Parables From Prison
The word theatre comes from the Greeks. It means the seeing place. It is the place people come to see the truth about life and the social situation. Stella Adler
Parables from Prison is a collection of transformative stories that incarcerated youth recognize as some of the milestones they face navigating the prison system and searching for their place in a punishing society. These parables as told by Prince Nwankwo and recorded by Everett have resulted in a series of short films that can be used directly with youth to help them process and understand their experiences. They can also be used with staff at youth detention facilities and with the general public to help them understand the cycle of violence and incarceration that too many young people grow up in.
Currently we are looking for partner institutions and funders to pilot a ten week program based on this material. Ultimately we see the development of a workbook that can be used by theater artists, clinicians and educators working with incarcerated youth as well as staff and organizers working for prison reform and policy change. The workbook will include scripts, role play scenarios, related theater improvisation games, questions for teachers to use to prompt discussions and links to all of the teaching videos from the curriculum.
Currently our justice system is geared towards extracting its ‘pound of flesh’ rather than towards rehabilitation. This results in astronomical recidivism rates and a pattern of generational incarceration. We believe that a system geared towards treating people humanely, and helping them heal and develop, would bear better results for those incarcerated and for society as a whole.
