Hand it to Jonathan Shailor to not sit around while program big wigs decide whether or not he can go back inside with his important theatre work behind bars (See "Are You Kidding Me?" in the Archives).  He launched The Shakespeare Prison Project: Beyond Bars on January 13th, 2013, at the Rita Tallent Pickens Center for the Arts and Humanities at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.

What is perhaps most touching to me is not that former prisoner, Nick Leair, joined guest actors onstage to perform scenes from The Tempest and Henry IV, Part 2, but that is daughter, Ally not only saw him perform in Beyond Bars this week but in The Tempest  when he was incarcerated.

Here Leair is with his daughter now and before he was released

Shailor wrote:  "Ally joined us on stage during the talkback. I asked her what her main impression of her Dad was back in 07 when she saw him perform for the first time. She said, '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…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."

This reminds me of how much we give and get from the people we work with behind bars.  Next week I will be seeing a woman I worked with over twenty years ago at Framingham Women's Prison.  How much the connections endure and this is because the work allows people to dig deep into themselves and to learn something new be it about themselves and/or about the world.  Them, for sure; us, the teachers, as well.  As I said in Shakespeare Behind Bars, the performance of the Bard offers prisoners access to a world many never thought was part of their lives.  If one can tackle Shakespeare, one can tackle anything.

I encourage blog readers to contact the WISCONSIN DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS SECRETARY EDWARD WALL AND TELL HIM THAT YOU SUPPORT THIS WORK!  

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

Visit Boston Magazine'sand read my blog about poets behind bars who are sending their words into cyberspace.  It's part of a three-part series about writing and art blogs from prisoners.  The talent behind bars!

"Prisoners have long written poetry from inside the prison walls. For incarcerated men and women—as for all who have the urge to write poetry—Robert Frost’s words ring true: the poem “begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness.” Poetry is the need to express what’s locked up inside, and for the prisoner, the bars are real." More

Some years ago I brought an amazing artist to my college, Middlesex Community College, in Lowell, Massachusetts — Homer Jackson.  Jackson had honed his chops on Philadelphia's performance art scene and worked with prisoners and former prisoners.  My students loved him, and in particular, the way he allowed art and performance, poverty and loss, prisoner and free person to all blend into one.

One thing always leads to another it seems, when you're working for prisoner rights, and this year, I heard from a friend of Homer's, Steve Rowland,a two-time Peabody Award winning documentary producer, currently involved in a new project.

Called "Globe to Globe Visits Prison, or, To Whom Does Shakespeare Belong?" Rowland says he had two experiences that changed his world:  1) interviewing men in a Shakespeare class organized by Rehabiltation Through The Arts at Woodbourne Prison in NY State;  2) being the head interviewer at an amazing international Shakespeare festival at London's Globe Theater

Now, along side the Globe and along with Rehabilitation through the Arts, he's using material from three of Shakespeare's plays and making a documentary touching on issues domestic violence, questions of manhood, loyalty, betrayal, way and identity.

Here's a photo from a Nigerian production of A Winter's Tale which inspired Rowland.

And here's 5 minute trailer on his project page which clarifies more about the documentary.

Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA)  was founded in Sing Sing in 1996. Today, RTA works in five New York State prisons with innovative programs in theatre, dance, creative writing, voice and visual art. From their website, RTA says that they are "dedicated to using the creative arts as a tool for social and cognitive transformation behind prison walls."

In times of violence, I look for hope.  Here it is:

Sarah Jane Coffman is serving a 14-year sentence for murder in Eagle River Alaska’s Hiland Mountain Correctional Facility.  Yes, she is a perpetrator of an awful crime.  But as so many of us know who have worked behind bars, Sarah is not only the face of crime.  As reported by Mark Thiessen  in the Associated Press, she founded the prison orchestra in 2003.  She had her debut as a member of the free world when the orchestra performed two annual holiday concerts on December 8th, 2012.

Sarah plays the viola in what can only be described as a fairly welcoming environment– for a prison.  She was released in February but actually has driven every Saturday to rehearse with the orchestra.  She plays with women who became her friends behind bars.  Not unusual for females.Many make bonds and connect deeply to bare the time, time often away from their children. Nearly 70% of women in prison are mothers– at Framingham Women’s Prison when I was there, it was 80%.

Thiessen reports that “This year’s concert is also a milestone for another founding member, cellist Dana Hilbish, convicted for the 1991 murder of her common law husband in Ketchikan. She received a 60-year sentence, with 25 suspended.  It will be her last performance. Hilbish has been granted parole early next year.”  She felt that the orchestra has been a family for her.

An outside artist named Pati Crofut, who directs the Anchorage-based Arts on the Edge, began directing the orchestra nine years ago. She encourages long-termers to be part of the musical experience since it takes time to learn how to play classical music.  There are 30 members now.

A nice observation by Conductor Gabrielle Whitfield, an Anchorage public schools teacher, “They always say the greater a person’s sadness in life, the greater their capacity for joy,” she said. “I totally find that to be true here.”  In my experience this is true,as women behind bars create art to heal, touch deep parts of themselves and learn to get outside of their crimes.

To listen to the orchestra and hear more of their insights about art and music, go here for a glorious video. 

And for another piece of hope, read my piece about Dolly, a woman I taught at Framingham Women’s Prison who became my friend, and who gave me “A Gift From prison.”  Dolly below, pictured as Lysistrata in our prison production by the same name:

Check out my new blogpost about the art prisoners create and post on blogs at:

The second of the three part series.  Boston Daily