Playing for Time Theatre Company

Description

Based on more than a decade of practice, Playing for Time Theatre Company presents the reader with a rich and invaluable resource for using theatre in criminal justice contexts, exploring ideas of identity, community, social justice and the power of the arts. The book analyses and reflects upon the company's evolution and unique model of practice, with university students and prisoners working side-by-side, led by industry professionals. The work draws on diverse methodologies and approaches, with chapters written from multiple perspectives, including a forensic psychologist, director, playwright, historian, student and ex-prisoners. Crucially, the voices and reflections of participating prisoners are central to the book. Providing unprecedented access to a significant body of prison theatre, Playing for Time Theatre Company presents both an overview and analysis of an extensive body of work, as well as offering perspectives on the efficacy of arts practice in the UK criminal justice system from 2000 onwards.  

Acknowledgements

Preface

Selina Busby

Introduction

Annie McKean with Kate Massey-Chase

Chapter 1: Transformation and Challenge in Insecure Worlds: The Arts in Secure Institutions

Annie McKean

Chapter 2: Playing for Time Theatre Company: A Model of Practice

Annie McKean

Chapter 3: Playing for Time in ‘The Dolls’ House’: Issues of Community and Collaboration in the Devising of Theatre in a Women’s Prison

Annie McKean

Chapter 4: The Carlisle Memorial Refuge, Winchester 1868–81: ‘That Most Difficult of All Social Questions’ – A Nineteenth-Century Approach to the Rehabilitation of Women Prisoners

Pat Thompson

Chapter 5: Stage Fright: What’s so Scary about Dressing Up?

Brian Woolland

Chapter 6: Telling the Self or Performing Another: The Exploration of Identity through Storytelling, Role and Analogy in West Hill, HMP Winchester

Kate Massey-Chase

Chapter 7: Lessons from the Prison: The Space between Two Worlds

Annie McKean

Chapter 8: Our Country’s Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker: Creating Liberatory Spaces? Reflections on Process and Performance

Marianne Sharp

Chapter 9: The Drama of Change: A Comparative Study of University Students’ and Prisoners’ Dispositional Empathy, Need for Closure and Future Possible Selves

Ann Henry

Chapter 10: Exit Stage Left: Conversation, Creative Writing and Coping with Loss: An Introduction to Scott’s Diary

Kass Boucher

Chapter 11: From the Fishbowl to the Sea: A Nine-Week Journey

Scott

Chapter 12: Over the Wall Theatre Company

Fiona Mackie

Postscript

Notes on Contributors

Index

Sujets

• Social Science
• Theater
• Performing Arts
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Art and Crime
• Theatre
• Sociology
• Rehabilitation
• General officer
• Playwright
• Community
• Art
• General
• Power
• Identity

Informations

• Publié par: Intellect Books Ltd
• Date de parution: 18 décembre 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783209521
• Langue: English

