We're producing Gogol! Few of my well-educated buddies have ever read Gogol. Last Friday, the men at Northeast Correctional Center in Bowling Green, Missouri, voted to produce G0gol's The Government Inspector over the next two semesters. I'm thrilled.
They're following in the path of the women at WERDCC in Vandalia, Missouri, who will finish this semester a remarkable production of Bertolt Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle.
It's hard to draw a prison audience to Shakespeare, and even harder to draw them for a tragedy. The women can produce Shakespeare's comedies, playing all the roles, men and women, as there is no fear of lesbianism in the population. At the men's prison, I engage actresses from St. Louis to play women's roles. The only men I'd cast as women would be long-term, tough, big and muscled ones; I'm not going to have anyone mocked or abused.
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About Me
- Agnes Wilcox
- St. Louis, Missouri
- Since 2000 has directed plays at three Missouri prisons -- At Missouri Eastern Correctional Center (MECC), Pacific, Missouri: Hamlet, Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, and The Gospel at Colonus. At Northeast Correctional Center (NECC), Bowling Green, Missouri: The Gospel at Colonus, Julius Caesar, The Tempest, Richard III, Stalag 17 and Gogol's The Government Inspector. At Women’s Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center (WERDCC), Vandalia, Missouri: Macbeth, Crowns, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, The Caucasian Chalk Circle and The Tempest. Agnes is currently directing a group of 16 former prisoners and homeless veteran in an original show designed to help museum-goers at the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts enjoy and appreciate the exhibition of Buddhist Art.
Prison Performing Arts Mission
Prison Performing Arts is dedicated to enriching the lives of adults and young people in the Missouri criminal and juvenile justice systems. We foster individual and social change by providing current and former inmates opportunities to participate in the performing arts as artists, students and audience members.
1 comment:
Agnes,
Good luck with Gogol! Sunds exciting.
In my prison theatre program, I've had male prisoners of various sizes/toughness/sexual orientations choose to play Cordelia, Regan, Goneril, Desdemona, Emilia, Bianca, Miranda, Portia, and Calphurnia... and overwhelmingly, the men have taken pride in their work and have received respect and appreciation from prison audiences. I'm not saying there hasn't been any razzing, only that that is far from the dominant response. One guy who began to feel uncomfortable about being in the role of Calphurnia because of some of the talk on the yard took himself out of the role, and we had another man who was thrilled to take it.
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