plainKate: "I used to imagine that incarcerated actors would have no schedule conflicts. That they would be available to rehearse at any time. That they don’t have anything else to do. I was as wrong as I could be. I marvel at how busy the men who participate in Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) are: they all have their work assignments, scattered throughout the prison, as law library clerks, gallery porters, chow hall workers, plumbers, recreational aides; many of them are in school, whether it is the pre-college, college or master’s programs; there are advocacy and counseling, mentoring and study groups; there are those wonderful, all-too-short-yet-sacrosanct visits with family and friends.
Wednesday, April 06, 2011
Behind the scenes, behind bars
plainKate: "I used to imagine that incarcerated actors would have no schedule conflicts. That they would be available to rehearse at any time. That they don’t have anything else to do. I was as wrong as I could be. I marvel at how busy the men who participate in Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) are: they all have their work assignments, scattered throughout the prison, as law library clerks, gallery porters, chow hall workers, plumbers, recreational aides; many of them are in school, whether it is the pre-college, college or master’s programs; there are advocacy and counseling, mentoring and study groups; there are those wonderful, all-too-short-yet-sacrosanct visits with family and friends.
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3 comments:
This is a fantastic idea. I have never heard of a rehabilitation program that can help incarcerated people through theatre. Though I know that there are some criminals that will commit crimes over and over again for whatever reason, I do believe that there are also those men and women who really do want and can turn their lives around. Even though there are logistic issues I am sure that the time that is spent with RTA is a highlight in the days behind bars. In Michigan we had a great program that was an alternative to time behind bars for non violent offenders, that lasted for 18 years and just recently got shut down do to budget cuts. It was a military style boot camp that also offered inmates the opportunity to get their GED's. Sure this program did not work for everyone but there were some people whose lives were changed for the better by it. A man approached my dad while he was on duty a few weeks ago and called him by name, my dad unsure of who was, was thrilled to find out that this was a man who he had trained at Boot Camp. He had graduated from Boot Camp a few years back and had gotten his GED then went onto college and now is hoping to become a director. So programs like these really do help people and in whatever way they may be different they should continue to grow and try to help those who will accept it.
I agree with Sonia. There were a lot of comments on the article page that said that theater changes lives. It true. My life would be so much worse if it wasn't for theater. One thing it did was take away all the other problems in my life. It gave me a chance to see my potential. no matter how hard a time i was having with my family no matter what happened, i had somewhere to go and everything would be okay and normal. I had something i could put all my energy into, whether it was good or bad, and create something that benefited other people and created a community. Thats why i want to do theater. If i can have such a big influence over someone's life and make it better and do something i love.
I think this is really interesting...there are so many hoops that we have to jump through and things that are out of our hands that we have to rely on in our world. These things are made even more complicated for this author, and yet he is able to see the light through the trees. I think we sometimes lose sight of why we do theatre and get too focused on the petty issues. We do theatre to help people, to entertain them, to inform them, etc. This author does theatre to potentially help save the futures of these men. That is so cool. As Sonia said, there are plenty of people in jail that want to turn their lives around. The fact that theatre can help do this is amazing. The author of this article is pretty selfless, and I hope that there are more people out there like her. I don't know that I have the patience to deal with this, but I hope that someday I could if it meant that I got to help these people. Articles like this give me a little reality check and remind me that my life is great and that I should use my blessings to help others more.
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