In 2009 Michael Rhynes and Clifford
Williamson, incarcerated men in the Auburn
Correctional Facility in central New York,
founded the Auburn Phoenix Players.

Shortly thereafter, the two renamed the
company to form The Phoenix Players
Theatre Group (PPTG). They did this because
they both realized that, while they were “in”
Auburn, they were not “of” Auburn.

In the founders’ own words, “PPTG is
a grassroots program developed by and for
incarcerated persons and communities in
a maximum security prison."

We are a transformative theatre community,
that utilizes theatre to reconnect
incarcerated people to their full humanity.