Can Art Change Your Life?nby Barbara Janice Kielhofer
nI will never forget the first time I saw the documentary Shakespeare Behind Bars. SBB shows the year-long journey of the Shakespeare Behind Bars theatre troupe at Luther Luckett prison in LaGrange, Kentucky. The Inmates are lead by Curt Tofteland, who has been working with Luther Luckett inmates since the mid-1990s. The inmate’s stories, including their 
crimes, are interwoven with the plot of Shakespeare’s The Tempest as the inmates delve deeply into the characters they portray while confronting their personal demons. According to the SBB website, “The result is an extraordinary story about the creative process and the power of art to heal and redeem–in a place where the very act of participation in theatre is a human triumph and a means of personal liberation.” I couldn’t agree with that statement. Art can heal. I have witnessed this fact time and time again. The arts are a place for us to share our stories and touch each others lives. I can’t think of any population that can use transformation or redemption more than incarcerated prisoners. I have always been incensed that there is little to no reform in the US prison system. The whole process, to me, seems so dehumanizing and counterproductive. It seems like we create more criminals this way than functioning members of society. It’s not that I don’t find their crimes horrifying or I feel the need to justify the “bad” things people do, it’s that I recognize that we are all humans and all of us that the power to do just as much good as bad. And given the chance I believe we are all capable of redemption. We can, and do, become better people when given support and dignity. No human should be left behind in this, regardless of how “monstrous” one may think they are. Deep down I believe in the power of grace and forgiveness. I can’t remember where but someone once said, “those who need grace the most often deserve it the least.” This has always touched me deeply. Tofteland also works from this place of understanding. He believes in seeing these men for who they are today, not for who they were, and not defining them solely by the crime they have committed. All in all the documentary really shook me to the core and sparked something in me.nnCut to two years later…my best friend and T. Schreiber Studio publicist Lanie Zipoy invites me to a reading of a project she has been working on. That project was Voices Inside/Out:n
“Voices Inside/Out was founded to support Voices Inside, the playwriting and theater arts program at Northpoint Training Center, a medium security prison in Burgin, Kentucky. The goal of Voices Inside/Out is artistic exchange between the prisoner-playwrights at Northpoint and professional playwrights. We believe everyone can benefit and expand their worldviews from this program. We accomplish our mission in two ways: presenting the inmates’ plays in New York City to a wide audience and supporting a playwriting residency for an accomplished playwright each summer at Northpoint.”
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nnThe reading was of some of the plays the Northpoint inmates had been developing with the first recipient of the voicesnnplaywright residency, Mac Rogers. I cried. The writing was beautiful and creative and inspired. It’s like for a moment these men were free. They were something more than their crimes, they were artists. They had all the same hopes and nndreams and fears that I do. We weren’t separated by bars or walls or circumstance anymore, we were in fact the same. Art can do that. Theatre can do that. Words can do that. It connects us all together in our humanity. Then Mac and Lanie and Artistic Director Synge Maher talked about their experiences and I cried more. I wish I could explain why their stories touched me so much but I can’t seem to put it into words. I guess it helped remind me why I do theatre. I was nnstunned by the transformative power of nntheatre. When you work in the industry day in and day out it can be difficult to nnretain the magic that brought you to it in the first place, it becomes a day job and not a transformative space that can change lives. But that is what theatre is. And at that moment I remembered how truly powerful what we do can be. Since then I have become personally involved with Voices Inside/Out joining their advisory council. My involvement has affected me in so many ways. In nn
nnDecember I was the victim of an attempted rape. The attack was violent and scary and has, understandable, shaken me deeply. But it is the humanity that this work has taught me that keeps me from falling into a dark place. Having grace keeps me from feeling like a victim. It keeps me from letting my anger consume me. It keeps me from turning bitter and inward. Any maybe, if I am lucky, I will be able to turn the experience into something nnthat can touch another young woman in my position and help see her through her dark place. And that, I suppose, is the takeaway I leave you with. Yes, its fun to go to flashy musicals and act in rom-com movies but what we do also serves a much higher purpose. It lets us connect with one another and to let our shared stories heal the wounds this life can give us. It lets us know we are not alone and that deep down, whether we are incarcerated in Kentucky or trying to battle the challenges of living in NYC, we are all the same.nnIt’s not just me that has experienced a profound change as a result of my affiliation with Voices. At the prison where Voices Inside/Out has its playwriting residency two female guards were attacked. One of the inmates who is involved with the program came to their aid fracturing his hand and breaking his middle finger in the process. Here is what he had to say about the event (this is a small section of a letter he wrote to the Voices team): n
“I wanted to tell you personally that even though I feel I would have gone to their aid eventually, the fact is because of the writing program that you guys brought to this facility, it enabled me to help these good people with a noble heart and a clear mind. You tell us constantly to ‘speak the truth.’ Many, many times our actions speak for us. Thank you again.”
nYou ask, “Can art change lives?” And to that I reply…It can. It does. It will.n
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nIf you want to experience Voices Inside/Out yourself please join us for our next reading on Monday, April 1st at the Soho Playhouse. Writer Jonathan Ames will host the stage reading of five inmate-authored plays created in the playwriting program at Northpoint Training Center. All net proceeds support the summer playwriting program at Northpoint, and seed the third annual residency for a professional playwright to teach master classes to the prisoner-playwrights there in June 2013.nnTickets can be purchased at https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/921596 or by calling (866) 811-4111. Splurge and buy the VIP ticket…trust me, you will thank me for that 🙂