'Dead Man Walking' Takes the Stage

SBU Theater will open its 2008-09 season with the production of “Dead Man Walking," which takes the stage this week at The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts.

Performances will run at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. The Thursday performance will be followed by a talk-back session involving the audience and cast members.

“Dead Man Walking” is the stage version of Sr. Helen Prejean’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated book by the same name. It was also made into an Academy Award-winning movie directed by actor and activist Tim Robbins, who worked with Prejean in developing the 1995 film. The stage version of “Dean Man Walking” is part of the national Dead Man Walking Theatre Project, which is only available to colleges, universities and some secondary schools.

"Dead Man Walking" tells of Prejean’s early experiences ministering to inmates on Louisiana’s death row. It focuses particularly on Prejean’s relationship with inmate Matt Poncelet, on death row for rape and murder.

Playing the roles of Prejean and Poncelet in the campus production are students Erin Lowry, ’11, of Shanghai, China, a theater and journalism and mass communication major, and Alex Sanders, ’09, a journalism and mass communication major from Howell, N.J.

Tickets for the theater production of “Dead Man Walking” are available by calling the Quick Center for the Arts Box Office at (716) 375-2494. “Dead Man Walking” contains adult subjects and language.

On Tuesday, Nov. 11, Prejean will be on campus for a lecture, “Dead Man Walking: The Journey Continues,” and book signing. The event, which is free and open to the public, will start at 7 p.m. in the Reilly Center Arena and is sponsored by the University’s Franciscan Center for Social Concern.

(Pictured from left are St. Bonaventure students Adam Sorokes, Drew Moxley, Erin Lowry and (seated) Alex Sanders. Photo courtesy of St. Bonaventure University. )