188 pages
244 x 170mm
Due May 2010

Theatre behind Bars invites readers into the harsh world of prison culture, and reveals how an applied theatre project changed the lives of the men who experienced it. Granted unique access to a correctional facility, the author presents the findings from his three year study investigating the impact of a sustained prison theatre programme. The book tracks the work of twenty of the men, most of them serious offenders, as they participated in this programme.

The text eloquently recaptures the inmates’ involvement with the theatre arts as they crafted scripts and monologues, engaged with process drama, forum theatre and public performance, and as they reflected on how their lives were forever changed once they were behind bars. The rehabilitative potential of theatre as shown through the eyes of the inmates pervades the text with compelling authenticity. The book is not just about the arts in prison but is also an important resource for everyone who is interested in the humanizing aspect of theatre.

This book will be of interest to researchers, educators and students interested in applied theatre and the scholarship which informs it. It will be an important library addition to college programmes which specialize in theatre studies and educational theatre, and of particular interest to community artists and activists, and in criminal justice and youth detainment programmes. While the focus is on theatre in prison and its rehabilitative potential, the book will have broader appeal for those concerned with the social and civic impact of theatre, and in counselling and general training programmes. Importantly, it contributes to recent debates on the purposes of applied theatre.

CONTENTS

Chapter One: Why do Theatre behind Bars
The chapter provides an overview of exceptional prison arts programs worldwide, including Rehabilitation through the Arts (RTA), Geese Theatre, Cell Block Theatre, Rideout, Theatre for the Forgotten, the Prison Arts Forum, and the Theatre in Prison and Parole (TIPP)

Chapter Two: From monologue to dialogue
Readers are introduced to the contribution of critical social theory to applied theatre. Foucacult’s history on discipline and punishment in prisons, his critique of power and knowledge, serve as a backdrop the study. Breaking through the men’s stereotypical notion of theatre is explored, and how applied theatre offered them alternate ways of engaging with art.

Chapter Three: The Rehabilitation Argument
The chapter examines what rehabilitation means within correctional facilities. Research by Balfour, Moller, Tocci, Thompson, Troustine and others has suggested that arts programs in prisons can affect the inmates’ anger management and coping strategies, reducing their time spent in lockdown. Theatre Chapter Three explores the educational aspects of theatre behind bars, and the contributions that drama education, especially the movement known as process drama, has made.

Chapter Four: The Ethical Dimension
The ethical dimension associated with prison theatre as artists strive for freedom and democracy in a penal environment is unpacked. Chapter Four examines the tension between releasing the imagination of inmates given the reality of incarceration and the despair that inmates often experience. While

Chapter Five: Evaluating theatre behind bars
The chapter will summarise the justifications which the inmates offered for applied theatre in prisons. These tend to focus on three main areas:

1. Interpersonal and intrapersonal development.
2. Decline in recidivist rates
3. The importance of aesthetic education

Dr Philip Taylor is director of the educational theatre programme at New York University. An acclaimed author, his previous book for Trentham (with Christine D.Warner) is Structure and Spontaneity: the process drama of Cecily O’Neill.