Skyline Theatre Company to Present THE EXONERATED, 10/9-11

Skyline Theatre Company, Bergen County's most established professional theatre company and in residence at the Fair Lawn Community Center in Bergen County's Fair Lawn, kicks off its exciting 2015-16 season with "The Exonerated".

Written by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, "The Exonerated" is a riveting play that tells the stories of six former "death row" prisoners who were released from prison after their convictions were reversed. It will be presented Friday, October 9 at 7:30pm; Saturday, October 10 at 7:30pm, and Sunday, October 11 at 2:00pm at the George Frey Center for Arts and Recreation in the Fair Lawn Community Center in Bergen County's Fair Lawn.

Donations collected during the weekend will support the Exonerated Fund, which provides support to those who have been wrongfully accused and are now trying to reclaim their lives, and Skyline's educational programming.

For more information on the Innocence Project, a national litigation and public policy organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted individuals through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice, and its Exoneree Fund, please visit: http://www.innocenceproject.org/free-innocent

Skyline's production is directed by Trey Compton, an experienced assistant director with several Off-Broadway credits including "Yank!" (The York) and "White's Lies" (New World Stages). He also directed last year's Skyline production of "tick, tick...BOOM!"

What effect does it have on a person--a soul, a life--to have freedom and self-respect stripped away and then, ostensibly, returned years later after decades of incarceration? "The Exonerated" attempts to answer this question through the words of six innocent men and women who, after years in jail, emerged from death row to try to reclaim what was left of their lives. All their stories have been compiled and edited by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen into "The Exonerated", an award-winning play (Winner: 2003 Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards) that looks at the dark side of the American criminal justice system. Winner 2003 Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards.

"The Exonerated" began its journey when married authors Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen traveled across the United States, interviewing 40 of the (then) 89 former death row prisoners. The interviewees were from vastly different ethnic, religious and educational backgrounds. Their views on the world varied greatly. The only thing that they had in common was that all 40 had been sentenced to death, spent anywhere from 2 to 22 years on death row and were subsequently found innocent and freed by the state. Their interviews form the core of "The Exonerated", which was also made into a 2005 made-for-cable-television film.

Individual tickets prices range from $22 to $29 and are on sale through Skyline's online box office at SkylineTheatreCompany.org and its in-person box office at 800-474-1299. For ticket reservations or for more information about Skyline go to skylinetheatrecompany.org. All performances take place at the George Frey Center for Arts and Recreation in the Fair Lawn Community Center in Fair Lawn, NJ.

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