- On Stage
- The Cast
- The Creative Team
- Director's Note
- Source Material
1978. Jonestown, Guyana. An interracial religious group, led by their charismatic leader Jim Jones, flee America to the remote jungles of South America to build a utopian community. From the creators of The Laramie Project come this uplifting and mesmerizing production combining actual interviews with survivors and family members and live gospel music to tell the untold stories of a community that dreamed of a better life, and its shocking demise. One of the largest Ensemble projects in American Theater Company history, The People’s Temple will premiere new material from recent interviews for the 30th Anniversary of Jonestown.
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Leigh Fondakowski (Director and Playwright) was the Head Writer of The Laramie Project and has been a member of Tectonic Theatre Project since 1995. She is an Emmy nominated co-screenwriter for the adaptation of The Laramie Project for HBO. Her latest work, The People’s Temple, has been performed under her direction at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Perseverance Theater, and The Guthrie Theater, and received the Glickman Award for Best New Play in the Bay Area in 2005. Another original play, I Think I Like Girls, premiered at Encore Theater in San Francisco under her direction and was voted one of the top 10 plays of 2002 by The Advocate. Other directing credits include: 3 Seconds in the Key by Deb Margolin (San Francisco Playhouse), The Laramie Project (Berkeley Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Perseverance Theatre), La Voix Humaine by Jean Cocteau (Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh), Agatha by Marguerite Duras (French Alliance, New York), Gwen John adapted from the novel by Jane Warrick (HERE, New York), and workshops of new plays by Jeff Baron, Colman Domingo, Laura Eason and Paul Oakley Stovall. Leigh is a 2007 recipient of the NEA/TCG Theatre Residency Program for Playwrights and is developing a play about 19th century actress Charlotte Cushman with About Face Theatre and Tectonic Theater Project. She teaches in the Masters in Contemporary Performance program at Naropa University.
Greg Pierotti (Head Writer) spent over three years collaborating with Leigh Fondakowski on The People’s Temple both as head writer and as an actor. He appeared in the world premiere at Berkeley Rep in the roles of Dick Tropp, Verne Gosney and others. He also developed and performed the play at Perseverance Theatre. He was an associate writer on both the play and the teleplay The Laramie Project. He and his collaborators were nominated for a NY Drama Desk Award for the play. The teleplay, produced by HBO, received an Emmy nomination.
Stephen Wangh (Collaborating Writer) is a playwright, director, and teacher of acting. He is the author of 15 plays including Exit Interview and That New Play, both featured in the 2007 HotInk festival of new plays. He was Associate Writer for The Laramie Project (Emmy nomination 2002) and dramaturg for Moisés Kaufman’s Gross Indecency, the three trials of Oscar Wilde. His book, An Acrobat of the Heart:, a physical approach to acting inspired by the work of Jerzy Grotowski, was published by Vintage Books in September 2000. His latest play is Stay the Course: A Western Musical. His address on the web is: homepages.nyu.edu/~sw1/. He is currently Visiting Faculty in the MFA Theatre program in Contemporary Performance at Naropa University:
http://www.naropa.edu/academics/graduate/maperformarts/index.cfm.
Margo Hall (Collaborating Writer) is an award winning actor/director/playwright. She most recently co-directed Bulrusher with Ellen Chang, a new play by Eisa Davis, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Margo most recently received rave reviews in Jessica Hagedorn’s Fe’ in the Desert as the title character Fe’. She has performed for Arena Stage, Olney Theater, and Source Theater, in Washington D.C., the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, American Conservatory Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theater, Magic Theater, Brava! For Women in the Arts, and Word for Word. She is founding member of Campo Santo, a resident theater company at Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco, which celebrated 11 years in 2007, is a theater company dedicated to producing new plays by people of color. Her acting credits for Campo Santo include the world premiere of Naomi Iizuka’s Hamlet: Blood in the Brain, Stairway to Heaven, by Jessica Hagedorn, 17 Reasons (Why), a world premiere by Naomi Iizuka, floating weeds, a world premiere by Philip Gotanda, References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot, by Jose Rivera, Bethlehem by Octavio Solis, Polaroid Stories, by Naomi Iizuka, and Hurricane, by Erin Cressida Wilson. She has toured France with Word For Word as Missie May in The Gilded Six-Bits by Zora Neale Hurston, Oceola in The Blues I’m Playing by Langston Hughes and directed Alice Munro’s Friend of My Youth.
