About the Book
Performing New Lives draws together some of the most original and innovative programs in contemporary prison theatre. Leading prison theatre directors and practitioners discuss the prison theatre experience first-hand, and offer valuable insights into its role, function, and implementation.
A wide range of prison theatre initiatives are discussed, from long-running, high-profile programs such as Curt Tofteland's "Shakespeare Behind Bars" in LaGrange, Kentucky, to fledgling efforts like Jodi Jinks' "ArtsAloud" project in Austin, Texas. The book offers unique insights into the many dimensions of the prison theatre experience, including: negotiating the rules and restrictions of the prison environment; establishing trust, teaching performance skills and managing crises; building relationships and dealing with conflicts; and negotiating public performances and public perceptions. Excerpts of interviews with inmates, and a conversation between practitioners in the final chapter, reveal the impact that prison theatre programs have on the performers themselves, as well as audience members, and the wider community.
Exploring prison theatre processes and theory with insights into how it works in practice, and how to replicate it, this book is essential reading for drama therapists, theatre artists, and prison educators, as well as academics.
Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments. Foreword by Evelyn Ploumis-Devick. 1. Introduction. Jonathan Shailor, University of Wisconsin-Parkside. 2. "To Know My Deed": Finding Salvation Through Shakespeare. Laura Bates, Indiana State University. 3. Rehabilitation Through the Arts at Sing Sing: Drama in the Big House. Brent Buell, Rehabilitation Through the Arts. 4. 59 Places: Dance/Theatre in the Hampshire Jail. Amie Dowling, University of San Francisco. 5. Time In: Transforming Identity Inside and Out. Judy Dworin, Trinity College, Connecticut. 6. The Buckle on the Bible Belt. Jodi Jinks, ArtsAloud and Rude Mechanicals. 7. From the Meanest Creature: Theatre as a Vehicle for Change. Sharon Lajoie, freelance theatre artist and teacher. 8. Faith, Hope, and "Sweet Love Re-Membered": "Restoration" Theatre in Kansas Prisons. John McCabe-Juhnke, Bethel College, Kansas. 9. Fabulous Females: Secrets, Stories, and Hope: Guarding and Guiding Girls Beyond the Barbed Wire Fence. Meade Palidofsky, Storycatchers Theatre, Chicago. 10. Living with Life: The Theatre of Witness as a Model of Healing and Redemption. Teya Sepinuck, The Theatre of Witness. 11. Prison Theatre and the Promise of Reintegration. Jonathan Shailor. 12. Sculpting Empowerment: Theatre in a Juvenile Facility and Beyond. Julia Taylor, Prison Creative Arts. 13. The Keeper of the Keys. Curt L. Tofteland, Shakespeare Behind Bars. 14. Revisiting Sacred Spaces. Jean Trounstine, Middlesex Community College. 15. The Inmates, the Actors, the Characters, the Audience, and the Poet Are of Imagination All Compact. Agnes Wilcox, Prison Performing Arts. 16. "Their Minds Transfigured So Together": Imaginative Transformation and Transcendence in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Elizabeth Charlebois, St. Mary's College of Maryland. 17. A Conversation with the Authors: Prison Theatre Artists in Dialogue. The Contributors. Subject Index. Author Index.
About the Author :
Teya Sepinuck is the founder and director of Theatre of Witness. For the past 26 years, she has been creating and producing Theatre of Witness projects with prisoners and their families, survivors and perpetrators of abuse, refugees, immigrants, elders, and those who have lived through war. In 1991, Teya founded 'TOVA – Artistic Projects for Social Change' through which she created and produced more than 40 original Theatre of Witness works. She has been the recipient of the Philadelphia Human Rights Award for Arts and Culture, a Local Hero Award from the Bank of America, as well as the Cultural Arts Award from Women's Way and the Mayor's Commission on Women. Her work has taken her to Poland and Northern Ireland, where she is currently engaged in her second two-year residency at the Playhouse in Derry/Londonderry, creating works with ex-combatants, members of security forces, survivors, witnesses, and those living with the intergenerational legacy of the 'Troubles.'
Review :
(...) this is a thought-provoking collection that effectively rehearses some of the arguments for prison theatre in a straightforward, accessible and engaging manner - eloquently describing not only the practice, but also its rationale.
(...) an engrossing collection... These inspiring narratives invite us behind bars in some of the most challenging environments for theatre workers, where creative solutions to obstacles to the work are constantly sought.
I picked up this book with mild interest. I quickly became gripped. It is directed at anyone interested in the role o the performing arts in criminal justice but I think it may have something valuable to say to many others working with people who, because of difficult circumstances, most often troubled beginnings, are struggling against the odds to make their way through life.
When Jonathan Shailor started producing Shakespeare's plays in prisons in Wisconsin, the media lit up with debates about whether our imprisoned neighbours had the right to act, to play, and to explore new lives and roles by inhabiting the words and worlds of the stage's great authors. In this stunning collection of essays, some of the nation's leading prison educators and activists offer startling, ennobling, and definitive answers to those questions: Yes prisoners can and should act, Yes they need to play just like the rest of us, and Yes they benefit tremendously from exploring new modes of being by studying and then embodying the words of great playwrights... Performing New Lives offers remarkable case studies of how theatre-in-prison can reduce recidivism and violence by raising consciousness - all while having a great time on the stage.
