Prison Theater Class
2019 Prison Theater Class. Top (left to right): Walker, Simeon, Ray, Alex, Kevin, Bruce, Mark, Adam, Jayme, Dan, Robert. Middle (left to right): Danielle, Ilana, Keyra, Mabel, Judy, Ariel. Bottom (left to right): Sheldon, Demetrius. (Photo and Video Credit: Peter Carroll)
“Prison Theatre and the Possibilities of Transformation” is a course that is an elective within Cornell’s minor in Crime, Prison, Education and Justice. First offered during the spring semester of 2017, and again during the spring semester of 2019, Professor and PPTG facilitator, Bruce Levitt, in collaboration with the men of The Phoenix Players Theatre Group, created the course. Students attend the Friday evening PPTG workshops at Auburn Correctional Facility, going through the workshop training regimen with the men, receiving coaching and support from other PPTG facilitators and participating in improvisations and scenarios alongside the members of PPTG.
Each week the class meets on campus to discuss assigned texts, to conduct ZOOM interviews with other prison theatre practitioners around the country, and to reflect on the past Friday’s session. The final project for each semester’s work is to structure a piece around the theme of Convergence/Divergence. Groups of three workshop members–one student and two PPTG members–spend two Friday sessions exploring their lives to discover where their journeys converged, or were similar, and where they diverged or were dissimilar. During a third session, each team of three rehearses and stages the piece they have created. On the fourth Friday, the group presents their pieces to the other members of the workshop. The ten short three-minute videos in this section record the students’ final reflections on their fifteen-week experience with The Phoenix Players, interwoven with moments from the presentations of Convergence/Divergence. The filming and editing is by Peter Carroll, PPTG filmmaker and collaborator.
DANIELLE AND MARK
2019 Class Videos
Alex
Ilana
Keyra
Mabel
2017 Prison Theater Class. Top (left to right): Robert, Rebekah Maggor, Bruce, Adam, Walker, Leroy, Sheldon, Norm. Middle (left to right): Elana, Ray, Elise, Alison, Mark, Andrew, Mwangi. Bottom (left to right): Nate, Jayme, Judy, Mané. Front: Demetrius. (Photo and Video Credit: Peter Carroll)
2017 Class Videos