Culture Project's THE EXONERATED Extends Through December 2

Culture Project (Allan Buchman, Founder & Artistic Director), in association with Innocence Project, Marc & Steven Kaplan, and Cheryl Wiesenfeld, has announced a 4-week extension of the acclaimed 10th anniversary production of the hit award-winning play, The Exonerated, written by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen. New block of tickets now on sale through December 2nd at Culture Project (45 Bleecker Street at Lafayette Street) where performances began September 15th.

In addition, Culture Project welcomes Trudie Styler (actress, film producer, director, human rights activist, environmentalist and UNICEF Ambassador) to the rotating cast October 16-21. She joins previously announced Steve Earle (The Revolution Starts…Now, Grammy Award), Joe Morton (Raisin), Martin Short (The Goodbye Girl), and exoneree Kerry Max Cook, whose story is shared in the play. (Mr. Short will appear as Kerry Max Cook for three performances only Oct 16, 17 & 18; Mr. Cook will portray himself October 19, 20 & 21)

Schedule for upcoming rotating cast members:

October 23-28 Christine Lahti, Joe Morton, Frank Whaley

October 30 – November 4 Marg Helgenberger, Joe Morton, Chris Sarandon (returns)

Directed by Bob Balaban (Gosford Park), the core non-rotating company of six includes Jim Bracchitta (Gypsy) as Prosecutor 2. Amelia Campbell (Our Country’s Good, A Streetcar Named Desire) as Sandra Cook, Bruce Kronenberg as Prosecutor 1, Curtis McClarin (Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk) as David Keaton, April Yvette Thompson (Clybourne Park) as Georgia Hayes, and JD Williams (“The Wire,” “Oz”) as Robert Earl Hayes. They have been joined onstage by rotating cast members Stockard Channing, Brian Dennehy, John Forté, Kathryn Grody, Delroy Lindo, Lyle Lovett, Richard Masur, Michael McKean, Chris Sarandon, Brooke Shields, Danton Stone, and exoneree Sunny Jacobs, whose story is shared within the play.

2012 marks the 10th anniversary of Culture Project’s New York premiere of The Exonerated, a ground breaking dramatization of the real-life stories of six individuals who were sentenced to death and later freed amidst overwhelming evidence of their innocence. It is a powerful play culled from interviews, letters, transcripts, case files and court records of individuals on death row. As timely as ever, The Exonerated is once again poised to increase visibility and to create a sense of urgency as part of a rising movement to restore justice to a system that has shown itself time and again to be deeply flawed. Since 1989, when the first DNA exoneration took place, an additional 292 post-conviction DNA exonerations have been won in 36 states.

The Exonerated premiered at Culture Project in October 2002 when it received critical acclaim and ran for over 600 performances. The New York Times declared, “How often do you feel that what you are seeing is a matter of life and death? Here we see six people who served hard, cruel time on death row before evidence proved them innocent. The stage is courtroom and living room; these people are intrusting their lives to us. Their stories intersect, but the differences between them strengthen the awful likeness that justice imposes when it is blind and deaf.”

The Exonerated received the Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, Ovation, Fringe First and Herald Angel Awards, and was nominated for the Hull-Warriner Award and the John Gassner Playwriting Award. It also received awards from Amnesty International, the American Bar Association, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Death Penalty Focus, and Court TV, and was listed by the New York Times as "The Number 1 Play of 2002." It has been translated into Spanish, French, Italian and Japanese, and was made into an award-winning movie for Court TV adapted by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen , starring Susan Sarandon, Danny Glover, Brian Dennehy, Aidan Quinn and Delroy Lindo.

The Exonerated plays the following performance schedule: Tuesday – Thursday at 8:00 p.m., Friday at 7:00 p.m., Saturday at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday at 3:00 p.m. & 7:00 p.m.

Weekly Post Performance Talkbacks are scheduled on Tuesday evenings hosted by Ron Tabak and Thursday evenings hosted by Innocence Project.

Tickets are priced at $75 (Premium at $99), Sunday evenings at 7:00 p.m. at $37.50 (Premium at $50) with student tickets at $30 and available online at cultureproject.org or via phone by calling OvationTix at (866) 811-4111. $5 of every full price ticket ($75 & $99 level) will go to a fund for the exonerees. For additional information, please send inquires to info@cultureproject.org, or call (212) 925-1806.