connect them for the purposes of my play. I saw an opportunity to create the character of Little M, the tiny figure who inhabits her miniature rooms. The dialogues with Little M give voice to Marty’s interior life as well as to survivors of sexual assault who, because of being doubted, are made to feel tiny.
Having accomplished so much in her life, what do you think happened to cause Marty’s life to take such a downward turn in her later years?
I think it was a perfect storm of her being a type A personality, single and self-supporting, with, according to her nephew, an undiagnosed bi-polar disorder for which she self-medicated with alcohol. Like many who are drawn to social activism, (and theatre too) she was deeply wounded in childhood. She was driven and had no real sense of her limits and didn’t know how to take care of herself. She had some grandiosity, perhaps a symptom of her bi-polar disorder that led to extremely poor self-care. She alienated people as well, both personally and professionally. That she was never recognized as the creator of the kit made it so that she constantly had to justify herself in connection with her work. Ultimately, I think this conundrum took a huge toll on her psychic wellbeing. Also she was never financially compensated in a way that was commensurate to her work and her accomplishments. Thus, she had no material guardrails in place to offer a foundation from which to battle her demons.
Why this play? Why now?
While the #MeToo movement has created a space in which conversations about sexual assault can finally happen without shame, women’s safety and well-being continue to be disregarded and threatened. The appointment of Bret Kavanaugh to the highest court and the overturning of Roe are proof writ large. This article in this week’s NY Times about E. Jean Carroll’s suit against Trump says it all about how women have been and continue to be treated in rape trials.
What do you want the audience to take away from watching THE KIT?
· We owe a lot to Martha Goddard.
· Our society has a lot of work to do.
· People who advocate for the good/betterment of society should be well compensated.
· Funding for rape prevention needs to be robust and consistent.
· We need to keep the conversation going.
The development of The Kit was supported by the Bechdel Project and its Room of One’s Own Writer’s Residency. Can you tell us more about the Bechdel Project and its sponsorship of your play?
Strip from Dykes to Watch Out For by Allison Bechdel that inspired the Bechdel Test Alison Bechdel / Educational Fair Use
The Bechdel Project is directed by Maria Aparo, Jens Rasmussen, and Lucy Flournoy. It’s a feminist arts incubator that develops stories for stage and screen that pass the Bechdel test. Inspired by Alison Bechdel’s comic The Rule, the story must have 1) at least two women; 2) they must talk to each other; 3) about something besides a man.
For the ROO residency they were seeking to support a playwright working on a play about a woman who was forgotten by history. I applied with THE KIT, heard I was a semi-finalist, then a finalist, had an interview and then a week later, I was standing outside the Smithsonian, having literally just finished viewing the first rape kit when Jens called to tell me that I was offered the residency. It’s been a game-changer. They’ve been so supportive at every step, great listeners, cheerleaders, hand holders, producers, and wonderful friends.
THE KIT: MADE BY MARTHA is one of seven readings of new plays in development as part of the EST/Sloan Project in this year’s First Light Festival, which runs until June 22. All readings are free, but reservations are encouraged.
