HowlRound Theatre Commons: In recent years in Mexico, more and more professional theatre companies have been founded by inmates in prisons. This boom is due to the fact that theatre has proven to have positive effects on those who take part in the creation process.
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Long live Penitentiary theatre in Mexico! I am shocked that there are fifteen professional theatre companies in Mexico within detention centers with hundreds of participants. I also cannot believe that Santa Martha Acatitla has been around for nine years. I love hearing the success of an inmates who wrote plays while within their penitentiary centers and knowing that theatre has been a positive creative process which is helping these people heal. I also think that Jorge Correa’s belief that all people were once innocent, but due to circumstance, they lived through situations that led them to where the are today. He believes all people are good people and theatre is just a method for these inmates to relearn that they have good inside of them. It’s really beautiful and powerful. Learning how to express emotion without judgement, learning about your intrapersonal self, and learning how to work in a team - all while trusting other people - is why penitentiary's in Mexico have been so successful and so impactful on these small communities of people.
Theatre is for everyone. It has been a voice for people who need an outlet to tell their story, someone like an inmate in a prison in mexico. Theatre can be a great tool for people to express themselves, but like many other performing arts, is still limiting those voices when it comes to the main public, and how many people it reaches. So it is really cool to hear that professional and successful theatre companies are blooming from inmates in prisons in mexico. Using art as a healing device is such a good idea, it can be cathartic. That is what theatre was in the beginning reaching catharsis. I loved how they put it in the article when telling the artist’s reason to teach in these prisons, they described it as a liberating tool; “Even though the inmates are not physically free, they learn to free their hearts and souls. Prison, also known as a correctional facility can become correctional with programs like the ones described in the article.
I have read multiple articles now on the successes of theatre programs in prisons in the United States for many of the same reasons described in this article. The inmates are allowed to dig deeper within their own identities and experiences, form connections and trust with other people, and have a safe space free of judgment. These are all critical to theatre-making in general, and it’s no surprise that they strike deep to these inmates with troubled pasts. It’s fantastic to hear about this scene flourishing in Mexico, not only in terms of actors but also writers. The fact that the inmates in these penitentiary programs go on to continue in theatre after being released is evidence of the sheer impact of the arts and the kind of untapped talent that we need to keep looking for. Artistic ability is never something that can be assumed to be true or untrue of a person, and I think it’s extremely important and beneficial that all people-- regardless of their experiences or histories-- get the opportunity to create.
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