Shakespeare: 
working magic in solitary confinement

 

Can Shakespeare really touch the hearts of America's most hardened criminals?

Professor Laura Bates says the answer is yes.

By Marjorie Kehe, Books editor, The Christian Science Monitor / May 15, 2013 

The concept of "Shakespeare behind bars" is not new. At least since 1995 there have been programs in some US prisons encouraging inmates to study and/or perform Shakespeare. But prisoners in solitary confinement? This group – considered to be the most dangerous and hardened inmates in the entire penal system – have always been excluded from such programs.

Until Laura Bates came along. Bates, a professor at Indiana State University and author of Shakespeare Saved My Life, recently talked with Monitor books editor Marjorie Kehe about her experiences teaching Shakespeare to inmates in a “supermax” long-term solitary confinement prison unit. Here are excerpts of their conversation.

Q: What gave you the idea of teaching Shakespeare to prisoners in solitary confinement?

Initially I got the idea to do volunteer work in prison because a friend of my husband’s was working in a maximum security prison. I sort of challenged the whole idea. I thought these maximum security prisoners were beyond rehabilitation. And so I started my own program [teaching college classes] at the local Chicago Cook County Jail with first-time offenders. I didn’t know what “supermax” was until one of my students was sent there. Flash-forward 25 years: Here I am teaching in supermax.

Q: Were you scared at first?

I want to say no but nobody’s going to believe me! I was definitely apprehensive. Of all the years I spent working in prisons, the most apprehensive that I ever felt was that first day that I entered the supermax unit.

But partly I think my background helped. I’m not a traditional academic. I grew up in inner-city Chicago. I worked my way through school. I didn’t end up getting a college degree until rather late in life.  My parents didn’t have college educations. So in a funny sort of way, I wasn’t as scared of prison as I was of college or academia!

And in a strange way I find that to be true [of the prisoners as well]. Because of all the prisoners I worked with – the 200 prisoners I worked with – not a single one entered the program through a love of Shakespeare. And many of them were actually frightened of Shakespeare. That’s the ironic thing: these big scary prisoners were frightened of Shakespeare.  A 400-year-old dead author. Initially there was that fear factor and challenge that they themselves had to get over.

Q: Can you tell us about Larry Newton, the convicted murderer who had been in solitary confinement for 10 years – and who became your star Shakespeare scholar? 

Larry didn’t even know who Shakespeare was. I think that’s part of the beauty of this story. Larry [is like] so many other prisoner readers ... [who] didn’t have a teacher at high school or college feeding them their Shakespeare. They directly connect to Shakespeare. And that’s something that Larry did on a very, very personal level. [While reading “Macbeth”] Larry said that he found himself questioning Macbeth’s motives: Why does he do this deed that he knows is wrong? Why does he give in to peer pressure?

Larry [said that this led to] a very harsh analysis of himself. [He asked himself]: Why did I engage in a variety of criminal behaviors that I personally didn’t want to do? What was driving my motives? [And] that’s where he really found true freedom. [Editor’s note: Mr. Newton’s improved behavior after he began studying Shakespeare eventually led to his release from solitary confinement. He has since written a manual to help other inmates read Shakespeare.]

"Macbeth" is the first play I have the prisoners read. I felt like they would connect, that they would relate to the character of Macbeth who is a good man who is contemplating making a bad choice in killing an innocent person.

Q. And you've seen this kind of character analysis lead to personal reform?

Absolutely! That’s why it’s so important to get the word out [about these kinds of programs]. The Shakespeare program [at the Luther Luckett Correctional Complex in LaGrange, Ky.] and a handful of others tend to focus on the performance of the plays. And that’s a good thing in itself of course. But we use the plays exclusively to try to have the prisoners come to that kind of understanding of themselves. So it’s really about self-analysis and ultimately a change in their criminal behavior.

Q: Could this kind of program work using an author other than Shakespeare?

The beauty of Shakespeare is that his works are so open to multiple interpretations. And I think that is more true of Shakespeare than other literature. And then “Macbeth” in particular is a very important text to be used in prisons because it gets so into the head of a killer who at the beginning of the story is not a bad person. That’s a very important text for the prisoners.

