The Kitchen Theatre is preparing to stage ‘The Turnaway Play’ from May 8 to May 19, a theatrical production inspired by the groundbreaking ‘Turnaway Study,’ which delves into the divergent trajectories of women’s lives post-abortion compared to those who carry unwanted pregnancies to term.
The play is penned by Ithaca playwright, sound designer, composer and video editor Lesley Lisa Greene and directed by Rachel Lampert, the Kitchen Theatre’s producing artistic director. The artistic duo contributes a significant amount of collaborative experience to this new production.
“Leslie and I just have a really easy shorthand between the two of us,” Lampert said. “We have managed to make some really interesting things together, and I am really pleased that as an artist, she’s developed in so many different ways. [This play] is just one more step along the way.”
The influential Turnaway Study, conducted by the University of California, San Francisco’s Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health team under the leadership of Diana Greene Foster, a professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at UCSF and Greene’s sister, serves as the backdrop for the play’s narrative.
In an interview with The Sun, Foster explained her inspirations and process for the Turnaway Study.
“I had been in medical school as a statistician,” Foster said. “One day, one of the doctors said to me that she wondered what happens to the people that they turn away from the abortion clinic. That was a lightbulb for me.”
The Turnaway study examined three groups of women — those turned away from clinics just above the gestational limit, those who received late abortions just below the limit and those who received more typical first-trimester abortions. Over the span of 5 years, nearly 1,000 women from 30 high gestational limit clinics were followed through telephonic interviews every six months. At its core, the study sought to unravel the impact of being denied an abortion on women’s mental, physical and socioeconomic well-being.
“People who are denied abortions are more likely to end up in poverty and less able to take care of their existing children,” Foster said. “We asked people what their plans were for the future, and people set less aspirational plans if they knew they were going to have to carry an unwanted pregnancy.”
The study, concluded in 2016, also highlighted the difficulties faced by children born from unwanted pregnancies, including weakened maternal bonds and financial struggles. The study also found that many mothers who were turned away from abortion clinics had to maintain contact with abusive partners, further exacerbating their difficulties.
Foster, the real-life sister of playwright Lesley Greene, initiated the collaboration, seeking to translate the study’s findings into a theatrical experience accessible to the public.
“When [The Turnaway Study] was about to come out in 2019, I asked my sister if she could go through the book and pull quotes from women in the study that I could read … when I went on my book tour,” Foster said. “But there was no book tour because it was 2020 when the book came out. So I stayed in my pajama bottoms instead. But Lesley went on and developed the book into a play.”
The theatrical stage adaptation adds a new layer to Foster’s effort to shed light on women’s stories and communicate these narratives to diverse audiences.
“I think [The Turnaway Play] will reach a lot of different people. Not everybody is going to pick up a book that’s based on a scientific study,” Greene said. “That’s a pretty small percentage of the population. And maybe it’s a pretty small percentage of the population [that] will walk into a theater and see a play, but it’s at least a different part of the population.”
The play unfolds in multiple narrative threads, weaving together fictional characters with the real-life stories extracted from the pages of the Turnaway Study. This dynamic tapestry of storytelling serves to bridge the gap between academic research and lived experiences, offering audiences a multifaceted exploration of the complex issues surrounding abortion access and its societal implications.
“The play has two main parts, or maybe you would say three,” Greene said. “One part of the play consists of three fictional characters who are working for the study. These people are working together and having a really fun dynamic in the office, and then something happens. The other major part is the Dr. Foster character talking to a college class and introducing real women from the study.”
According to Dr. Foster, the play also makes a reference to the pivotal Supreme Court case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in 2022, which overturned the ruling of Roe v. Wade, which protected access to abortion nationwide. Dobbs v. Jackson shifted the authority to regulate abortion from the federal level back to state governments.
“[Lesley Greene] has a character that’s Dr. Foster, who’s delivering a lecture about the turnaway study on June 24, 2022, the day of the Dobbs decision,” Foster said. “So she’s trying to give a talk and showing slides but from her notifications, you see that Roe is overturned.”
In discussing ‘The Turnaway Play,’ Greene highlighted the crucial role humor plays in navigating the delicate balance between engaging storytelling and the weighty themes explored in the production.
“I don’t want to see anything that doesn’t have some humor in it — I certainly would not want to create something that didn’t” Greene said. “We tell real women’s stories, and they are not always just roses and sunshine. But also, [the play is] about science, about people’s lives — the good and bad. It is definitely not just about terrible things happening to people.”
Lampert also acknowledged Greene’s dedication to balancing humor with serious subject matter.
“She has created some pretty interesting characters — I appreciate her dedication to keep a sense of humor when necessary,” Lampert said. “I think [she is] incredibly serious about this topic, but [she] makes the play something that is palatable that you can really take in.”