Why I'M Raising $4,000 for My Fringe Play Altarcations

Steve Julian
April 18, 2012

http://stevejulian.com/2012/04/18/why-im-raising-4000-for-my-fringe-play-altarcations/


I attended an all boys' Catholic high school in the mid 1970s, but never was sexually abused by a priest. Not even approached. Nor did anything bad happen to me at the Lutheran parochial schools I attended from K-8 although, looking back, I find it peculiar we boys, and our two pastors, swam naked at the Y for two years.

In early 2011 I learned that my high school principal, a Catholic priest, had admitted in the mid 1990s to a sexual relationship with an underage female student of his a decade before I knew him. This news appeared online, created a hubbub among the Facebook group of '76 grads, and triggered my play Altarcations.

I began writing it over a year ago. It has been through several iterations and even more working titles. Thanks to information I obtained through SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, and the smart people in the Ensemble Studio Theatre's Playwrights Unit in Atwater Village, it is now presentable. And I believe it's an important story to tell – stories, actually.

When I was a police officer in the 1980s, a new spousal abuse law took effect and, because of my keen interest in it, I was tasked with writing the department's policy on handling domestic violence matters. It changed how cops dealt with victims and the people who beat them.

Some colleagues saw me as more 'soft on victims' than 'hard on suspects' but I think it's something else: I don't like injustice. It's why I became a cop and it's why I wrote this play. It's why I arrested a guy for throwing his son's rat into the street.

Altarcations isn't preachy or gratuitous. It raises questions. I hope it inspires discussion.

A bishop. A priest. A woman. A boy. Who winds up with the power?

I need to raise about $4,000 to produce the show during the Hollywood Fringe Festival (June 8-24. Fridays at 5p; Sundays at 4p at the Actors' Circle Theatre 7313 Santa Monica Blvd).

If this is an effort you can get behind, please make a tax deductible contribution toward it. It's sponsored by the Pasadena Art Council's EMERGE program, so every dollar you contribute falls under the PAC's 501(C)(3) status.

The cast includes Travis Michael Holder, Robert Keasler and Dylan Jones – full casting will be announced soon.

Thank you, thank you.

Steve