Margo received her MFA from Catholic University in Washington D.C., and in her spare time enjoys teaching theatre at Chabot College and the Alternative Theater Institute at Intersection for the Arts. She is most proud of her biggest role of being Mom to her 12-year-old son Brandon.
Kelli Simpkins (Dramaturg) began working with Leigh Fondakowski in 1998 on I Think I Like Girls. A member of the NYC based Tectonic Theatre Project, Kelli is one of the original creators and performers of The Laramie Project (Off-Broadway, Denver Center, Berkeley Rep., LaJolla Playhouse). She began work on The People’s Temple as actor and dramaturg in 2002, performing at Berkeley Rep., Perseverance Theatre and The Guthrie. Her current projects include the development of Casa Cushman with Fondakowski (Tectonic/About Face) and directing Mercury 13 with Rivendell Theatre. Recent acting credits in Chicago: Fair Use (First Look/Steppenwolf), Good Boys and True (world premiere at Steppenwolf), Execution of Justice (About Face) and One Arm (Steppenwolf). FILM/TV Credits: A League of Their Own, Chasing Amy, Law & Order: C.I., and HBO’s The Laramie Project (Emmy nomination: Ensemble Writing). Kelli is thrilled to be cast in the upcoming world premiere of Celebrity Row at ATC.
Denice Stephenson (Project Researcher and Archivist) is a special project archivist for the Peoples Temple Collection at the California Historical Society in San Francisco. She has provided assistance to researchers for family, scholarly and media projects related to Jonestown and Peoples Temple since 2000. She edited Dear People: Remembering Jonestown, a book based on papers and photographs from the collection and served as the archivist and researcher for Leigh Fondakowski’s play, The People’s Temple.
California Historical Society, founded in 1871 in San Francisco, is the chief repository of documents, publications, and photographs related to Peoples Temple and events that surrounded the 1978 tragedy in Jonestown, Guyana. These materials, known collectively as the Peoples Temple Collection, include organizational and personal papers, legal documents, financial records, audiotapes and photographs. Mary Morganti, Director of Library & Archives at CHS, facilitated access and research support during the three and half years of the play’s development process by the writers, actors, and designers. The Peoples Temple Collection at CHS is featured in the PBS documentary about the making of the play, Let All the Stories be Told.
Amy Robinson-Gerace (Music Director) Amy is delighted to be working together again with ATC. Previous music directing credits at ATC include Speech & Debate and the remount of Oklahoma this summer. Amy hails originally from Scottsdale, Arizona and has performed with the Canterbury Choral Society, the Grammy nominated Phoenix Bach Choir in performance with the Boston Pops Orchestra (under the direction of Keith Lockhart), the Grammy award winning Washington Chorus, and the National Symphony Orchestra (resident to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts under the direction of Leonard Slatkin). She has toured extensively through the western United States and the People’s Republic of China. However, her most challenging and rewarding work has been at her posts as music theater director for a performing arts high school, as a high school choral conductor, and as music director for the University of Alaska Anchorage Theater for Young People. Amy would like to extend many thanks to the cast and production team of The People’s Temple as well as to her amazing husband Jason for his undying love and support.
Kevin O’Donnell (Composer/Sound Design) is pleased to be back at ATC, after composing music for "Orpheus Descending" (After Dark Award, design). As a composer/sound designer Kevin has been nominated for 12 Jeff Awards; received 4 (all for his work with The House Theatre of Chicago, with whom he is a company member). He has twice received "Outstanding Season" After Dark Awards, and twice been nominated by the Chicago Music and Dance Alliance (outstanding achievement). He has worked with Steppenwolf, Northlight, Lookingglass; In New York his work has been heard at 59E59, St. Anne's Warehouse, and with the Mirror Rep.; regionally he has worked in Montreal, Houston, Miami, and Los Angeles. As a musician he has worked with Andrew Bird, Jon Rauhouse, Nickel Creek, Roger Eno, Plumbline, Dive Index, and many others.
