Allison Montroy
allisonmontroy.md@gmail.com
A policeman stands menacingly on the linoleum floor. In front of him a woman sits in a plastic white chair. The woman looks down. He demands to know if she committed the murder. Everything around them is silent. To their right lies a stack of cots and blankets, to their left a tower of cardboard boxes.
The policeman turns to consult his script.
The policeman is Roger Allen Brown, and he’s not actually a policeman. Brown is an ex-convict at the Good Samaritan Homeless Shelter rehearsing his role for “The Exonerated,” a docudrama performance coming to San Luis Obispo, Oct. 26 and 27.
The play is a documentation of six exonerated, or wrongly convicted, people’s stories written by couple Jessica Blank and Eric Jensen, who were inspired to write the play based on their social activism background.
Director Deborah Tobola adapted what she calls a “barebones” approach to the play. The six stories are told onstage in the form of actors sitting in a line of chairs facing the audience, interweaving their descriptions of their experiences being sent to death row.
“It is an amazing script,” Tobola said. “The power of the story is so strong, I was crying at rehearsal. We were all crying.”
While “The Exonerated” is an emotional experience for any audience, it shares an all-too familiar tale for the 10 actors in the play — all from the Poetic Justice Project, a theater company entirely comprised of formerly incarcerated people.
Many of the actors live in homeless shelters, are on probation or parole — and all have spent time in jail or prison, like the characters they portray in “The Exonerated.”
“Most people here aren’t trying to go to Hollywood or make a career of this,” Tobola said. “They’re putting all these pieces of their lives together.
“What we aim to do is educate the community and empower people to connect with the community.”
Tobola said the topic of exoneration is an especially time-sensitive one in light of the upcoming election, and felt that the public needs to hear the six stories before voting on the death penalty.
This is an issue very close to Tobola’s heart, as her brother, Brad Tobola, is one of the actors in the play.
Brad said his sister recruited him for the play, and her convincing nature gave him no choice.
At the end of the day, though, Brad said in doing the play, “you find you have a voice worth listening to — you’re the voice of all the people in prison right now.”
Brad said he chose to do the play because “if you want to make a difference, you have to get down in the trenches,” calling the Poetic Justic Project, “a pretty awesome process.”
“You think you’re doing a play, but when it’s all over, you find out, ‘Wow, I really do have value,'” Brad said. “You come out better.”
Stage manager Renee Lopez echoed that thought.
If anybody had told Lopez, who is currently on probation, five years ago that she would be stage manager of a play, she would not have believed a word of it.
“I didn’t believe in myself,” Lopez said. “Because of (Tobola), she gave me the inspiration. I went the extra mile — because she believed in me. That goes a long way.”
Lopez attributes Tobola and the Poetic Justice Project to the direction she has taken in life and for alleviating the depression of daily life, she said.
Because of her involvement in the play, Lopez said she has moved from the homeless shelter into transitional housing and is working to regain custody of her children.
“There’s a positive energy,” Lopez said of both the play and her transitional life. “It’s coming together.”
Tobola agreed, telling the actors at the end of rehearsal, “You guys are doing great. Better than you know.”
The performances will be held at 7 p.m. on Oct. 26 and 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Oct. 27 at the United Church of Christ on Los Osos Valley Road. Tickets can be purchased at Brown Paper Tickets, or at the door.