SHAKESPEARE FOR THE PEOPLE:  Bringing Boal to the Bard

Workshop at the 19th Annual Pedagogy and 
Theatre of the Oppressed Conference

Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, USA
June 27 – 30, 2013

Three expert facilitators with over 50 years of experience in theatre education will share their dialogic, participatory methods for performing Shakespeare with youth and at-risk populations in this highly interactive, two-part workshop.

Facilitators

Dr. Jonathan Shailor, Founder and Director of The Shakespeare Prison Project (Wisconsin), Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, and editor of Performing New Lives: Prison Theatre (Jessica Kingsley Publishers).  Jonathan Shailor has been directly trained on multiple occasions by the originator of the theatre of the oppressed, Augusto Boal, and has incorporated Boal's method's into his own approach, the theatre of empowerment:  a process of storytelling, dialogue, and performance focused on empowerment, compassionate communication, and social justice.  Shailor has worked with prisoners, at-risk youth, and the homeless since 1995.

Christopher Shailor, M.Ed., Director of The Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School Theatre Workshop (Massachusetts), an award-winning theatre education program which he has led for over 20 years. This year (2013) his HWRHS Theatre Workshop has once again been chosen to represent the State of Massachusetts at the New England High School Theatre Festival.  Christopher Shailor is also founder and artistic director of The Sleepy Lion Theatre Company, a summer theatre which produced Shakespeare's works and other plays in Topsfield, Mass.  Christopher has been an ongoing consultant to The Shakespeare Prison Project since 2004.

Nicholas Leair is a graduate of The Shakespeare Prison Project at Racine Correctional Institution, where he played the role of Ferdinand in The Tempest.  More recently, he has performed in scenes from The Tempest and Henry IV, Part 2, and shared reflections on his work with The Shakespeare Prison Project at the Rita Tallent Pickens Center for the Arts and Humanities, on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.  Nick is a founding member of Shakespeare Beyond Bars (Wisconsin).



Session One:  Connecting to Shakespeare, and Bringing the Words to Life.  In part one, participants will learn how to make an embodied, personal connection to a scene from Shakespeare, using a variety of methods from Augusto Boal's Image Theatre.  Then, participants will build and shape their scenes using techniques developed by Scott Kaiser.

Session Two: Using Shakespeare to Explore and Recreate Our Social Worlds.  In part two, participants will deepen their exploration of the scenes and their connection to their lives, by employing methods from Boal's Rainbow of Desire and Carl Jung's Active Imagination.

People's Palace Projects

Transformations through art 

How do people transform their worlds through creativity and the arts?

What difference can art make for those who live in situations of risk, violence and crisis?

Who are the artists on the peripheries of our societies and how are they working to bring about change?

People’s Palace Projects seeks to ask these questions through participatory arts projects, performances, educational initiatives and debates. They bring artists, activists, academics and audiences together for projects that address a wide range of social justice and human rights issues. People’s Palace Projects is based in the East End of London and has worked with a wide range of local communities. They have active partnerships with a range of arts organizations and artists across England and Wales, and have a legacy of international collaborative projects in West Africa, South America and Eastern Europe. For the past two decades they have maintained a special focus on strengthening cultural links between Brazil and the UK.

Artistic Director:
Paul Heritage
p.heritage@peoplespalace.org.uk
020 7882 3912

Executive Director:
Rosie Hunter
rosie.hunter@peoplespalace.org.uk
020 7882 8912

Interview with Curt Tofteland of SHAKESPEARE BEHIND BARS

PEDAGOGY AND THEATRE OF THE OPPRESSED CONFERENCE

PEDAGOGY AND THEATRE OF THE OPPRESSED (PTO) is a not-for-profit (IRS 501C3) organization with the following mission: To challenge oppressive systems by promoting critical thinking and social justice. We organize an annual meeting that focuses on the work of liberatory educators, activists, and artists; and community organizers.

