Helen Prejean inmates on Death Row and witnessed several more executions. She served as National Chairperson of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty from 1993 to 1995. She published "Dead Man Walking" (1993), an account of her relationship with Sonnier and other inmates on death row, and the factors related to her growing opposition to the death penalty. The book was adapted for a 1995 feature film of the same name; she was portrayed by Susan Sarandon. Her book was also adapted as an opera, first produced in 2000; and as a play. For her book, she drew from her
Helen of Sparta (play) Helen of Sparta (play) Helen of Sparta is a tragicomic play by Jacob M. Appel. It premiered at the Venus Theatre in Laurel, Maryland on January 23, 2009. The play starred Julia Heynen as Helen, D. Grant Cloyd as Paris, Phil Amico as Protesilaus, Mary Burke-Hueffmeier as Laodamia and Ellie Nicoll as Oenone. Critic Ted Ying singled out Heynen's performance as a "forceful personification of the face that launched a thousand ships" and praised her as "beautiful, confident, [and] charismatic." The play retells the story of the Trojan War from Helen's point of view. Paris kidnaps Helen from Sparta and