Justice Takes Center Stage

A Conversation with Stephen Belber and A&S Dean Jennifer Cavenaugh.

This event brings together two artists who have a long history of telling stories on the stage and screen that focus on issues of justice.

What are effective ways to dramatize the story of a sexual assault or a murder? How do theater and film artists balance the need for their story to account for the complexities of specific crimes with the need for their stories to be entertaining for viewers?

Stephen Belber and Jennifer Cavenaugh will discuss the challenges of framing such stories for audiences. This includes researching the specifics of the stories and also their legal and social contexts, crafting three-dimensional characters who are not merely villains or heroes, and constructing captivating dramatic narratives that leave audiences enthralled and anxious to discuss what they have just witnessed.

Stephen Belber is an accomplished playwright, screenwriter, and film director. A graduate of the Playwriting Program at Juilliard, he was one of the writers of The Laramie Project about the death of Matthew Shepard. His other plays include Tape, Match, Fault Lines, Dusk Rings a Bell, Carol Mulroney, and many more. He has had seven screenplays produced as films and has directed three of these films. He also has written for television, including Tommy, Rescue Me, and Law & Order: SVU. He is the creator of the forthcoming series The Madness, premiering November 2024, and serves as executive producer.

Jennifer Cavenaugh is the Dean of the School Arts & Sciences at the University of Richmond with an impressive body of scholarship. Her book, Medea’s Daughters: Forming and Performing Women Who Kill, examines representations of female criminals in plays and television. Dean Cavenaugh is also a long-established artist, having performed and directed in the theater for 30 years, including serving as the director of the production of Stop/Kiss earlier this fall at the Modlin Center for the Arts.

This event is sponsored by the American Studies Program and the School of Arts & Sciences.