One of the most exhilarating stages of real life is set to take the stage through two legal dramas playing Sunday at Ohio University.
Lucasville: The Untold Story of a Prison Uprising and Clarence Darrow: The Search for Justice are playing Sunday at Mitchell Auditorium in Seigfred Hall. The two shows are legal dramas, but they carry a message that criticizes capital punishment policies in the United States.
Ohio has had the second highest execution rate next to Texas since 2004, according to a news release. Death rows across the state currently house 191 people, including two women. The method used is lethal injection.
Staughton Lynd, an attorney and renowned civil rights activist, wrote Lucasville: The Untold Story of a Prison Uprising, a book based on the events of the Lucasville prison riots in 1993. Lynd, the attorney for the five men ' the Lucasville Five 'sentenced to death for their suspected roles in the Lucasville riots, created this play based off the real-life events surrounding their sentence.
Lynd has been outspoken in his moral opposition to the death penalty. He said execution is a form of aggravated murder and he hopes his show will cause his audience to ask questions.
California playwright and actor Gary Anderson will portray Darrow in the one-man play Clarence Darrow: The Search for Justice. The play is a timeless presentation of the life of the famous American lawyer and his personal troubles, as well as the famous cases he was involved in, including the Scopes Monkey Trial.
For Anderson, there is no greater stage than a courtroom, and in portraying Darrow, he said he hopes to show how the man used the courtroom for his social message.
What Darrow did was use the courtroom as a classroom G? for the greater good of all humanity
for society and the world he said.
Anderson said he believes there is no difference between actors and lawyers ' both are about effective and purposeful communication. Initially skeptical about becoming involved with the set of plays, Anderson said Lynd ultimately convinced him.
The two plays are on a statewide tour sponsored by the Ohio American Civil Liberties Union. Program associate and field organizer Adrienne Gavula, a 2004 OU graduate, said she believes this medium can change the way people view the social problem.
Live theater can change people's mind and can make people think and I believe that's what we want
she said.
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Kathleen Keish
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