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Behind the scenes
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Sammie Byron, inmate

"The death scene with Othello and Desdemona was almost a reenactment of the crime I committed."
Leonard Ford, inmate

"As a prisoner, it's something I have to check every day: to look at myself and say 'No, I am going to be human.' "
Larry Chandler, warden

"The cops got 'em for 20 minutes. The courts got 'em for a half hour. We got 'em for years."
Curt Tofteland, play director

"I would do something for victims, but they're not in one place. I've got perpetrators in one place, and I can work with them."

Acting with conviction

Curtain call

Slideshows
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MonitorTalk
Does Shakespeare help rehabilitate?

Find out more


More about Shakespeare Behind Bars

The Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, sponsor of Shakespeare Behind Bars.

"The Bard Behind Bars," a 1996 article about the program in Louisville Magazine

Send email to Curt Tofteland, Shakespeare Behind Bars director.

Other prison arts programs

Links to some international, mostly US prison arts projects and resources (Brown University)

Links to international prison theater programs (The Prison Arts Foundation)

The Pacific Hamlet Project offers community college credit to inmates at the Pacific, Missouri State Prison for performing Shakespeare's Hamlet. Read a reflection on a production.

In her book Shakespeare Behind Bars: The Power of Drama in a Women's Prison, Jean Trounstine recounts her experiences teaching drama in a Massachusetts facility. Read a Monitor profile of Trounstine.


If you know of a prison theater program that should be listed here, please email us.

Please Note: The Monitor does not endorse the sites behind these links. We offer them for your additional research.

Copyright © 2002 The Christian Science Monitor. All rights reserved.