Christine Pascual (Costume Designer) is pleased to be working with Leigh and American Theater Company on The Peoples Temple. Recently she has designed Fast Forward at About Face Theatre, Relatively Close at Victory Gardens Theater, The First Breeze of Summer at the Court Theatre, Black Nativity, Talented Tenth and Elmina's Kitchen for Congo Square, Our Enemies at Silk Road Theatre, Defiance at Next Theatre, Joe Turner's Come and Gone at Centerstage, Baltimore and Fiction at Remy Bumppo Theatre. Other theaters include Pegasus Players, Teatro Vista, Goodman, Steppenwolf, A Red Orchid Theatre, Apple Tree Theatre, Defiant Theatre. She is an artistic associate of Teatro Vista and was a member of Defiant Theatre. She is a member of USA Local 829. To see example of her work go to www.ChristinePascual.com.
Betsy Adams (Lighting Designer) designed The People’s Temple for Berkeley Rep, Perseverance Theater and the Guthrie Theater. She also designed Leigh Fondakowski’s production, I Think I Like Girls, in NYC. Recent credits include the critically acclaimed Around The World in 80 Days at the Irish Rep in NYC and Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. She has designed many world premieres including The Laramie Project, Denver Center Theatre (also NYC, Berkeley, La Jolla, Perseverance, and Laramie, Wyoming) and Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, NYC (also London, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto and Plymouth, England). Additional designs include productions of Ain't Misbehavin' (Paper Mill Playhouse, Arena Stage, Baltimore Center Stage), Smokey Joe's Café, Murderers, The Honky Tonk Angels, God’s Man in Texas, Spunk, A Brief History of White Music, Private Lives, All in the Timing, A Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th St. Her company, Blue Hill Design, provides lighting design, consultation and production services for corporate events and theatre worldwide. Recent projects include the James Beard Foundation Awards at Avery Fisher Hall in NYC.
Sarah Lambert (Scenic Designer/Dramaturg) is based in NYC, and her designs include: The People’s Temple (The Guthrie, Berkeley Rep & Perseverance), Gross Indecency (NYC, London West End, Toronto, LA, & San Francisco), Spectators at an Event (BAM’s Next Wave Festival & tour), Fly (Lincoln Center Institute & tour), numerous regional productions at Seattle Rep, George Street Playhouse, Crossroads, PlayMakers’ Rep, Barrington Stage, Yale Rep, and Penguin Rep, and numerous small theaters in NYC. She is Artistic Associate with Theater of Necessity (Mephisto and Stunt Man) and resident designer for the National Asian-American Theatre Co. (including Ivanov, Air Raid, Fuenteovejuna, The House of Bernarda Alba, Othello, Falsettoland, Long Day's Journey into Night, and The Cherry Orchard.) As a dramaturg, she has worked most notably on The Laramie Project (NYC, Denver, & HBO), more recently on Playing Alexina (Theater of Necessity), and she is currently collaborating with Leigh Fondakowski on Casa Cushman and Gerda’s Lieutenant, as well continuing to develop The People’s Temple. She has a BA from Cornell and a MFA from Yale and will be teaching and designing at Cornell for academic year ’08-‘09.
Bobby Richards (Projections) Bobby is thrilled to be back at the American Theater Company. You might have spotted his work as co-designer of projection media for ATC’s Speech and Debate last April. Bobby’s recent onstage credits include last year’s comedy, War, with the Seanachai Theatre Company. He also co-directed and was featured in Welcome to the Moon, a production of one act plays produced by Strangeloop Theatre Company where he is also an ensemble member and co-founder. Bobby is a graduate of Ball State University’s Department of Theatre & Dance and holds a BA in theatre and digital media. Special thanks go to his parents, sister, grandma, Leigh, cast and crew, Dustin, and Kaitlin.
