Martin Short, Christine Lahti and More Join Culture Project's THE EXONERATED

Culture Project (Allan Buchman, Founder & Artistic Director), in association with Innocence Project, Marc & Steven Kaplan, and Cheryl Wiesenfeld, welcomes Steve Earle (The Revolution Starts…Now, Grammy Award), John Forté (The Score, Grammy nominee), Kathryn Grody (Scapino), Marg Helgenberger ("CSI"), Christine Lahti (God of Carnage), Richard Masur (This is Fiction), Joe Morton (Raisin), Martin Short (The Goodbye Girl), Danton Stone (Ivan in Art), Frank Whaley ("Blue Bloods"), and exoneree Kerry Max Cook, whose story is shared in the play, to the rotating cast of the 10th anniversary production of the hit award-winning play, The Exonerated, written by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, now in performance at Culture Project (45 Bleecker Street at Lafayette Street) where performances began September 15th for a limited seven-week engagement through November 4th.

The newest members of the rotating cast will appear, as scheduled:

October 9 -14 John Forté, Kathryn Grody, Richard Masur, Danton Stone

October 16-21 Kerry Max Cook, Steve Earle, Joe Morton, Martin Short
(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)

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, Delroy Lindo, Lyle Lovett, Michael McKean, Chris Sarandon, Brooke Shields 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.

"When authors Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen -- newly in love and wildly enthusiastic -- first approached me with their idea for The Exonerated I got chills," staTed Allan Buchman, Culture Project Founder & Artistic Director. He went on to add, "It occurred to me then that ideas like theirs were the reason to have a theater. There are 2.4 million people in the American prison system -- a population that is all but invisible to the general public. The Exonerated, with its narrative of struggle courage and hope, sheds crucial light on elements of our criminal justice system that must be changed. I believe that work this compelling can absolutely spur seismic and vital social change. Yes, this is the reason to have a theater, and how lucky for us that we have our theater back!"

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.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / Retna Ltd.