Full Length

This theatrical work attempts to portray the Peoples Temple from a bottom-up perspective, placing focus on Peoples Temple members rather than on the leader Jim Jones. For decades, historical scholarship and pop cultural interpretations of the Jonestown Massacre have placed Jones at the center of the story. This piece intends to decentralize Jones by placing narrative control in the hands of the general membership. I achieve this is by grounding the play in primary source texts created by former members and survivors, including autobiographies or Peoples Temple records. I also place members in control of the play’s narration, as they contextualize each scene through dialogue and invite Jim Jones into the scene to speak. This framing allows the Peoples Temple community, the survivors and the victims, to control the narrative of the Jonestown Massacre.