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Home > Hancher > The Exonerated

Program - The Actors' Gang: The Exonerated (January 25-26, 2006)

Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Cast and Crew
  3. About the Artists
  4. Program Notes
  5. The Actors' Gang

Introduction

This performance supported by Hayes Lorenzen Lawyers PLC and by the F. Wendell Miller Fund.

Understudies never substitute for a listed player unless a specific announcement is made at the time of performance.

The Exonerated is performed without an intermission.

The Exonerated is performed by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service.

The actors and stage managers employed in this production are members of Actors' Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States.

Hancher Auditorium thanks Hayes Lorenzen Lawyers PLC and the F. Wendell Miller Fund for support of The Actors' Gang, The Exonerated.

The generous support of our sponsors enables Hancher Auditorium to bring the world's finest performing artists to our region.

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Cast and Crew

Written and directed by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen.

National tour directed by Jon Kellam.

Cast (in alphabetical order)

Crew

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About the Artists

Lindsley Allen (Ensemble) is a versatile artist who has combined successful careers as a dancer, actor and choreographer. A graduate of Philadelphia University of The Performing Arts, she has appeared on a variety of television shows including "Happy Hour," "Beverly Hills, 90210," "Married With Children," "Doogie Howser, MD" and "Friends." Her feature films include That Thing You Do, Lucky Numbers, The Wedding Planner and A View From the Top. At The Actors' Gang: Blood! Love! Madness!, Tartuffe, Mephisto, Foursome and Mary Kelly.

Ben Cain (David Keaton) is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University who has performed on both stage and film. Stage credits include: Joe Turners Come and Gone, A Soldiers Play and Embedded. Film and TV credits include: "Law and Order, Homicide," Dogma, The Temptations and The Homeboy.

Ken Elliott (Robert Earl Hayes) has been honing his craft in theatre, TV and film for over 15 years and has been a contributing artist to the Actors' Gang since 1996. This past summer he assisted long-time friend Jason Scott Lee in opening his black-box theatre, the Ulua Theatre, on the Big Island of Hawaii where he had the privilege of performing to sold-out houses in the role of "Larry" in Lanford Wilson's Burn This. Appearing in the original production of The Exonerated, he is grateful to have the opportunity to reprise the role of Robert Earl Hayes, and is most grateful to The Gang and all the hosting cities for receiving us.

Lorenzo Gonzalez (Ensemble) recently played Molière and Cleante in The Actors' Gang production of Tartuffe. Other credits include Richard in Richard III with Independent Shakespeare Co. and Shvonder in Zoo District's production The Heart of a Dog, which inaugurated The Mihail Bulgakov Festival in Kiev. Mr. Gonzalez is a graduate of PTTP at the University of Delaware.

Jon Kellam (Gary Gauger/Director) is a founding member of Zoo District and has been a contributing artist at the Actors' Gang since 2003. He has performed at such theatres nationally as Steppenwolf, the Organic Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, PS 122, the Los Angeles Theatre Center, Circle in the Square and Lincoln Center. Jon's directing credits include Tartuffe by Molière, adapted by David Ball, at the Actors' Gang and most recently directed The Ass by Parviz Sayyad for the Edge-of-the-World Theatre Festival at the Los Angeles Theater Center. He co-developed and directed the award winning production of Nosferatu, and co-directed Home... both for Zoo District and Monsoon Child at the Harold Clurman Theatre in New York City. Jon presently teaches theatre and Commedia dell Arte at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts and has been on the faculty for the past three years. As an actor he created the role of Cousin Brandon in the Willow Cabin Tony nominated production of Wilder, Wilder, Wilder in New York City and has performed in numerous productions at Zoo District. For the Actors' Gang he performed in the national tour of Embedded by Tim Robbins and the world premiere of The Exonerated. His television and film credits include "Judging Amy" for CBS and Flags of Our Fathers, to be released next fall, directed by Clint Eastwood.

Corey G. Lovett (Ensemble) Some highlights include; Alagazam (2002), Orlando (2003), Embedded U.S. tour (2004) and most recently Die Arty Farty Die (2005). Corey is also a member of the Los Angeles based band West Of The Knife. Corey would like to thank the Actors' Gang and his fellow cast members for their trust and respect and special thanks to his friends and family for their constant support.

