Staged reading of verbatim play ‘Broken Covenant’ Thursday
Carthage graduate Leah Gawel ’19, M.M. ’21 and current student Dakota Smith ’27 teamed up this summer to craft a gripping verbatim play that dives deep into the intense experiences of religious trauma.
During her time at Carthage, Ms. Gawel wrote a paper on the effects of religious trauma on vocal production, which won a prestigious research award from the Association for Theatre in Higher Education. With her interest in the intersection between religion and theatre, she enrolled in Harvard University’s prestigious School of Divinity in 2023.
Ms. Gawel decided to tie together her multiple interests and do something different for her Harvard field work requirement: a verbatim play centering on stories of religious trauma. The project is the first known verbatim play to be written at the Divinity School. Having worked on the Carthage 2022 verbatim play “Frontline,” which is about healthcare workers in the pandemic, she knew firsthand how impactful a play drawn from real-life testimony can be.
After reaching out to Professor Martin McClendon and with the help of Dean Corinne Ness, Ms. Gawel was soon able to form a partnership with Carthage for the project. Prof. McClendon proposed a Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) assignment with Dakota to help create the script. As the SURE student collaborator, Dakota shares the same dual focus as Ms. Gawel. Not only is she a theatre major, but Dakota also founded Sacred Wounds, the on-campus group for those who have experienced religious trauma. Dakota was interested to learn and implement the verbatim process.
Over the summer, Ms. Gawel, Dakota, and Prof. McClendon interviewed 18 participants — the most of any verbatim project done at Carthage. Each interview was transcribed, checked for accuracy, and edited for clarity, but the words of the participants were the sole text used to create the script. The interviews were woven together to create a narrative that lends insight into how experiences with religious institutions can affect people in traumatic ways.
“Our participants describe a harrowing but uplifting journey through traumatic experiences into a reconstruction of their identities, and ultimately of finding hope for the future,” according to Prof. McClendon. “It’s difficult material, but the ability of people to overcome great hardships is truly inspirational.”
With summer rapidly drawing to a close, the team is still at work but excited to invite the campus community to a staged reading of the play, “Broken Covenant,” at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 22, in the Studio Theatre (lower level of the Straz building).
The current script contains testimony from 12 of the 18 participants and is still a work in progress. “It’s really important to get audience feedback during the writing process,” Prof. McClendon explains, “so even if the play isn’t technically finished, Leah and Dakota will really benefit from hearing it and gauging audience reactions.”
The cast is made up of Carthage theatre and musical theatre alumni. There is no charge for admission, but seating is limited.
Content advisory: “Broken Covenant” contains mature themes including discussions of depression, anxiety, eating disorders, self-harm, suicide, sexual abuse, child abuse, homophobia, bullying, substance abuse, and relationship violence.
Sponsoring Department, Office, or Organization:
Theatre Department