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"Imagine everything you did between the years of 1976 and 1992.
Now remove all of it.
Those 16 years were taken away from Sunny Jacobs, convicted and sentenced to death for a crime she did not commit...
...it could happen just as easily to you." {quote from The Exonerated web site}
Culled from interviews, letters, transcripts, case files and the public record, The Exonerated tells the true stories of six wrongfully convicted survivors of death row in their own words. In this ninety-minute intermissionless play, we meet Kerry, a sensitive Texan brutalized on death row for twenty-two years before being exonerated by DNA evidence; we meet Gary, a Midwestern organic farmer condemned for the murder of his own parents and later exonerated when two motorcycle-gang members confess. We meet Robert, an African-American horse groomer who spent seven years on death row for the murder of a white woman before evidence emerges that the victim was found clutching hair from a Caucasian attacker. We hear from David, a shy man with aspirations to the ministry, bullied into confessing at eighteen to a robbery/murder he had nothing to do with, scarred from a youth spent in prison and struggling to regain his faith; and from Sunny, a bright-spirited hippie who, along with her husband, spent seventeen years in prison for the murder of two police officers—while another man confessed and was ignored by the courts. And we meet Delbert, a poet who serves as the play's center, convicted of a rape/murder in the Deep South of the 1970s and later freed when evidence surfaced showing that he was not even in the town when the crime occurred. Moving between first-person monologues and scenes set in courtrooms and prisons, the six interwoven stories paint a picture of an American criminal justice system gone horribly wrong—and of six brave souls who persevered to survive it.
Read more of the reviews.
THE PLAYWRIGHTS
To write The Exonerated, authors Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen conducted interviews with over 40 wrongfully convicted death row inmates across the United States. Under Bob Balaban's direction, the New York production of The Exonerated won the 2003 Lucille Lortel Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Play, and a Drama Desk Award. It was nominated for the Dramatists’ Guild’s Hull-Warriner Award, and the John Gassner Playwriting Award. Jessica and Erik have also received the Justice in Arts and Media Award from Death Penalty Focus, Court TV's Scales of Justice Award, and the 2003 Defender of Justice Award from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. The Exonerated was listed by Time Magazine one of the top 3 plays of 2002. In spring of 2002, Erik and Jessica co-directed a critically acclaimed production of The Exonerated at Tim Robbins' Actors' Gang Theater in Los Angeles. That production was nominated for five Ovation Awards (including Best Director) and three NAACP Awards; it won the Ovation for Best World Premiere Play.
As an actor Erik has co-starred in over a dozen feature films, including 20th Century Fox's Black Knight, DreamWorks' The Love Letter, and Blair Witch II. Notable stage appearances include Arthur Kopit's Y2K directed by Bob Balaban, and Terrance McNally's Corpus Christi at Manhattan Theater Club. He has appeared on television regularly on CSI, Law and Order, and NBC's Deadline, as well as Alias and Century City, among others.
Jessica has appeared in several independent films including Undermind, A Bird in Hand, and Delicious Love. She has acted in theaters throughout Minneapolis and New York City. She has also been a fixture on the New York spoken-word poetry scene: in 2000, she was a national finalist in 13 Bar's Slam This! series, and has been featured at numerous poetry venues around the city. Her writing has appeared in several magazines and journals and she is currently at work on a book of fiction.
Jessica and Erik co-wrote (with Bruce Kronenberg), directed and acted in the soon-to-be-filmed independent movie Gimme Noise. Jessica and Erik are currently co-producing a feature-length film for television, to be directed by Bob Balaban. Their book on the making of The Exonerated was published in 2005 by Simon and Schuster.
Read more directly from the play's originators.
THE DIRECTOR
Susan Myer Silton co-founded Pisces Moon Productions in 1999. She recently directed the acclaimed and popular The Last Days of Judas Iscariot for Pisces Moon. Susan has co-directed Durang, Durang and Durang, Durang: The Second Coming and directed The Food Chain, The Altruists, The Laramie Project, Five Flights, Never the Sinner, Swimming in the Shallows, Psycho Beach Party and Dangerous Liaisons for Pisces Moon. She directed Sex and Imagining and Man Walking Dog as part of Actors’ Theatre’s First and Second Annual Playwrights Festivals and To the Crows With You and What You’re Missing in the 2001 and 2003 Eight Tens at 8 Festivals. Read reviews of past Pisces Moon plays, and of The Last Days of Judas Iscariot.
THE RUN DATES/TIMES/VENUE
The Exonerated opened Friday, April 27 at 8 PM at the Broadway Playhouse at the Santa Cruz Art League, 526 Broadway Street in Santa Cruz. It closed on May 26 after 14 performances.
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