Fresno City College will host “The Exonerated,” another live, staged production that will open in early March.

Based on true stories, this newly written modern drama, deals with prisoners that were mistakenly convicted and placed on death row to face capital punishment.

Dialogue for the play is taken from courtroom documents and actual interviews with the wrongfully convicted.

With the hopes of bringing social change to the nation’s justice system, “The Exonerated” was written based upon interviews of more than 40 death-row inmates. This production hopes to bring reality to the pain that was felt by the wrongfully convicted.

Actor Keshawn Keene portrays the character Delbert, an elderly African-American wrongly convicted of murder and rape. Delbert acts as the chorus of the story, setting a grim tone to the already intense storyline.

“I don’t know if the audience can even tell the story comes from transcripts,” Keene said. “We worked real hard to show that these are real people. We did not want them to be fake, or just cartoons.”

Keene said “The Exonerated” contains subject matter that students should know about, content that is meant to draw more than the typical theater crowd.

“It is contemporary and set in our time. It’s not Shakespeare,” Keene said.

Chris Boltz, who designed sets previously for the play “Grasmere,” worked on the set and is currently working on the lighting for “The Exonerated.”

Referring to director Janine Chrystl and decisions for set design, Boltz said, “The most difficult problem we had was deciding how to express the feeling of the play.”

Final painting was finished earlier than Boltz expected due to the number of students that showed up for the last day of construction. Students finished painting and building the set just before Valentine’s Day, making way for onstage rehearsals by the cast.

Keene said the cast wants the audience to be affected.

“Society talks about people that deserve to be there,” he said, “but not about the ones that were innocent.”

The Exonerated

   “The Exonerated” opens March 5 at 7:30 p.m. at the Main Stage Theatre at Fresno City College.

     Other performances are scheduled March 6, 10, 11, 12 and 13 at 7:30 p.m., and March 6, 7 and 13, at 2 p.m.

Tickets cost $12 general, $10 for students with ID, seniors and staff.

For groups of 10 or more, there will be a charge of $4 per person.