Visiting Death Row At The CTC
What impact does it have on a person—their soul, their life—to have freedom and self-respect stripped away and then seemingly returned years later after decades of incarceration?
“The Exonerated”, a reader’s theatre production presented by the Chattanooga Theatre Centre on Sunday, attempts to answer this question through the words of six innocent men and women who, after years in prison, emerged from death row to try to reclaim what was left of their lives.
Culled from interviews, letters, transcripts, case files, and the public record, “The Exonerated” tells the true stories of six wrongfully convicted survivors of death row, ultimately freed after serving varying years in prison, in their own words. It is performed as an anthology by 17 local actors seated behind music stands.
This prize-winning play moves between first-person monologues and scenes set in courtrooms and prisons, with the six interwoven stories painting a picture of an American criminal justice system gone horribly wrong—and of six brave souls who persevered to survive it.
All their stories were compiled and edited by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen into a play that is both a riveting work of theatre and an exploration of the dark side of the criminal justice system.
The performance begins at 3 p.m. Admission is $20. For tickets, call the Theatre Centre box office at (423) 267-8534 or visit TheatreCentre.com