Ken Palmer's (Kerry Max Cook) Gang shows have included, since 1996, The Exonerated, Celebrity, Kick-Ass Militia, Salome, Foursome and Progressive Chain Bowling. He toured schools, shelters and juvenile halls, with plays for the L.A. Free Clinic's Project A.B.L.E. (AIDS Beliefs Learned through Education). Films include Trip/Fall, A.I., The Last Cry and A Little Princess. Ken was finalist in the MoveOn.org "Bush in 30 seconds" contest with "School Yard Politics." He's a proud assistant to a Superhero, fighting the evil anti-groove with the Superbroke Superhero Brass and Tin Marching Band Ensemble. He is honored to reprise the role of Mr. Kerry Max Cook. Ken is humbled by Kerry's spirit and is grateful for the profound effect that his story now holds in his life. Ken would once again like to thank Jessica and Erik.

Adele Robbins (Sunny Jacobs) is honored to be embracing again the amazing Sunny after appearing in the world premiere of The Exonerated at The Actors' Gang in 2002, which won an L.A. Ovation Award and several nominations for NAACP Awards. Ms. Robbins' theatrical experience ranges from the classics to long-form improv. Favorite roles include Mme. Irma in Genet's The Balcony (New Crime Productions [Chicago] of which she was also a founding member), and with The Actors' Gang, Marcus Andronicus in Titus Andronicus, Mme. Efeu in Mephisto, Polina in Chekhov's The Seagull, and Lu in Carson Kreitzer's Self Defense. Ms. Robbins has been privileged to tour the U.S. with Anne Nelson's The Guys, and pleased to enjoy with The Gang a successful run in London of Tim Robbins' Embedded. While in London, she also played Alfred Kinsey's wife, Mac, in the BBC radio drama, "Mr. Sex." Ms. Robbins has performed her own written work, as well as directing and teaching. Film credits include The Onion Movie, Cradle Will Rock, Curly Sue and Dead Man Walking, and she has appeared in various television episodics, including "The Guardian," "Judging Amy," "The Untouchables" and "Queens Supreme."

Yolanda Snowball (Georgia) is a New Jersey native. She is a graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia and has studied at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco and the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York with Sanford Meisner. Yolanda now calls Los Angeles home, where she has appeared in movies such as The Brady Bunch, Living Out Loud and Graham's Diner, a Sundance Festival Nominee. Her television credits include "Gray's Anatomy," "Scrubs," "Malcolm in the Middle," "Everybody Loves Raymond" and "The Parkers." Her stage credits include A Midsummer Night's Dream and Twelfth Night with the Los Angeles Women's Shakespeare Company, Applause at the El Portal Theatre and The Actors' Gang world premiere production of The Exonerated. Yolanda is honored to reprise the role of Georgia.

Harold Surratt (Delbert Tibbs). Regional theatre include ACT in San Francisco, Berkeley Rep., Berkeley Shakespeare Festival, the Denver Center Theatre, South Coast Rep., PCPA in Santa Maria, and as an actor/director at the Three Rivers Shakespeare Festival in Pittsburgh. Other theatre credits include Romeo and Juliet at the NYSF/Public Theater, Ten Tricks at the Elephant, and Questa at the Court Theatre. TV and film credits include "ER," "The Practice," "Dragnet," "Crossing Jordan" and "The Temptations" (mini-series), The Dream Team, Sudden Death, The Pelican Brief and Blood in Blood Out: Bound by Honor.

Vanessa J. Noon (Stage Manager) has stage managed the touring productions of Embedded and The Guys. Vanessa has also stage managed at several theatres around California including South Coast Repertory, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, The Mark Taper Forum, The El Capitan Theatre, and Shakespeare Festival/LA. She is a resident stage manager at Universal Studios, Hollywood where she works on the WaterWorld and Terminator 2 3-D Stunt Shows. Her work also includes special events such as the Pearl Harbor premiere onboard the U.S.S. John C. Stennis and The Anaheim Angels World Series Victory Celebration and television shows like "America: A Tribute to Heroes" telethon and "The Academy Awards."

Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen (Authors and Directors). 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. In spring of 2002, Erik and Jessica co-directed a critically acclaimed production of The Exonerated at Tim Robbins' Actors' Gang Theater. That production was nominated for five Ovation Awards (including Best Director) and three NAACP Awards; it won the Ovation for Best World Premiere Play. The Exonerated was listed by Time Magazine as one of the top three plays of the year and The New York Times year end round-up as "the number 1 play of 2002". It has been translated into Spanish, French and Japanese, and has been made into a television movie for Court TV starring Susan Sarandon, Danny Glover, Brian Dennehy, Aidan Quinn and Delroy Lindo.

Jessica and Erik have worked with several nationally renowned social justice organizations including the ACLU, the Innocence Project, the Justice Project, the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, the Constitution Project, the Fortune Society and the Center on Wrongful Convictions. They have also taught and/or lectured on the arts and social justice at institutions including Brown University, Macalester College, New York University, The New School, Northwestern University Law School, Hamline University, and the Mid-America Theater Conference, as well as in high schools throughout the country.

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 the indie 5 up 2 down. He has appeared on television regularly on "CSI," "Law and Order," and NBC's "Deadline," as well as "Alias" and "Century City," among others. He recently co-starred in the CBS pilot "Love Monkey" with Tom Cavanaugh and "The Dark" (Walter Hill, dir. Stephen Cannell, prod.) with Fred Ward. Notable stage appearances include Arthur Kopit's Y2K directed by Bob Balaban and Terrance McNally's Corpus Christi at Manhattan Theater Club.

Jessica has appeared on television in "One Life to Live," "Rescue Me" and "Guiding Light"; film credits include The Namesake (dir. Mira Nair), Undermind, and "The Exonerated" (dir. Bob Balaban, for Court TV). She has acted in theaters throughout New York City. She has 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 featured at numerous poetry venues around the city.

Living Justice, their book on the making of The Exonerated, was published in 2005 by Simon and Schuster.

Ann Closs-Farley (Costume/Set Designer) is a local Los Angeles designer who has been a member of the Actors' Gang for over ten years. She won the 2004 LA Weekly and Maddy Award for her costume work on When Tigers Smoked Long Pipes, as well as an LA Critics Circle Award for Sneaux: The Musical. Her recent credits include: Blood! Love! Madness!, Gorey Stories, Three Penny Opera, Eddie Leggs, The Blacks, Killers, Happy Birthday, Wanda June, Flow My Tears, Ten Thousand Years, Peace Squad Goes 99, Menopause: The Musical, Jewtopia, Stage Directions, Orlando and many more. She has earned multiple Ovation, LA Weekly and Garland Awards for her work in: Echo's Hammer, Batboy: The Musical, Mephisto, The Seagull, The Exonerated (world premiere), Hard Times, Euphoria, Plastica Fantasica, Broadway, XXX Love Act, Cinderella/Medea/Macbeth and Ugly's First Word. She also designed the wigs and hair pieces for the recent Snapple Ad campaign, clothes for Disney Merchandise, sets for movie publicity and toy construction for MGA Entertainment (Bratz). She is in indebted to her family for giving continuously their time, love and support.

Ellen Monocroussos (Lighting Designer) is an accomplished lighting designer with over one hundred plays, dances and operas to her name. The original design of The Exonerated at The Actors' Gang in 2002 earned her nominations for an Ovation Award and an NAACP Theatre Award. Among her touring productions are the North American tours of Martin Nievera: I Sing For You and Vanities, and the regional tour of The Glass Menagerie with A Noise Within. In the Los Angeles area she has designed or assisted on shows at over 50 different theatres, including the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, Mark Taper Forum and Ahmanson Theatre. She also was an assistant lighting designer on the Tokyo DisneySeas theme park for Walt Disney Imagineering and Legoland theme park for Gallegos Lighting Design. She received an LA Weekly Production Design Award and has also been nominated for a Lester Horton Dance Award.

