Wednesday, December 06, 2023
Prison Shakespeare at Milan's Young Offenders Institute
The Theatre Times: Since 2015 my theatre studies colleague, Cristina Cavecchi, and I have been leading Shakespeare prison workshops at the Puntozero Beccaria Theatre. This two-hundred-seater theatre is the only one in Europe situated inside a Young Offenders Institution, which is fully accessible to the general public. Every year, we join founders and artistic directors, Giuseppe Scutellà and Lisa Mazoni, to set up a new workshop, whose participants are a mix of university students (from the Humanities and Law faculties at Milan University), members of Puntozero Beccaria company, and young inmates. The prison workshop is also unusual in that university students receive credits for their attendance.
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I think this is an absolutely amazing idea and that leading Shakespeare workshops in prison is an extremely beneficial thing for many people. I appreciated the focus on how these workshops are designed to "empower" inmates. I know firsthand just how meaningful theater can be and how it can create hope and happiness, and I know many people who feel similarly to me. There is no reason why people in prison should be stripped of their access to culture and theater, so giving them the option to learn, write, create, and act with Shakespeare seems like it would be an incredibly valuable opportunity. It seems like this workshop was carefully planned out to give people a variety of different options for their interests, which would help with achieving the goal of making the attendees "grow empowered and hopefully become more proactive citizens." Overall, I like this concept and I think it should be brought to more prisons and similar places because I see only good things coming from it.
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