19th Annual
Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed
Conference Radical Transformation

At Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, USA
June 27 – 30, 2013

Session Proposal Deadline Extended:
February 15, 2012

NEW BOOK: Teya Sepinuck's "Theatre of Witness"

"Theatre of Witness is a model of performance that gives voice to those who have been marginalized, forgotten or unheard in society, creating a safe forum for audiences to bear witness to real-life accounts of suffering and transformation. This book chronicles the author's 26 years of creating and producing theatre with people whose stories have previously gone untold, including: prisoners and their families, refugees, immigrants, survivors and perpetrators of domestic abuse, ex-combatants, teenage runaways, people living in poverty or without homes, families of murder victims, women in transition, people in recovery and survivors of war. With an engaging and heartfelt narrative, it beautifully conveys the key principles of Theatre of Witness and explores the author's own journey that led to the conception and growth of this unique model of performance. Exploring diverse human experiences in the United States, Poland and Northern Ireland, this book will be of interest to practitioners and students of applied theatre, peace and conflict studies, professionals working in conflict resolution, counsellors, psychotherapists, professionals in the field of criminal and restorative justice, dramatherapists, psychodramatists and spiritual seekers."  (description on amazon.com).

Click here to learn more, or to place your order:     Jessica Kingsley Publishers            amazon.com

THE SHAKESPEARE PRISON PROJECT - BEYOND BARS

Nick Leair embraces his daughter Ally.

This evening about 40 people attended the very first production of THE SHAKESPEARE PRISON PROJECT - BEYOND BARS at the Rita Tallent Pickens Center for the Arts and Humanities at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. Nick Leair, a former inmate and participant in the project, joined guest actors to perform scenes from THE TEMPEST and HENRY IV, PART 2.

Many of Nick's family members were there, including his mother, father-in-law, brothers, and a sister.  Also in attendance:  Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, Dean Yohnk; Wisconsin State Senator John Lehman; and Emeritus Professor of English and Shakespeare scholar Andrew McLean, who has also offered Shakespeare classes behind bars. Roseann Mason, a co-author of the Wisconsin Humanities Council grant that first brought me to Racine Correctional Institution in 1995, was also there.

Nick's 12-year-old daughter Ally joined us on stage during the talk back. I asked her what her main impression of her Dad was back in 2007 when she saw him perform for the first time (in prison, where he was serving a 30-year sentence). She looked at me, paused a moment, and then said simply, "He looked happy." 

Then she proudly took the stage and read the prologue from one of her Dad's favorite plays: ROMEO AND JULIET. 

Two other former inmates/Shakespeare Project participants attended the program and joined in the discussion. All of them are doing well--reconnected with family, employed or in school. They credit their experience with The Shakespeare Project as an important element in the building of new identities and productive lives.

Yet another former inmate and participant in the project, Megale Taylor, was unable to attend the event, but did send a message, which I read aloud to the audience:

My name is Megale Taylor.  In the latter years of my incarceration, I was a participant in The Shakespeare Project (2004 to 2008), where I had the opportunity to play the roles of The Fool in King Lear, Roderigo in Othello, Stephano in The Tempest, and Marc Antony in Julius Caesar.  Now that I have been released from imprisonment, and have established myself as someone who is both gainfully employed, and attending college, I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on the role that The Shakespeare Prison Project has played in my life. 

Psychologically, The Shakespeare Project has provided me with an opportunity to look deeply into myself, and to better understand my own fears and timidity.  Socially, it has helped me to develop the virtues of dedication and discipline. 

I also learned a lot about theatre, and the craft of acting.   

Dr. Shailor had us keep journals, where we logged our observations and our thoughts, explored our feelings, and examined the characters we were playing in relation to our own life experiences.

The Shakespeare Project has helped me to develop skills that I never knew I had. I have become a more caring person, a better writer, a better student, and a better father to my children.  To this day, I continue to recite some of my lines from the plays, which brings me pleasure, pride, and even comfort, because some of the passages still help me to better understand and accept some painful experiences in my life.  

The Shakespeare Prison Project is a vital educational program that addresses the emotional and psychological needs of inmates, and that also brings the magic of creativity, hope, and possibility to incarcerated individuals.  

IF YOU SUPPORT THIS WORK, PLEASE CONTACT WISCONSIN DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS SECRETARY EDWARD WALL AND TELL HIM WHY.  THANK YOU!

PHONE:  608-240-5055                                       EMAIL:  edward.wall@wi.gov