The acclaimed docu-drama play “The Exonerated”, which premiered on Off-Broadway in 2000, is now playing at the Beck Center for the Arts. The play recounts first-person narratives of 6 wrongly convicted people, each on death row. The play explores the accounts of these people after being imprisoned and put on death row, as well as the legal process and procedures that led to them being exonerated. Written by playwrights Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, it tells the true story of six people, Kerry Max Cook, Sunny Jacobs, Delbert Tibbs, Robert Earl Hayes, David Keaton, Gary Gauger, all of whom were wrongly accused, and eventually exonerated.
Directed by Colleen Longshaw Jackson, and starring Stuart Hoffman, Amy Fritsche, Greg White, Isaiah Betts, Mell-Vonti Bowens, and Abraham Adams, the deeply intense performance details their struggle to exoneration. The Beck Center play is also going to be having after-show discussions, which will be held in collaboration with The Ohio Innocence Project, an organization that makes it their goal to free every wrongfully convicted person in Ohio. The discussion will be led by Pierce Reed, Program Director for Policy, Legislation, and Education for The Ohio Innocence Project, as well as by someone who has personally dealt with the painful process of wrongful conviction, and their path to being exonerated.
The after-performance discussions with The Ohio Innocence Project will be held on Oct. 22, Oct. 29, and Nov. 7. The play will be held at 7:30 pm on Fridays and Saturdays, and 2:30 pm on Sundays, and shows are an hour and 35 minutes with no intermission. Individual tickets are available at the Beck Center website, with ticket prices for adults being $34, tickets for seniors being $30, and $12 for students with valid IDs. Preview performances are at 7:30 pm the Thursday before opening night. More information about the play and its showings is available on the Beck Center website.