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Notes from Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen

Over the summer of 2000, we traveled across the United States, sat in people's living rooms, and listened as they related the most amazing stories we had ever discovered. We went as far north as Chicago, as far south as Texas and Miami, and just about everywhere in between to meet the people who appear in this piece. They were from vastly different ethnic, religious and educational backgrounds. Their views on the world varied greatly. The only thing they held in common was the fact that all of those we interviewed (40 on the phone and 20 in person) had been sentenced to death, spent anywhere from two to 22 years on death row, and were subsequently freed by the state amongst overwhelming evidence of their innocence.

These interviews form the core of The Exonerated.

We also spent countless hours in the dusty record rooms of state courthouses, pawing through thousands of microfiche files and boxes full of affidavits, depositions, police interrogations and court transcripts. We want to stress that with a few exceptions, each word spoken in the play came either from the public record—legal documents, a tape recording, interrogation and court transcripts, a letter—or from an interview. For staging purposes, we have condensed, theatricalized, combined and extrapolated certain moments. But the overwhelming majority of the piece exists as it was said two, five, ten and 20 years ago by the actual participants. That said, we are not responsible for the content of the public record or the interviews. Our only responsibility is to report what we found in a courthouse or heard from the exonerated people themselves.

There are 121 people nationally who have been exonerated from death row. Their courage and strength cannot be overstated. We consider every one of their stories to be part of this play.

Quotes

"Perhaps the bleakest fact of all is that the death penalty is imposed not only in a freakish and discriminatory manner, but also in some cases upon defendants who are actually innocent."

--Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., 1994 [W. Brennan, Jr., Neither Victims nor Executioners, 8 Notre Dame J. of Law, Ethics & Public Policy 1, 4 (1994).]

"Cases such as these provide for me an excruciating agony of the spirit. I yield to no one in the depth of my distaste, antipathy, and, indeed, abhorrence, for the death penalty, with all its aspects of physical distress and fear and of moral judgment exercised by finite minds. That distaste is buttressed by a belief that capital punishment serves no useful purpose that can be demonstrated...Were I a legislator, I would vote against the death penalty."

--Justice Harry Blackmun's opinion, Furman v. Georgia, 1972

"We are concerned here only with the imposition of capital punishment for the crime of murder, and when a life has been taken deliberately by the offender, we cannot say that the punishment is invariably disproportionate to the crime. It is an extreme sanction suitable to the most extreme of crimes."

--Justice Potter Stewart's opinion, Gregg v. Georgia, 1976

"If we execute murderers and there is in fact no deterrent effect, we have killed a bunch of murderers. If we fail to execute murderers, and doing so would in fact have deterred other murders, we have allowed the killing of a bunch of innocent victims. I would much rather risk the former. This, to me, is not a tough call."

--John McAdams - Marquette University/Department of Political Science, on deterrence (quoted on prodeathpenalty.com)

Resources

Resources for more information on issues in The Exonerated.

Dead Man Walking School Theatre Project

To widen the circle of public discourse on the death penalty, The Actors' Gang is working in conjunction with Sister Helen Prejean and the Death Penalty Discourse Center to offer the stage adaptation of Tim Robbins' Dead Man Walking for production by high schools and universities. Schools are required to involve at least two disciplines or departments, other than theater, (sociology, theology, humanities, criminal justice, etc.) in simultaneous study projects on the issue of capital punishment. For more information, go to dmwplay.org.

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The Actors' Gang

The Actors' Gang is one of Los Angeles' most enduring theater ensembles. Since our founding in 1981 we have produced 68 plays and won over 100 awards, winning acclaim for our innovative interpretations of Shakespeare, Brecht, Molière, Aeschylus, Ibsen and Chekov, while developing in workshop new plays that address the world today through a prism of satire, popular culture and imaginative stagecraft. The Actors' Gang exists to make theater that matters. With your support, we create bold, original works and reinterpret the classics to address society and the human condition from an uncompromising and fresh perspective.

Our Mission

Staff

Board of Directors

Tour Management

David Lieberman/Artists' Representatives
PO Box 10368
Newport Beach CA 92658
Tel. 714/979-4700
Fax. 714/979-4040

The Actors' Gang

9070 Venice Blvd.
Culver City CA 90232
Tel. 310/838-GANG (4264)
theactorsgang.com

The Actors' Gang wishes to acknowledge the generous support of the City of Culver City Redevelopment Agency.

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