Blog — Phoenix Players Theatre Group

When I first joined a PPTG workshop, the mountainous concrete walls of Auburn Correctional Facility greeted me coldly. I volunteered in a smaller maximum security prison before but the aesthetics of Auburn was far more intimidating than what I expected. Bruce, Norm, Judy, and Peter casually strolled into the prison and started following security protocol without any prompts from the correctional officers. I cautiously followed their lead and made it a point to not mess anything up as we waited in the security checkpoint. Per usual, I started running my mouth to deal with my lack of comfort in a new environment. Thankfully, Peter humored me. As I took off my shoes, walked through the metal detector, and got my hand stamped with an identification mark, my excitement to meet the men of PPTG grew. I entered the prison and made it to the classroom.

Bruce told me to help set up the room to prepare for when the gentlemen would arrive. We waited and then they came. “C”, “Blackie Smalls”, “Meat”, and the rest of the crew came with bounding energy and started giving hugs and dapping up everyone. Or at least they started air hugging and air dapping because Auburn doesn’t allow their incarcerated people to physically touch people from outside of the prison. Regardless, the warmth that they gave to me was immense despite never having even met me. Automatically, I was welcomed and had the opportunity to interact fully. I remember seeing the now free “Meat” or Demitrius lead us in dynamic acting warmups. I have never done any type of acting before and the stuff that I was being asked to do certainly was strange for a non-actor. Contorting down to the floor, breathing heavily while swinging my arms, and screaming at the top of my lungs were all par for the course in PPTG. Aside from doing the most strange series of activities that I have ever done in my life, PPTG’s true novelty and learning came in interacting with the incarcerated members of the group. My six sessions with PPTG allowed the incarcerated gentleman to reinforce key concepts for why I believe that incarcerated populations need support and reminded me of important life lessons. Firstly, the stories of broken families, poverty, and trauma were a consistent narrative in many of the gentlemen’s stories. If not for the circumstances of my birth, I may have ended up in the exact same circumstances that they are in. Secondly, they taught me the importance of keeping hope. I heard two of the senior members of the group tell me stories of the decades that they spent in prison and how they managed to find ways to still remain positive and uplift people around them. Even when the courts and parole boards deny opportunities to have their cases reconsidered, a hope that the next appeal would be successful remained. Truly, one can find hope in what seems to be the darkest circumstances. Lastly, the gentlemen appreciated the structure that the weekly PPTG meeting brought to their lives because they looked forward to the sessions. The right routine creates a sense of normalcy that helps one to operate in a consistently constructive manner. In the chaos of prison, PPTG provides routine. Routine is not a loathsome inconvenience, but the bedrock of living an exciting life. Altogether, the initial coldness of Auburn quickly melted as Ithaca winter gave way to spring and as I felt the warmth of the PPTG community. Above the logical takeaways that PPTG provided, the welcoming community full of camaraderie will always leave me longing for more.