Living Justice : Love, Freedom, and the Making of the Exonerated

by Jessica Blank; Erik Jensen

• ISBN13: 9780743483452
• ISBN10: 0743483456
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-02-22
• Publisher: Atria

Summary

In 2000, Jessica and Erik embarked on a journey across America - one that would change their minds, ideas, and lives forever. They were a pair of young actors from New York who happened to have the idea to interview 'The Exonerated' - men and women who had been sentenced to die for crimes they didn't commit, spent anywhere from three to twenty-two years on death row, and were freed amidst overwhelming evidence of their innocence - and create a play from their words. The result was the award-winning show THE EXONERATED, which has been embraced by such acting luminaries as Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Richard Dreyfuss, Robin Williams and Stockard Channing. It ran to sold-out houses in New York City for more than 600 performances and after a tremendously successful tour of America, it has now transferred to the London stage. This book is the story of the creation of THE EXONERATED, from the first germ of the idea, to the play's opening and performance before Governor George Ryan as he was weighing his decision to commute the sentences of 167 men and women on Illinois' death row. The story of the nearly three years in between is the story of one couple's adventure in America: a love story, a political education, an artistic journey, and encounters with the most powerful life-and-death ordeals out there.

Author Biography

Jessica Blank is an actor and writer who has worked in television and independent film as well as in theaters throughout New York City. Television credits include Rescue Me and One Life to Live; film credits include Undermind and The Exonerated (for Court TV). She is currently at work on a novel. Erik Jensen has costarred in more than a dozen feature films, including The Love Letter and Black Knight. He has appeared on stage in Arthur Kopit's Y2K and Terrence McNally's Corpus Christi. Television credits include Alias, CSI, and Law and Order. Jessica and Erik live in Brooklyn with their dog, Zooey.

Excerpts

Chapter One The two of us had been dating just over a month. Erik had lived in New York City for almost a decade, making a steady living as an actor in independent films and TV. Jessica'd just shown up in the city nine months earlier, after graduating from college in Minnesota. She was training at an acting studio, making the rounds, spending her days doing political organizing and her evenings doing spoken-word poetry. Both of us had your typical broke bohemian artsy New York lifestyle.When we'd first met, Erik was deep in the throes of self-imposed bachelorhood. He'd bribed someone to obtain the lease on his East Village apartment, then turned his little rent-stabilized hardwood hovel into a fortress, usually spending his evenings in front of one of Manhattan's few working fireplaces accompanied by a stack of comic books, a script, and his Brittany spaniel Zooey. Erik had a steady, skinny little New York life complete with hundreds of paperbacks, acting work that he got paid for but would happily have done for free, and a dog that didn't smell too bad. He could smoke a pack and a half of cigarettes a day, eat as many Sno Balls as Hostess could ship into Manhattan, and throw laundry on his fire escape without having to answer to anyone (except when the super complained about the tube socks hanging off the downstairs neighbor's window garden).Jessica, on the other hand, was caught up in a whirlwind of just-moved-to-New-York. She had her starter New York City apartment--which, like many starter New York apartments, was in New Jersey--which she used exclusively to crash out at 4 a.m. after running around the city all day and night. Every day was totally different; not yet jaded, she made new friends every five minutes and was dating, um, a bunch of different people. She knew what she loved (politics, acting, writing) but was still stumbling around trying to figure out how on earth to do all three things and make a living. Happy to be finished with college, not entirely sure what to do next, she let the city lead the way and wound up organizing politically minded artists, studying acting, making the audition rounds, and hanging out at poetry slams.We'd met through the tangled and tiny social web of young New York actors when Erik crashed his friend Kelly's date with Jessica. Erik had just started a run of a new play, and it had been a tough audience that night. Erik stopped off at Kelly's East Village restaurant on his way home, hoping for some company and consolation. And a free beer.Kelly was indeed there, sitting with Jessica at a table in the back. Erik said hi to Kelly, spilled a beer on himself, and introduced himself to Jessica. Then he sat down and started describing that night's performance. Kelly knew the drill: When in doubt, blame it on the audience. Then the weather. Then the stage manager.It wasn't till Jessica got up to go to the bathroom that Kelly had a chance to lean over to Erik and tell him to quit talking about himself so much. "I'm trying to spend some time with this girl, man. You need to step off." From the subtle pressure Kelly was applying to Erik's knuckles, Erik knew he meant it.When Jessica returned from the bathroom, she found Erik strangely silent. Soon after that, Erik went home to walk the dog, but he managed to slip Jessica his phone number first, ostensibly so he could get her free tickets to his play.Time passed; Jessica and Kelly didn't work out; she called Erik to take him up on the free-tickets offer. Unbeknownst to her, Erik had used up all his comps by then, but he told her it was no problem to set up free tickets; she should come down to the theater that Friday, maybe they could go have a drink with the playwright after. Then Erik went out and hawked some used books to pay for it. So much for self-imposed bachelorhood.Jessica showed up as promised, picked up her $65 "free" ticket, watched the play, and went out after with Erik, t