Project “For Colored Girls:” Breaking the shackles of role deprivation through prison theatre

A prison theatre workshop at Bayview Correctional Facility (BCF) in Manhattan combines improvisational techniques, play rehearsal, and performance. Ten women participate for eight weeks as cast and crew in a production of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf by African American playwright Ntozake Shange. The characters reflect different types of women in critical situations, breaking the long held silence marginalized women feel due to oppression. Written in poetic verse, scenes dramatize rites of passage, sisterhood and female sexuality, abandonment, poverty, abuse, rape, and unrequited love providing many archetypal roles that resonate with the actors and prison audience.This article is a descriptive account using both narrative and journal entries written contemporaneously during the production, focusing on the obstacles of mounting a theatrical production within a prison setting and on the challenges of working with female offenders.Archetypical roles from Robert Landy's extensive work in drama therapy are referenced to reflect the function and diversity of role types in the drama and to illustrate how the artistic work expands the diminished life roles of women in prison. Thoughts on Agusto Boal's theory regarding invitational theatre, within the setting of a prison, are discussed.

► Theatre expands the diminished life roles of women in prison.
► Research suggests incarcerated women are victims of crime.
► Obstacles and constraints of working within prison are considerable.
► Rape myth and spousal abuse is enacted for actors and prison audience.
► Benefits to actors include instilling confidence, trust, discipline and teamwork.