Prisoners re-enact Shakespeare plays
Director believes art has "healing power"
Phoebe Gaston
Issue date: 4/13/06 Section: News
- Page 1 of 1
When you think of prisoners, you probably imagine tough, hairy, jerk-offs with a few teeth knocked out because of fighting. Perhaps you picture tattooed gamblers and illegal drug traffickers. Well, that's not always the case at Luther Luckett Correctional Complex in Kentucky, where a program called "Shakespeare Behind Bars" thrives. The inmates involved in this program are intelligent, motivated, and hilarious as they act out scenes from Shakespeare and delve into their own lives through the art of performance.
Last Tuesday, April 4, Curt Tofteland, a musician and the program's director, came to Wittenberg to show a documentary done on the "Shakespeare Behind Bars" program and to answer questions. The documentary, produced by Hank Rogerson and Jilann Spitzmiller, was incredibly inspiring; it captured 25 weeks worth of rehearsal for "The Tempest" with the inmates and the intimacy they shared during it. The group practiced two hours and twenty minutes twice a week.
Tofteland said he started the program with the belief that art has healing power.
"I'm a pretty smart guy, but Shakespeare is much smarter," he said. "No one knows as much about human nature as he does."
His hope was that the art of performance would teach the inmates a little bit about themselves, and it seems to have worked. Many of the inmates got a closer look at their problems and pasts through acting as characters similar to themselves.
The cast of the play, "The Tempest", performed not only at their own penitentiary, but the performance was so successful that it was also performed at other nearby jails for other inmates.
The documentary film about this particular cast has won at least 10 film festival awards. Similar programs are starting up in other penitentiaries because of the inspiration this documentary provided, but also because of volunteers like Tofteland who decide to take a chance.
"If you ask anyone who's ever done anything of measure, they'll give you one word," he said. "Simple curiosity."
Last Tuesday, April 4, Curt Tofteland, a musician and the program's director, came to Wittenberg to show a documentary done on the "Shakespeare Behind Bars" program and to answer questions. The documentary, produced by Hank Rogerson and Jilann Spitzmiller, was incredibly inspiring; it captured 25 weeks worth of rehearsal for "The Tempest" with the inmates and the intimacy they shared during it. The group practiced two hours and twenty minutes twice a week.
Tofteland said he started the program with the belief that art has healing power.
"I'm a pretty smart guy, but Shakespeare is much smarter," he said. "No one knows as much about human nature as he does."
His hope was that the art of performance would teach the inmates a little bit about themselves, and it seems to have worked. Many of the inmates got a closer look at their problems and pasts through acting as characters similar to themselves.
The cast of the play, "The Tempest", performed not only at their own penitentiary, but the performance was so successful that it was also performed at other nearby jails for other inmates.
The documentary film about this particular cast has won at least 10 film festival awards. Similar programs are starting up in other penitentiaries because of the inspiration this documentary provided, but also because of volunteers like Tofteland who decide to take a chance.
"If you ask anyone who's ever done anything of measure, they'll give you one word," he said. "Simple curiosity."
Be the first to comment on this story