Several years ago, playwright Helen Hill worked with residents of Dignity Village to put on "Filmore Hotel," a play about gentrification. She has now written a new show, "Perfection," about the erstwhile practice of forced sterilization in Oregon. The first performance, on Feb. 15, will be free to patrons of Street Roots, Dignity Village and Sisters of the Road.
A state-mandated eugenics program allowed doctors to forcibly sterilize over 2,000 Oregon residents between 1917 and 1981. The state sterilized criminals, people with mental or physical disabilities, homosexuals, and at least 100 young women at Oregon's school for delinquent girls. In 2001, just before leaving office, Gov. John Kitzhaber issued an official apology for the practice.
"Perfection" will bring that sordid past to the stage. From Hill's description:
"Perfection" is an historical drama told through the memory of Anna May Dobbs, a ninety-year old black woman ... The action unfolds on the set behind her as she recalls her work back in 1934 at a poorhouse hospital where she was committed as a pregnant young woman and subsequently sterilized. The head doctor takes an “interest” in her, and young Anna May stays on, learning to assist the surgeries. After a botched operation kills a healthy young woman, secrets of the Doctor’s past are revealed and Anna must make a choice between loyalty, livelihood, and the ethics of the work they are involved in together.
The play opens Feb. 15, 2 p.m. at the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center, 5340 N Interstate Avenue. It will run through Feb. 28. Regular tickets are $20. For more information or to purchase tickets, see IFCC's website.