FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PRESS OPENING: Thursday, April 7, 2005 National Pastime Theater, 4139 No. Broadway
Press Contact: Laurence Bryan 773/327-7077 nationalpastime@sbcglobal.net

CHICAGO - National Pastime Theater presents Darby Tillis in DEAD WRONG, with Davy DeLaFuente on guitar.

• Dead Wrong opens Friday, April 8 and runs through May 15
• All shows 8:00 p.m. Thursdays – Saturdays
• Special Sunday show packages for groups through May 8
• Tickets $20, students with ID $15
• Thursdays industry nights $12 with resume or headshot

The message:

“My name is Darby Tillis. I spent nine years, one month and 17 days in the penal system for a crime I did not commit.
I was tried five times, including three hung juries. I spent time in all three maximum security prisons in the state of Illinois.”
--opening stage narrative of Illinois’ first death row exonerate

“You got me here, the killing floor, you got me here to die—down on the man’s death row”
-opening blues lyric

The performance: Following a shocking and surreal opening sequence, sixty-two year old Tillis begins a grim recount of his
dark, anguished years on death row. His unfolding horror story floods the audience with his suffering and the betrayal of our judicial
system, punctuated by the most gut-wrenching blues ever to come from the streets of Chicago.

The reality: In 1977, Tillis and an alleged accomplice, on Chicago’s north side, had been charged in connection with an armed
robbery and murder of two men at an Uptown hot dog stand. When the crime was committed, he happened to be nearby, a black
man in the wrong place at the wrong time. The real killer’s girlfriend had set him up to protect her boyfriend. After three trials,
he was sentenced to death.

The Case Summary

http://www.law.northwestern.edu/depts/clinic/wrongful/exonerations/Tillischart.pdf

“Unjust prosecution, unlawful execution, when is there going to be a lawful solution?”
-lyric from “The Killing Floor”

It took nine years to acquit him, and 14 years until the governor granted a pardon based on actual innocence. This is the story of a man
who stood trial more times than any other defendant in the history of the United States judicial system, and who lives to tell it in all its hideous detail.
His brand of storytelling is not for the weak of heart or stomach. The power of this show lies in its reality--in the facts of Tillis’ case and the
devastating chain of events resulting from a corrupt and broken justice system; and in the frightening face of humanity stripped of its dignity.

 “The pain and disgrace you see on my face is all because I was dying--doing time for another man’s crime.”
-lyric from “Bags”

For those executed and later found innocent, it’s too late. Darby Tillis was one of the lucky ones. If lucky is living with post-traumatic stress disorder;
living with sickening memories of the stench and the filth and the knowledge that you are only living to die at some unknown moment in time, less than human.
Condemning human beings like this to death is the most serious mistake the people’s justice system can make.

Tillis today is doing outreach on the streets, organizing groups, working with ex-offenders, offenders, and their families. He talks to kids, opening their eyes
to a life they cannot imagine. Prison is the most horrible way to live, he tells them, “Once you are in prison, you are diseased.” Darby’s story focuses on
examination of the death penalty throughout the country, in hope of getting the public involved in the fight to abolish it altogether. He speaks of the need to
remove politics from the people’s justice system.

At the conclusion of the production, the audience has opportunity for open dialog with Darby Tillis. He knows that people must understand his pain to
answer the call to action, and that involving them through his powerful show might do just that.

Background Research Links for the Press:

Darby Tillis case

http://www.law.northwestern.edu.depts/clinic/wrongful/exonerations/tillis.htm

http://www.nodeathpenalty.org/newab030/006_Exonerated.html

Death penalty

http://www.aclu.org/DeathPenalty/DeathPenaltyMain.cfm

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/execution/readings/history.html

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/jan-june01/penalty_5-10.html (note Gov. George Ryan’s statement

http://www.nodeathpenalty.org/fiveRs.html

Racism

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/strangefruit/film.html

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

National Pastime Theater is a 14 year-old non-profit company that has developed a reputation for addressing controversial
social and political issues in order to encourage audience involvement for change in the institutions that impact their daily lives.

www.npt2.com

National Pastime founder Laurence Bryan says,

“We want stimulate dreams and social awareness not just sell tickets. Live theater is an incredibly effective way to entice a new generation
of theater audiences into a more active role in their community and the world at large. Through dramatic interpretation we can educate them
to the events of the day with a better understanding of the underlying human issues. ”

Produced by: The National Pastime Theater
Written by: Darby Tillis
Blues lyrics by: Darby Tillis
Stage adaptation: Laurence Bryan
Director: Laurence Bryan
Stage Manager: Aaron Beck
Set Design: David S. Denman
Music by: Davy DeLaFuente
Musical Direction: Laurence Bryan
Environmental Audio: David Bell
Lighting Design: Pete Munyon
Costumes: Sarah Garner
Video/Projections: Kevin Lesser
Publicity Writer: Julie Welden
Dramaturge: Rob Warden- The Center on Wrongful Convictions, Northwestern University School of Law

National Pastime Theatre Co.
4139 North Broadway Ave.
Chicago, IL. 60613

Phone: 773-327-7077 | 733-327-7422

E-mail: nationalpastime@sbcglobal.net