About the Playwrights
Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, writers of The Exonerated, based the play on interviews they conducted with more than 40 wrongfully convicted death row inmates across the United States.
Under Bob Balaban's direction, the New York production of The Exonerated won the 2003 Lucille Lortel Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Play, and a Drama Desk Award. It was nominated for the Dramatists' Guild's Hull-Warriner Award and the John Gassner Playwriting Award.
Blank and Jensen have also received the Justice in Arts and Media Award from Death Penalty Focus, Court TV's Scales of Justice Award, and the 2003 Defender of Justice Award from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. The Exonerated was listed by Time magazine one of the top 3 plays of 2002.
In spring of 2002, Blank and Jensen codirected a critically acclaimed production of The Exonerated at Tim Robbins' Actors' Gang Theater. That production was nominated for 5 Ovation Awards (including Best Director) and 3 NAACP Awards; it won the Ovation for Best World Premiere Play.
As an actor, Jensen has costarred in more than a dozen feature films, including 20th Century Fox's Black Knight, Dreamworks' The Love Letter, and Blair Witch II. Notable stage appearances include Arthur Kopit's Y2K directed by Bob Balaban and Terrance McNally's Corpus Christi at Manhattan Theater Club. He has appeared on television regularly on "CSI," "Law and Order," and NBC's "Deadline," as well as "Alias" and "Century City," among others.
Blank has appeared in several independent films, including "Undermind," "A Bird in Hand," and "Delicious Love." She has acted in theaters throughout Minneapolis and New York City. She has also been a fixture on the New York spoken-word poetry scene; in 2000, she was a national finalist in 13 Bar's Slam This! series and has been featured at numerous poetry venues around the city. Her writing has appeared in several magazines and journals, and she is currently at work on a book of fiction.
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