DEATH HOUSE at The Road on Lankershim

Photo by Brian M. Cole

Lovell Estell III — Stage Raw

Few elements of the criminal justice system generate more discourse and lack of consensus than capital punishment. There are now some 3,000 men and women on death row in the United States, many of whom have been languishing there for decades. Closer to home, California, which has 744 condemned souls as of January 2019, hasn’t carried out an execution for exactly thirteen years. One inmate, Douglas Stankewitz, has been awaiting his date with the executioner for forty.

The amount of money expended on navigating this “machinery of death,” as Justice Harry A. Blackmun eloquently labeled it, is outrageous, and there are many other human costs that don’t show up on the balance sheet. In this world premiere drama by Jason Karasev, a pending execution brings three people together for a fateful, transformative confrontation. Read more…

Harker Jones – Arts In LA

The death penalty ignites emotions in everyone, whether pro or con. It’s a complicated and complex subject, just like Jason Karasev’s world-premiere play Death House, which tackles the topic from many angles with compassion, intelligence, and insight.
Read more…

Now running through March 10