Deborah Hedwall, Katie Fabel, Shawn Randall, Lou Liberatore, and More Join The Cast Of Jeanne Dorsey's THE KIT: MADE BY MARTHA

Bechdel Project and Ensemble Studio Theatre will present the world premiere reading of Jeanne Dorsey's play, THE KIT: MADE BY MARTHA, directed by Jackson Gay (Transfers by Lucy Thurber - Off-Broadway Alliance Best New Play Award), on May 7th (3pm) and 8th (7pm) in New York City; part of the Alfred P. Sloan 2023 First Light Festival.

The cast will be led by Deborah Hedwall (The Heidi Chronicles, Equus, and Sight Unseen at Manhattan Theatre Club) and Katie Fabel (Hangmen on Broadway, Burial at Thebes at Irish Rep) with support by Desi Domo (Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning A Thousand and One), Janice Amaya (Cartography at the Kennedy Center), Arroyo Monfilletto (Bechdel Project FIFE Fellow and Former Play Penn Haas Fellow), Lou Liberatore (Burn This on Broadway and the West End and Jeanne Dorsey's Blood from A Stoner), Shawn Randall (Between Riverside and Crazy on Broadway and Ensemble Studio Theatre's Behind the Sheet), and Curran Connor (Tommy Smith's Pidgeon at Ensemble Studio Theatre).

Commissioned by the Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science & Technology Project, and developed with support from Bechdel Project's year-long ROO Residency, The Kit: Made by Martha 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 how rape could be investigated as an actual crime rather than a made-up story. At a time when sexual violence in America is 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.

Dorsey's play deftly weaves Goddard's obsession with crafting miniatures (like those Goddard saw at the Chicago 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.

The Kit: Made by Martha is a powerful reminder that even when we are flawed and seemingly unremarkable, we can still change the world.

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