One Arts Student's Tale
"Living Justice," is a book written by Jessica Blank, a 1998 CLA grad. The book is part love story, part adventure yarn, part political manifesto, and part career guide. It helps answer that thorny question, "What Can I Do With a Theatre Major?" (Actually, she earned a BA in IDIM, but her major was titled, "The Actor in Context: Performance, Culture, and the Body," but that's close enough).
After graduating, Jessica moved to New York to work as an actor. She paired up with another actor, Erik Jensen. After attending a conference about the death penalty together, they decided to write a play about the experiences of people who had been wrongly convicted of murder, and who ultimately had their convictions overturned. "Living Justice" chronicles their experiences from researching their subject to getting their play produced.
The result of their collaboration was the play, "Exonerated." Over the past five years, numerous big-name stars have acted the parts of those who were wrongfully convicted and who spent anywhere from two years to twenty-two years on death row. Two of the first readers were Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon. Over the years the cast has included Ossie Davis, Gabriel Byrne, Eric Roberts and Mia Farrow. Court TV aired a movie based on the play with Danny Glover and Brian Dennehy, among others, in starring roles.
As of 2004, Jessica and Erik had raised over $500,000 to help compensate people who had spent years on death row for crimes that they did not commit. Probably no one was more surprised about the success of the play than its writers.
So, if someone ever asks you what you can do with an arts major, one answer is that you can accomplish great things by working for social justice.
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