A mother’s loss is turned into a one-woman play about the events that led to Chelsea’s Law

Throughout her theatrical career, Stephanie Dorian dreamed of one day writing a play, but she could never come up with a subject that she thought was important enough.

As a 20-year actor and assistant director of the Orange County School of the Arts’ Acting Conservatory, Dorian is no stranger to the theater. But she had always been on stage — or teaching those who would be on stage — not working behind the scenes.

“I always wanted to write a play,” she said, “but never really had anything to say.”

All that changed in 2010, when Dorian’s 17-year-old cousin, Chelsea King, was raped and murdered while jogging in her hometown of San Diego. Registered sex offender John Albert Gardner III pleaded guilty that year to the murder of both Chelsea and 14-year-old Amber Dubois, also of the San Diego area. He was sentenced to life in prison.

The crime led to the passage in California of Chelsea’s Law, which imposes harsher penalties on child predators.

“I was talking to a friend on the phone, and she said, ‘You know what you need to do,’” Dorian said. “And it hadn’t occurred to me — or maybe it had, but I was too afraid of it.”

So she put pen to paper, and with the support of the National Artists Teacher Fellowship, which offers artists the opportunity to immerse themselves in their creative work and interact with other professionals, Dorian, a teacher at the school in Santa Ana, developed the one-woman play “Above Water.” It tells of the anguish that Chelsea’s mother, Kelly, has endured since her daughter’s death.

The play will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 5 at the Orange County School of the Arts’ Margaret Webb Theater, in Santa Ana.

Dorian doubles as writer and the sole actor on stage.

“At its very core, this is a tribute to Kelly,” Dorian said of the woman who has been “like a sister” to her growing up. “The grace and courage with which she has gone through this is amazing, and it’s inspiring.”

In composing “Above Water,” Dorian used a journalistic style of theater writing inspired by her mentor, award-winning actor and playwright Anna Deavere Smith, who is best known for her roles in the television shows “The West Wing” and “Nurse Jackie.”

Dorian interviewed Kelly King about her experiences and used her words to create the text of the play.

“We had an honest, brutally painful discussion rehashing and reliving what happened and the effects it had, on our family, on me and on the community, and the transformation we saw in people after they became aware of Chelsea’s story,” King said.

“I don’t know that there’s anyone else on the planet that I would trust with something like this,” she added. “It’s the most personal accounting of an event in my life.”

The title of the play, “Above Water,” originates from a question Dorian posed to King about how she makes it through each day.

“She was trying to explain it but was at a loss for words,” said Dorian. “She was making this hand gesture at her chin, and she was saying, ‘You have to … you have to …’ and I finished her sentence and said, ‘It’s like you have to keep your head above water.’”

“And she said, ‘Yeah, as long as you keep your head above water, you know you’re doing good,’” Dorian said.

Dorian said it’s this personal nature of the play — and her closeness to the subject matter — that sets it apart from other stories about tragedy and loss.

Smith agreed that the journalistic, one-woman format lends itself to the story Dorian is trying to tell.

“By taking on the whole story, you can have a more complex sense of grief, whereas when you think of a play with 10 or 12 people, it’s kind of divided up, and you’re focused on the relationships and the exchange,” the actress said. “I think there’s something powerful about her taking it on and embodying it — and what that must mean for her psychologically.”

“Above Water” is not the only way Chelsea’s family has fought to keep her public memory alive.

Eight months after she was killed, the Kings pushed for passage of Assembly Bill 1844. In September 2010, then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger passed what is commonly known as Chelsea’s Law, which enacts harsher punishments for those who commit violent sex crimes against children.

“It passed because people responded to who Chelsea was,” said Chelsea’s father, Brent King. “They responded to the thought that it could have been me, it could have been my daughter, my sister, my niece.”

The Kings also established the Chelsea’s Light Foundation, which works to impose harsher laws on child predators, raise money for college scholarships through an annual 5K race in San Diego, and provide leadership training for students in the San Diego school system.

And with next week’s premiere of “Above Water,” the Kings will have another opportunity to teach others about their daughter.

“I feel grateful for any opportunity that we have to share our story, and to have it make an impact on how people react when they go to the voting polls, or when they send their kid out the door for school,” Kelly King said. “I hope people continue the fight that we’ve begun.”

For ticket and other information, go to ocsarts.net/abovewater. Half of the proceeds will go to Chelsea’s Light Foundation.