Catherine "Kitty" Genovese was raped and murdered outside her apartment building in the early morning hours of March 13th, 1964.  Thirty-eight of her friends and neighbors witness the crime occurring, but no one calls police or in any way tries to save her life.  Psychologists would later coin the terms "urban apathy" and "bystander effect" in an attempt to describe the circumstances surrounding Kitty's death and explain the actions of the many witnesses.  With the ultimate goal of starting a public dialogue on the issues surrounding Kitty Genovese's murder, Bread & Water Theatre recently launched a workshop production of Witnesses... devoted to the crime that made the name "Kitty Genovese" famous.  Originally featured in a series of staged reading at the "No Frills" Film and Arts Festival and at the Henrietta Public Library, Bread & Water Theatre is proud to develop the play The Witnesses of Kitty Genovese by J.R. Teeter.

Little about Kitty Genovese is known as it was her death that made her famous.  She lived in Kew Garden, Queens with her partner Mary Anne Zielonko and was murdered on the anniversary of the day they first met.  Kitty's brother William was only 16 when she died, but the circumstances surrounding her death led him to join the Marines and enter the conflict in Vietnam.  He would become wheelchair bound when a landmine he was disarming exploded on March 13th, 1967, the third anniversary of Kitty's murder. 

"Although some of the circumstances of the play appear to be coincidental, tragedy as a whole rarely has anything to do with luck.  To anyone that has ever lost a loved one you understand that your life from that point on will be forever changed.  When that loss is due to violence, the pain is all the more egregious.  Our goal in this production is not to point the figure or to lay blame.  I want the audience to revisit this crime and say 'what could we have done differently?' because despite technological innovations like cell phones, 911 system, and anonymous tip lines people like Kitty Genovese are being killed everyday and no one is taking that step forward.  No one is challenging the pattern of indifference."  Said Artistic Director and playwright J.R. Teeter.

Fascinated by historical events, J.R. Teeter first constructed the play The Witnesses of Kitty Genovese in the spring of 2004 under the guidance of Maria Mazziotti Gillan a poet and head of the Creative Writing Department at Binghamton University.  “Constructed is the appropriate term as the entire play is taken from first hand accounts of what happened that night, says J.R. Teeter, “I compiled over 500 pages of parole hearing minutes, trial transcripts, television interviews, and newspaper articles on the crime.  Through this information, the story of the last night of Kitty Genovese is told.  I think it’s important for people to experience as much of the whole story as possible as the media has the tendency to focus just on the salaciousness of her murder and little else.  I am also eternally in debt to Professor Gillan who helped me elevate the sometimes mundane material to the realm of poetry.  Her steady hand really helped to guide my work.”

Winston Moseley, Kitty’s murderer, is often the focal point of any new media coverage and even today more is known about his life than anyone else involved in the case.  In this play his entire life pre and post murder are examined.  “There was a lot I did not know about Moseley at the time I began writing the play and still a great deal more that I want to know about him afterwards.”  Moseley is currently serving a life sentence in Comstock Prison.

The cast of the workshop production included: Marisa Krupa (Irene Frost, Elizabeth Moseley, Joan Larrinaga), Amanda Wannike (Catherine "Kitty" Genovese, Virginia Lynn, Susan Wakeman), Carl Girard (Winston Moseley), Brianna Kaminskas (Andree Picq, Mary Anne Zielonko, Ruth Beasley), Tony Curtis Wilborn (Alphonso Moseley, Edward Fiesler, Det. Jacobs, Robert Mozer, Dr. Diamond), Michael Gidici (Samuel Koshkin, Det. Carroll, Dr. Benenson, William Genovese), Chris Barbis (Sidney Sparrow, Esq., Vito Genovese), and Shaleen Bailey (Fannie Moseley, Pauline Moseley, Atla Morrell, Sophie Farrar).

Founded in 2000, Bread & Water Theatre is committed to making the arts accessible and affordable to a broad-based audience and acting as a positive agent of change in its community.  Under the artistic direction of J.R. Teeter, BWT develops theatre that speaks to our living, evolving, and dramatically changing world through new and rare works of drama, and aspires to be a major force in American theatre, providing audiences with challenging contemporary drama and innovative community outreach programs.