Fool for Christ: The Story of Dorothy Day, with actress Sarah Melici

by Rosalie Riegle

Fool for Christ premiered at Maryhouse in New York in February of 1998.

When Dan Berrigan saw the play for the first time, he wrote, "Fool for Christ is worthy of the original Dorothy.”

In this one-woman drama, Melici masterfully plays Dorothy as well as eleven other characters important to her life, including Forster Batterham, the father of her daughter. As a costume, she wears a simple replica of the prison uniform from Dorothy’s last arrest, when she was jailed with the farm workers in Delano, California, supporting Cesar Chavez and the United Farmworkers union campaign.

Sarah Melici toured the country with this wonderful play about Dorothy’s life, performing at colleges and parishes and Catholic Worker houses, sometimes being called back for repeat performances.  Our Catholic Worker house in Saginaw, Michigan brought her both to Saginaw Valley State University and to the Diocesan Center, and she stayed at our house, where the guests all loved her.

Sarah Melici

Unfortunately, Sarah is unable to tour with the play at the moment, but we are blessed that a beautiful video of her play is available.  So even if you can't bring Sarah in person to your community, you can still bring this professionally done performance (not just a taping of the play but a video Sarah commissioned).   

If you buy the DVD, you can view it as a community, show it to explain Dorothy to your parish and your friends, even use it as a fund-raiser as many houses did with the original play.

As Dan Berrigan says, "In this monologue--passionate, funny, and heartfelt--Dorothy Day lives!" 

To order, click on http://foolforchrist.com/dvd.html.  Mention Catholic Worker On-line Journal and take a 20% discount when you buy two or more DVDs.