MEDIA RELEASES

Dominican University’s Performing Arts Center will present a staged reading of Tim Robbins’ play Dead Man Walking on Tuesday, March 18 at 7:00 p.m. in Lund Auditorium, 7900 W. Division Street, River Forest. A post-show panel discussion will be led by Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ, a nationally recognized anti-death penalty advocate and counselor to death row inmates.

Robbins’ play, which is based on Sr. Prejean’s best-selling book, also titled Dead Man Walking, relates Sister Prejean’s experiences as a spiritual advisor to a death row inmate in Louisiana’s Angola Prison in 1982. She counseled him during his incarceration, worked to prevent his execution, and finally walked with him to the electric chair. Playwright Tim Robbins also wrote and directed the award-winning film version starring Susan Sarandon—who won an Oscar for her performance as Sister Helen—and Sean Penn. The book, play and movie examine the issue of the death penalty from both sides, with compassion for the inmate, his family, and for the grieving families of his victims.

Today, Sr. Prejean works to educate the public about the death penalty through her Dead Man Walking School Theatre Project, a cross-country initiative of the Death Penalty Discourse Network. The founder of Survive, a victim’s advocacy group, she continues to counsel both death row inmates and the families of murder victims. Her second book, The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions (2004), argues that two of the men she has accompanied to their executions were innocent. A fervent opponent of capital punishment, she believes the death penalty imitates the behavior of those who have been convicted of murder.

The play, which will feature members of the community as well as Dominican University faculty, staff and students, will be performed as a staged reading, part of the Performing Arts Center’s new Reader’s Theatre. The production is being presented free of charge. For more information, contact the Dominican University box office at (708) 488-5000 or see www.dom.edu/pac.

Founded in 1901, Dominican University is a comprehensive, coeducational Catholic institution offering bachelor’s and master’s degrees. In the 2008 issue of America’s Best Colleges, U.S. News & World Report again ranked Dominican University in the top tier of Midwest master’s level universities and as a “great school at a great price” for the tenth consecutive year.