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If you would like to help or are interested in having the play staged in your city please email
“The Executioner’s Dance” is a surreal one-act play commenting on the issue of the death penalty through a conversation between a freshly executed man and the greeter sent to welcome him to Death. Tom Sparx portrays the executed. Michelle Gussow brings death to life.
The play is currently in the process of the being written. It is the intention of to stage this play locally, and in cities across the United States.
THE CONCEPT
The title “The Executioner’s Dance” refers to the ‘tap dance’ of denial that surrounds all institutionalized executions. In a traditional firing squad of five, the fifth rifle is always loaded with a blank, so that all of the shooters can go home and ease their consciences by telling themselves “it wasn’t me”. In modern lethal injection machines there are two buttons. Each button is pushed at the same time, though only one starts the flow that brings death. Each Button pusher can therefore tell themselves “it wasn’t me”..”It wasn’t me, the Judge handed down the sentence”...It wasn’t me, I’m just doing my job”...”It wasn’t me, I was just following orders”...and the dance goes on.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
“The Executioner’s Dance” is an independent production funded largely by donations from the public. It is our hope that the play be presented free of charge, to shed light on, and inspire conversation and debate regarding the issue of State-sponsored executions. If you would like to help bring this thought-provoking play to stages across Indiana, you may do so by sending a check or cash donation to the address below. Or, if you have any used books, CDs and/or DVDs that you no longer want, please donate them to Indy Artists’ Peace Project. All funds raised from the sale of these items will go directly into a fund that will help to stage “The Executioner’s Dance” FREE for local audiences.
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