Ithaca College presents “The Exonerated”
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Hey y’all,
So this weekend marks the closing of Ithaca College’s Mainstage production of the show “The Exonerated”. This is a show about six people who were convicted guilty and sentenced to death in various parts of the country, and were subsequentially exonerated of all charges before they could be executed. The show is a commentary on the broken nature of the legal system, and while it doesn’t call for an overhaul, it does seem to call for abolition of the death penalty.
After seeing the show, I don’t believe that I like the show as a whole all that much. That being said, this production was beautiful, elegant, and utterly heartwrenching. The entire cast was phenomenal and the direction by Cynthia Henderson just lent itself perfectly to the nature of the script. Every member of the cast really excelled themselves into the character and told these stories as best as they could.
One of the characters in the show is a man named Kerry Max Cook who was wrongfully accused of raping and murdering a girl in Texas and sentenced to death. Twenty Two years later he was released after DNA evidence showed that it wasn’t him. The man who did it was not sentenced to death, and is now out of jail and free. Tonight, October 11th, Kerry Max Cook was present at the production of “The Exonerated” and stayed afterwards to have a talkback Q and A about his experiences. This man is amazing folks, he is a wonderful speaker, he is open and honest, and he is truly admirable for standing up and telling us his tale, and allowing us to tell his tale through the show.
I won’t dwell too much here, i have to go study for my midterms next week, however I want to leave you all with something he said, which reaffirmed for me just why I am so happy and so blessed to be a part of this program. He’s seen this show hundreds, maybe even thousands of times. As he sat in the room tonight he told us about how Robin Williams asked him to come see the production that was staged professionally in San Francisco, with Robin Williams playing Kerry Max Cook. Mr. Cook went to speak at the show, but actually walked out after the first few minutes because he just didn’t believe in it. Tonight he sat through the entire production, and at the talkback exclaimed to all of us seated there, that not only was this his favorite production to date, but the actors had put on the most honest portrayal of these abused people, and had accurately captured their characters in ways that he had never seen before anywhere. This includes every production he’s seen across the globe. He finished his introduction by saying thank you to Cynthia Henderson (who is also my Scene Study teacher and I am going to go work on her midterm immediately following this post) because her production held more power than Robin Williams’ ever could.
That is why I am blessed to be a part of that program, because we have people like Cynthia to teach us.
Much love to all!
~Ned Donovan