On November 18, 1978, nine hundred and eighteen Americans died in a remote jungle in Guyana, South America: one was a United States Congressman – the only member of Congress in U.S. history to be killed in the line of duty— three were journalists, and nine hundred and fourteen were residents of the Peoples Temple agricultural mission known as Jonestown.
More than eighty members of Peoples Temple who were living in Guyana survived that day. Hundreds of members living in San Francisco and Los Angeles, California also survived.
The People’s Temple is created from verbatim interviews with those survivors as well as hundreds of archival documents housed at the California Historical Society in San Francisco, CA.
The People’s Temple was written through a unique collaboration made possible by Z Space Studio in San Francisco. In 2001, David Dower, Artistic Director of Z Space, commissioned me to write a play to mark the 25th Anniversary of Jonestown. I enlisted a team of writers to work with me: Greg Pierotti as my main collaborator and head writer, along with Stephen Wangh and Margo Hall.
During the three-and-a-half-year long development of the play, members of the writing team and I traveled the country interviewing former members of Peoples Temple, relatives of those who died in Jonestown, journalists, scholars, public officials, attorneys, and community activists.
After transcribing and editing hundreds of hours of these interviews, we conducted several workshops in which the members of the writing team and the acting company developed the material. It was during these workshops that Kelli Simpkins began to work with the writing team as dramaturg and performer and Sarah Lambert as dramaturg and set designer. Meanwhile, Denice Stephenson, whose work in the Peoples Temple Collection at the California Historical Society began a few months ahead of our process, became the play’s researcher/archivist. As she processed the enormous collection at CHS, she contributed many compelling documents to our body of material and was an essential part of our team.
To create The People’s Temple, my collaborators and I spent many months talking with survivors. As they told us their stories, decades of rich and complicated history emerged: a history of profound injustice in America and of the movement toward racial equality and social economic justice. In the case of Jonestown and Peoples Temple, this history has all but been eclipsed by the images of the bodies lying face down in the jungle, and the catch phrase, “drink the Kool-Aid.” We began to wonder: how did this complicated piece of American history become reduced to this?
In the fall of 2004, Z Space Studio and I approached the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Berkeley California with our unfinished play. Tony Taccone, the Artistic Director and Susan Medak the Managing Director of the Berkeley Rep, recognized the importance of premiering this work in the Bay Area where many of its events actually took place. In the spring of 2005, The People’s Temple had its World Premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in a co-production with Z Space Studio.
Perseverance Theatre in Juneau, Alaska, PJ Paparelli, Artistic Director, Jeffrey Hermann, Managing Director provided additional space for our play development process.
We are most grateful to the survivor community for opening their hearts and minds to us. Without their contribution, trust, and continued support, this play would not have been possible.
Leigh Fondakowski, playwright
The California Historical Society in San Francisco holds the official records of Peoples Temple as well as individual collections of documents, personal papers, and photographs. While working in the collection, we reviewed legal documents, correspondence, memos, financial and membership records, government documents, news clippings, and thousands of photographs of Peoples Temple members in the U.S. and in Jonestown. Among the many papers were oral histories of Jonestown residents and manuscripts about the history of Peoples Temple that Richard Tropp and other Temple members were assembling in Jonestown in 1978.
We also listened to audiotapes of church services, media broadcasts, meetings in Jonestown, and communications between the U.S. and Guyana that Temple members recorded. Hundreds of these audiotapes, often referred to as the “FBI tapes,” and more than 36,000 pages of Peoples Temple papers were collected in the immediate aftermath of the Jonestown tragedy and turned over to the FBI for its investigation of the death of Congressman Leo J. Ryan. These materials were eventually released to researchers under the Freedom of Information Act. We received copies and transcripts of these audiotapes from the Jonestown Institute in San Diego.
The people we interviewed also shared personal papers, photographs, film footage, and books with us. These shared materials along with the interviews and archival documents became the source material for the play.