San Francisco — A black rag doll. A burgundy choir robe. A bulletproof vest.
Denice Stephenson carefully lifts a few of the remnants of Jonestown from their storage boxes. Much of the detritus of that ill-fated, would-be utopia is kept here, in a vault at the headquarters of the California Historical Society.
A volunteer archivist, Stephenson places several of the hundreds of handwritten letters and photos on a long table. A cursory reading of just a few makes it clear that the 1978 poisoning of 900-plus disciples of the Rev. Jim Jones in a South American jungle was a thoroughly human catastrophe.
Stephenson describes what she feels is an unfortunately common and dismissive attitude toward the deceased of Jonestown -- "They were just crazy cultists." Then, with little prelude, she begins sobbing quietly.
When she regains her composure, Stephenson says she hopes the voices of those who died in Jonestown will be heard through "The People's Temple," a new play that will open April 20 at Berkeley Repertory Theatre.
It isn't just an idle hope on Stephenson's part. The seed for "The People's Temple" was planted at a 2001 performance of "The Laramie Project" at Berkeley Rep, attended by Stephenson and her husband, David Dower, who runs San Francisco's Z Space Studio. They wondered if techniques used to create "Laramie," which examined the community where the murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard took place, could be applied to the story of the People's Temple -- the Jones-intoxicated congregation that left its California home and created Jonestown in Guyana.
The horror of Jonestown hit the headlines in 1978, as Stephenson was working on a student project with Rebecca Moore at American University in Washington, D.C. When her classmate suddenly seemed to disappear without explanation, Stephenson quickly learned that two of Moore's sisters were among Jones' most loyal followers -- and among the dead. Rebecca had been called to her grieving parents' side.
After college, Moore and Stephenson remained in touch. In 2000, Moore recruited Stephenson to assist in the research for a Jonestown documentary on the History Channel. Stephenson began reading the historical society's Jonestown papers, which included oral histories recorded in Jonestown, as well as letters, photos and objects. "I saw how much life there was in the papers," she says. "What a drama! What could be a way to get more of these voices heard?"
