THREE BONE THEATRE

Jessica Blank & Erik Jensen

Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen are a multihyphenate husband and wife creative team who the New Yorker calls “among the foremost practitioners of documentary theater in the U.S.”

As a team, they are authors of The Exonerated, a genre-defining play based on interviews they conducted with death row exonerees across the US (Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, Ovation, Fringe First, Herald Angel Awards; NAACP Image Award nominee; awards from the American Bar Association, The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, named “Best Play of the Year” by the New York Times). Erik and Jessica adapted The Exonerated into an award-winning TV movie starring Danny Glover, Delroy Lindo and Susan Sarandon. Their documentary play Aftermath, based on interviews conducted with Iraqi refugees in Jordan, was a NYT Critics Pick and nominated for two Drama League awards. Their play How to Be a Rock Critic (based on the writings of Lester Bangs), created in partnership with the Lester Bangs estate, played sold-out runs at the Kirk Douglas, Steppenwolf, and the Public Theater, with Erik starring and Jessica directing. Jessica and Erik are currently adapting it for feature film.

Their 2020 play Coal Country, about West Virginia’s Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster, had a critically acclaimed world premiere at the Public Theater, with original music written and performed by Grammy-award winning musician Steve Earle (Edgerton New Play Award, Lortel and Drama Desk noms). When its run was cut short by COVID, the pair pivoted and wrote The Line, a documentary play based on firsthand interviews with NYC medical first responders at the height of the pandemic. Also a NYT Critics’ Pick, The Line garnered rave reviews from coast to coast and was viewed by over 85,000 people in 50 countries. Coal Country reopened commercially at the Cherry Lane Theater in 2022, produced by the Public and Audible, and was recorded for Audible Theater (Signal Award for Best Drama). They are currently at work on a major new musical under commission from the Public Theater.

Their first feature as writer/directors, Almost Home, based on Jessica’s novel of the same name, was released by Vertical in 2019; their second, Brooklyn, Minnesota, starring Erik and Amy Madigan, world premiered at the Woodstock Film Festival in October 2024, where it won Best Film and Best Director; it has also won Best Fiction Feature at the Minneapolis-St Paul International Film Festival and the Audience Award at the Rochester Film Festival. They are currently filming a feature documentary about the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster, produced by Emmy-nominated and Peabody Award winning producer Audrey Rosenberg (I Am Not Your Negro, HBO’s Katrina Babies) and executive produced and scored by Steve Earle. For television, Jessica and Erik have written and developed for Gaumont TV, Fox TV Studios, 20th Century TV, Blown Deadline, Levinson/Fontana, Avenue Pictures, Sunswept, Virgin Produced, and Radical Media.

As an actor, Erik appeared regularly in both seasons of ABC’s For Life. Other TV credits include arcs on The Walking Dead, Mindhunter, Mr. Robot, The Americans, and over 90 other film and TV roles including his critically acclaimed portrayal of legendary NY Yankee Thurman Munson in The Bronx Is Burning. Theater credits include The Collaboration on Broadway opposite Paul Bettany and Jeremy Pope, Lincoln Center’s Pulitzer Prize winning production of Disgraced, Tracey Scott Wilson’s The Good Negro at the Public (dir. Liesl Tommy), and Vladimir at MTC (dir. Daniel Sullivan). Jessica’s TV and film acting credits include Ramy, Prodigal Son, For Life, High Maintenance, and dozens more. Jessica is a Professor in the Drama Division at the Juilliard School. They live in Brooklyn with their daughter Sadie.