Congratulations to "The Exonerated!"

This just in: the Charleston Stage Company cleans up in Tennessee! Here's the story:

The Charleston Stage Company production of The Exonerated won the top prize in the community theatre division at the Southeastern Theatre Conference in Chattanooga, Tenn. Along with the best overall award, The Exonerated took the Community Theater Festival best directing award and four acting awards, one for outstanding acting by an ensemble and three for excellence in acting by individuals.

“I’m so proud I could just burst,” said director Susan Marrash-Minnerly. “This cast and crew have worked so hard and in a totally selfless way to created believable characters. I’m so happy the judges saw that in the production.”

The Southeastern Theatre Conference is the largest regional theatre conference in the country, drawing 4500 people from throughout the territory. The judges at the Community Theatre Festival part of the conference described the acting as so believable it could easily be confused with reality. They singled out performances by John Halstead, Joe Miller and Will Taylor, and described Marrash-Minnerly’s direction as effective but almost invisible.

More information on the production is available at www.wvexonerated.com.

The play by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen tells the real stories of six people placed on death row, some for decades, before being absolved of the crimes and freed. Using a variety of letters, court transcripts, interviews and other materials, the play examines both the justice system and its effect on people’s lives.

It’s presented on an intentionally bare stage, set with a simple line of black chairs. The whole cast is on stage for the entire production, which is preformed in one act without interruption. The director says her intention was always to let the stories speak for themselves.

“Sometimes the most effective way to tell a story is just to get out of the way,” said Marrash-Minnerly.

The cast of ten includes three West Virginia State University students, three WVSU alums and one student at Marshall. Marrash-Minnerly said there are no weak performances in the group.

Congratulations to one and all!