Press/Reviews
“This program is a new and unique way to shed light on wrongful convictions. As an exoneree myself, it was more impactful than I could have imagined… Seeing it, feeling it was everything.”
— Anna Vasquez, Exoneree, Director of Outreach and Education, Innocence Project of Texas
“…the story they’re telling is better understood through sounds made with found objects, especially when those sounds are paired with the musicians’ spare, poignant drama.”
—Tom Keogh, The Seattle Times
Seattle Times Article by Tom Keogh
St. Louis In Tune - An Interview with Arnold Stricker (Audio)
Interview - Cleveland Classical - Wrongful Conviction as Told Through Music by Jarrett Hoffman
“The Woody Guthrie Center was so proud to recently host a presentation of “The Innocents” in our theater. The need to protect the disenfranchised and the innocents in our society was one of Woody’s driving forces. This is strongly evident in his artist responses to the travesty of the Sacco and Vanzetti trials and their wrongful execution. As John and Allen recited the names and erroneous years of incarceration of so many innocents, we could feel Woody’s presence right alongside them, hitting those rocks and chanting those names. Thank you for following in Woody’s footsteps and sharing this message.”
“Briefly put, I think the two of you have created a 21st-century masterpiece.
Given that it really is a piece of avant garde performance art, I’ve pondered its accessibility to regular non-musician people. There’s its powerful content of course, but I think the 17-part, bite-size nature of the piece really helps. If one wearies of a particular section (not me of course) it doesn’t last that long and moves on – literally to a different stage location and a different musical idea. So it’s always refreshing itself, sonically and visually. And yet the overall arc holds together extremely well and the ending, the exhilaration of the exonerations (tearing up the prison numbers – brilliant) followed by the subdued, there’s- still-work-to-be-done coda, is deeply moving and beautiful.
So again, yes, a 21st-century masterpiece. Truly.”