Applied Theatre: Women and the Criminal Justice System

Description

Applied Theatre: Women and the Criminal Justice System offers unprecedented access to international theatre and performance practice in carceral contexts and the material and political conditions that shape this work. Each of the twelve essays and interviews by international practitioners and scholars reveal a panoply of practice: from cross-arts projects shaped by autobiographical narratives through to fantasy-informed cabaret; from radio plays to film; from popular participatory performance to work staged in commercial theatres. Extracts of performance texts, developed with Clean Break theatre company, are interwoven through the collection. Television and film images of women in prison are repeatedly painted from a limited palette of stereotypes – ‘bad girls’, ‘monsters’, ‘babes behind bars’. To attend to theatre with and about women with experience of the criminal justice system is to attend to intersectional injustices that shape women’s criminalization and the personal and political implications of this. The theatre and performance practices in this collection disrupt, expand and reframe representational vocabularies of criminalized women for audiences within and beyond prison walls. They expose the role of incarceration as a mechanism of state punishment, the impact of neoliberalism on ideologies of punishment and the inequalities and violence that shape the lives of many incarcerated women. In a context where criminalized women are often dismissed as unreliable or untrustworthy, the collection engages with theatre practices which facilitate an economy of credibility, where women with experience of the criminal justice system are represented as expert witnesses. Cover page Halftitle page Series page Title page Copyright page Dedication Contents Contributors Acknowledgements Introduction Women, prison and the cultural imagination Women in the criminal justice system – who are they? Prison theatres Theatre with and about women in prison The Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women (USA) Teatro Yeses (Spain) Clean Break (UK) International practices and perspectives Scope and structure Notes from the field Notes References Wicked (1991) 1 Interplay: Tracing Personal and Political Transformation through Popular Participatory Theatre in Westville Female Correctional Centre, Durban, South Africa Introduction: A transformational politics Popular participatory (prison) theatre The women of Westville Politics of the issue Politics of identity Politics of human rights Notes References ‘Four Walls’, Voices from Prison (1987) 2 ‘They Pink Dress Ain’t Done Shit’: Sex, Dress and Quare Activism in a Women’s Gulf Coast Prison The pink dress policy Drama Club herstory Beauty Coming and Going Pinky’s Boutique The response and the trajectory Acknowledgements Notes References Decade (1984) 3 Daughters of the Floating Brothel: Engaging Indigenous Australian Women Prisoners through Participatory Radio Drama Introduction Background The trauma trails of indigenous female incarceration Blessing and releasing the past Representing intergenerational incarceration Episode one: The ship and its arrival Episode two: Barambah Mission Episode three: Old Boggo Road Gaol Conclusion Acknowledgements Notes References ‘I am a theatre’, Voices from Prison (1987) 4 What Works: The Affective and Gendered Performance of Prison Affect and stigma ‘What works?’ Applied theatre as intervention Affect and aesthetics: HMP Drake Hall The work of gender in the project Concluding remarks Notes References Extract I from Inside Bitch (2019) 5 Possible Fictions: Split Britches, Biography and Fantasy with Women in Prison HMP Highpoint. 2 April 2002. Day 1. Morning. HMP Highpoint. 2 April 2002. Day 1. Aft ernoon. The creation of fantasy characters. HMP Highpoint. 3 April 2002. Day 2. HMP Highpoint. 4 April 2002. Day 3. Tammy Whynot. HMP Highpoint. 12 April 2002. Final day. Betty No-Boobs changes her mind. Note References Extract I from Killers (1980) 6 Theatre as Collective Casework: Clean Break Theatre Company’s Charged (2010) Setting the conditions for casework: The Charged poster and structure of the production Beginning and ending in risk environments: The basement and studio plays Proscenium prisons: Staging custodial settings on the middle level Conclusion Notes References ‘Prison Loves, Prison Hates’, Voices from Prison (1987) 7 Somebody’s Daughter Theatre Company: The Arts – Unapologetically Transcendent Where did it all begin? Lessons I have learnt Extract II from Killers (1980) 8 The Meeting Place: Collaborative Learning in a University–Prison Partnership I. Sustained weekly drama practice at HMP New Hall: ‘I see myself as a different person now’ II. Creative writing, song and resettlement at HMP Askham Grange: ‘Wanting a relationship with my family again’ III. Motherhood and prison: ‘Keeping mum’ IV. The Donmar Warehouse Shakespeare Trilogy: ‘I feel like I have a voice’ Conclusion Extract II from Inside Bitch (2019) 9 Acting Out: An Interview with Sherrin Fitzer Inside a Cloud (2016) 10 ‘There Is Still Life in Me, Despite What I Have Done’: Assuaging Woundedness through Collective Creativity Introduction Contexts South African prison context Theoretical framework The practice: Witnessing each other and seeing myself Taking careful risks: Seeing the ‘other’ Conclusion Acknowledgements Notes References ‘Dirty Rule Makers’, Voices from Prison (1987) 11 The Stella Adler Studio Outreach Programme at the Rose M. Singer Center for Women at Rikers Island Correctional Facility: An Interview with Joanne Edelmann and Tom Oppenheim 21.23.6.15 (2018) 12 In Their Shoes: Participation, Social Change and Empathy in Open Clasp’s Key Change The work of Open Clasp Theatre and the Key Change project Representing the voices of women prisoners In their shoes: Debates of representation and appropriation Promoting a ‘Key Change’ through the portrayal of women prisoners Notes References Index