Baltimore Opera Company

Study Guide

Dead Man Walking

Perspective on the Role of Sister Helen Prejean

The role of Sister Helen Prejean is an amazing challenge. She and I are very different people, and we've lived very different lives. Any actor would be intrigued by this opportunity, particularly because she is a living person, but the challenge of this project is magnified by the intensity of the material and the strong emotions that the story brings up for all of us.

I had the opportunity to meet Sister Helen the first time I performed the role. Her spirituality is immediately apparent, as is her striking charisma. But she surprised me with her sense of humor and robust laugh, which led me to recognize that she is very much her own person— not a generalized idea of a nun that I might have had.

The composer and librettist have captured these varying qualities of Sister Helen. They show her humor, her vulnerability and also her commitment. From my perspective, this is a story of an educated and privileged young woman who has chosen a religious life, but who has not really found her purpose. She is seeking a way to completely give her life to what she believes in, and in the search she is thrown into an ugly reality she could not have imagined which forces her to question herself deeply.

Jake Heggie has done a remarkable job of portraying the subtleties of Sister Helen's character and her situation in the music he's written. He shows her as down-to-earth, and we experience her in a direct and conversational way, but then he is able to express her intensity, as in her first aria, which has long, soaring lines reminiscent of Richard Strauss. The relationships among the characters are also expressed musically in ways that can be quite challenging. As an example, the lack of communication between Sister Helen and Joe in the early scenes is painted partially through meter changes. The singers have to count like crazy, but the context for these two people is perfectly captured.

One of the most beautiful and complicated musical moments is the Act I quintet sung by the parents of the victims along with Sister Helen. For a long time, I had an extremely difficult time working on this scene. In my real life I am a parent, and I could not separate myself from the emotions the parents were having. I found the scene so painful that I became far too emotional to act the scene appropriately, let alone use my voice to sing.

The heart of the story comes in four separate scenes shared by Sister Helen and Joe. Any connection between the two of them is quite unimaginable at first; it is as though they are speaking different languages. She is naïve; he is jaded. She is open and optimistic; he is close-minded and tough. She is going home to a place called Hope House; he is on Death Row. But he needs her, and, in her own way, she needs him. And so they continue, and the story unfolds. It flows from one vignette to the next. Starting us in the worst possible place and bringing us to a place of heart-wrenching redemption. People think that it is a show about the death penalty, but it is really a show about redemption, and no matter what your political or religious beliefs are, you will be moved by the journey these people take.

Theodora Hanslowe

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