Actors' Gang Forum Features Sister Helen Prejean, Tim Robbins 

On January 13, The Actors' Gang will begin their 2017 season with a one-night-only special event featuring�Sister Helen Prejean, ("Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty"),�and The Actors Gang Artistic Director Tim Robbins.

The event is the first of Actors' Gang�Axis Mundi 2017 season, a series of speaking events, lectures and documentaries intent on encouraging civic engagement and public dialogue. All Actors' Gang Axis Mundi�evenings will be presented as "Pay What You Can Nights,"�a platform developed with the purpose of making performances accessible to all, regardless of socio-economic status.
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The Open Forum is meant to engage the audience in an open dialogue about social justice issues and the dynamics and importance of public discourse in the current political landscape. The two panelists will also share insights on their collaboration in developing the Academy Award winning film "Dead Man Walking"�and the subsequent stage adaptation�which over the past ten years has been�performed in over 170 universities nationwide.

Universities are given permission to perform the play only if two academic departments in addition to Theater Arts offer courses on the death penalty. Each performance of the play creates interdisciplinary forums in which students, faculty from different departments and guest lecturers discussed issue surrounding the death penalty.

Sister Helen is known around the world for her tireless work against the death penalty. She has been instrumental in sparking national dialogue on capital punishment and in shaping the Catholic Church's newly vigorous opposition to all executions.
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In 1982, Sister Helen started corresponding with Patrick Sonnier, sentenced to die in the electric chair of Louisiana's Angola State Prison for the murder of two teenagers. Sister Helen became his spiritual advisor until 1983, when Sonnier was put to death in the electric chair. Sister Helen was there to witness his execution, an experience that turned into a bestselling book published in 1993 - "Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States."

In January 1996, the book was developed into a major motion picture starring Susan Sarandon as Sister Helen and Sean Penn as a death row inmate. The film, directed and written by Tim Robbins, received four Oscar nominations including Tim Robbins for Best Director, Sean Penn for Best Actor, Susan Sarandon for Best Actress, and Bruce Springsteen's "Dead Man Walking" for Best Song. Susan Sarandon won the award for Best Actress.

Sister Helen's book was the inspiration for an opera, a compilation of music inspired by the film featuring songwriters and performers such as Bruce Springsteen, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Johnny Cash and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and stage adaptation by Tim Robbins. The play is the work at the heart of The Dead Man Walking School Theatre Project.

Twenty years later and with capital punishment still practiced in 32 states, Sister Helen divides her time between campaigning against the death penalty, counseling individual death row prisoners, and working with murder victims' family members. She has accompanied four more men to their deaths and has written about two of them in her second book, "The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions." She is currently spiritual advisor to Manuel Ortiz, a man she believes is innocent of the crime that has put him on death row at Angola for over 20 years.

Sister Helen has received honorary degrees from universities all over the world and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times. She is a member of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph and the non-profit organization that carries out her mission, the Ministry Against the Death Penalty, is based in New Orleans. You can follow Sister Helen on Facebook.

This Actors' Gang Axis Mundi Open Forum will take place Friday, January 13, 2017 at 8 p.m. at The Actors' Gang Theatre, 9070 Venice Blvd. in Culver City. For tickets or information, call 310-838-4264 or visit theactorsgang.com