Extrait

First published in the UK in 2019 by
Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK
First published in the USA in 2019 by
Intellect, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street,
Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Copyright © 2019 Intellect Ltd.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Copy-editor: MPS Technologies
Cover designer: Alex Szumlas
Production manager: Tim Mitchell
Typesetting: Contentra Technologies
Cover photograph: Pa Ubu and Dogpile,
Ubu the King , 2007, © Toby Farrow (Hide the Shark).
Print ISBN: 978-1-78320-951-4
ePDF ISBN: 978-1-78320-953-8
ePUB ISBN: 978-1-78320-952-1
Printed and bound by TJ International, UK.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Preface
Selina Busby
Introduction
Annie McKean with Kate Massey-Chase
Chapter 1: Transformation and Challenge in Insecure Worlds: The Arts in Secure Institutions
Annie McKean
Chapter 2: Playing for Time Theatre Company: A Model of Practice
Annie McKean
Chapter 3: Playing for Time in ‘The Dolls’ House’: Issues of Community and Collaboration in the Devising of Theatre in a Women’s Prison
Annie McKean
Chapter 4: The Carlisle Memorial Refuge, Winchester 1868–81: ‘That Most Difficult of All Social Questions’ – A Nineteenth-Century Approach to the Rehabilitation of Women Prisoners
Pat Thompson
Chapter 5: Stage Fright: What’s so Scary about Dressing Up?
Brian Woolland
Chapter 6: Telling the Self or Performing Another: The Exploration of Identity through Storytelling, Role and Analogy in West Hill, HMP Winchester
Kate Massey-Chase
Chapter 7: Lessons from the Prison: The Space between Two Worlds
Annie McKean
Chapter 8: Our Country’s Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker: Creating Liberatory Spaces? Reflections on Process and Performance
Marianne Sharp
Chapter 9: The Drama of Change: A Comparative Study of University Students’ and Prisoners’ Dispositional Empathy, Need for Closure and Future Possible Selves
Ann Henry
Chapter 10: Exit Stage Left: Conversation, Creative Writing and Coping with Loss: An Introduction to Scott’s Diary
Kass Boucher
Chapter 11: From the Fishbowl to the Sea: A Nine-Week Journey
Scott
Chapter 12: Over the Wall Theatre Company
Fiona Mackie
Postscript
Notes on Contributors
Index
Acknowledgements
Thanks to all the people who were kind enough to read draft chapters: Dr Helen Grime, Dr Stevie Simkin, Richard Daniels, Paul Clough (who also sorted out Chapter 9 graphics), Kerryn Davies, Maggie McKean and George Platts. From early on, Kate Massey-Chase read my chapters and those of the other contributors and through this process has become my co-editor and most invaluable support.
My thanks go to the charitable trusts and foundations who supported the work including The European Social Fund, The Hampshire Crime Prevention Panel, Winchester City Council, T-Mobile, The Ernest Cook Trust, J. Paul Getty Jr. Charitable Trust and Arts Council England. HMP Winchester also made significant financial contributions to the work, as did the University of Winchester. The Vice Chancellor of the university, Joy Carter, was unwavering in her support of the productions. Heartfelt thanks also go to the university theatre technicians, particularly David Buss. Thanks are also due to the volunteers outside the university who have supported the shows, including Sandy Taylor, Sarah Litton and Helen Bliault. Rosa Martinez provided invaluable insights into the work during her research project on the 2006 show. Thanks also to Anna Herrmann, from Clean Break Theatre Company, and Michael Moody, previous director of Pimlico Opera, for their support.
Special thanks go to Laura Jones and Steve Manley, from LaunchPad Productions for their fabulous documentaries, Toby Farrow (Hide the Shark, [e-mail] ) who became the official photographer for the Playing for Time shows in 2006, and our team of directors and co-directors: Kerryn Davies, Bethan Clark, Brian Woolland, Marianne Sharp, Natalie Brett, Nick Cooke, Martin Constantine, Kate Massey-Chase, Tom Timms and Leigh Johnstone. Also thanks to project managers Steve Manley and Gina Theodotou.
I would like to thank the staff of HMP Winchester, the many prison officers at West Hill who were wholehearted in their support and the teams of governors who had the vision to see that supporting this kind of work with prisoners could make a difference. Particular thanks go to HMP Winchester Security Manager, Mark Watts, Heads of Learning and Skills, Russell Trent and Jo Bird, the prison music tutor, Bryan Robinson, and musical director and composer from 2006, Richard Daniels.
Thanks also go to the undergraduate students who took part in the projects and who worked tirelessly for nine weeks and more; they were the core and foundation of this work. Without their support and commitment we could never have achieved what we did.
Particular thanks go to my partner, George Platts, who patiently supported me on the journey of putting together this book about Playing for Time Theatre Company and who sat through a daily litany of ups and downs during the nine weeks of each of the eleven projects.
Preface
‘It’s nice to feel sort of human, like normal people…’
These are the words spoken by Prisoner L., one of the many participants who have made theatre with Playing for Time Theatre Company in its eleven-year history of working in HMP Winchester. He is talking about how taking part in the company’s 2006 production of Joan Littlewood’s Oh What a Lovely War makes him feel. This play was chosen by the company specifically due to its focus on themes related to the context of war and because some of the participating prisoners were ex-armed forces personnel. Prisoner L. continues, ‘No, I’m not kidding, sometimes we’re treated like animals, you know what I mean? And sometimes, you know, when we’re out and doing the drama and that and talking to the students, you just forget about where you are. It’s really good’ (Chapter 1, p. 29).
Between January and September 2016, there were 324 recorded deaths in prison, the highest figure since records began. A third of these deaths were self-inflicted and rates of self-harm are also the highest on record, with 36,440 incidents recorded that year, between January and June. Within that time frame, there were also 2462 serious prisoner on prisoner assaults, and the Tornado Team (an elite team of prison officers sent in to prisons to bring riots under control) responded to over 400 incidents between January and September of the same year. This is more than in the whole of the previous year. The United Kingdom’s prison system is overcrowded, with nearly one quarter of the prison population sharing cells designed for fewer occupants than they house, and with one in three of those who are serving sentences in local prisons spending less than two hours a day out of their cells. It is hardly surprising that Prisoner L. feels that the system treats him like an animal.
Those of us who are involved in making performances in prisons and young offender institutions know first-hand the positive effects the arts can have on our participants and the quality of their lives. As advocates for socially inclusive drama, we know that the arts can develop a range of soft skills and that producing a play demands hard work, technical skill and collaboration. We know that arts projects have concrete goals, develop concentration, discipline, teamwork, self-esteem, listening, self-awareness, empathy, control and can be the gateway to continued education. They can build responsibility and positive relationships. More than that, we know, or at least believe, that everyone should have the opportunity to participate in and create art. This book tells the story of how Playing for Time has invited inmates to explore, create, play and ‘feel sort of human’ for over a decade. It describes the challenges, compromises, joys, frustrations, the failures and the successes of working in secure settings.
Writing a preface for a book that is as significant as this one is a daunting task. Annie McKean has worked for over a decade making theatre with the prisoners of HMP Winchester, inviting them to ‘feel … like normal people’, in an abnormal world. This book tells the story of this work, which I was lucky enough to be invited to see in 2003 and 2013. It is a remarkable book that documents, analyses and critiques a sustained theatre practice within one institution over an eleven-year period. That alone makes it an extraordinary addition to the current literature on prison theatre. In her introduction, Annie states that the ‘heart of this book is the prisoner experience’. I would say that Annie, her vision and her practice are the heart of this book, and that prisoner experience is at the centre of her work.
Over the years, I have repeatedly heard about Playing for Time Theatre Company from students who had worked with Annie; each talked of her energy, skill, enthusiasm and commitment to the field of applied theatre, particularly to the work in HMP Winchester. Many of them have come to the MA in Applied Theatre that I convene because of their work with Annie and the desire it has created in them to continue the work they started with her. Creating theatre in secure settings is not easy: practically and emotionally it is hard work. The directing and facilitating are a joy, but the regulations, environment and systems all work against artistry and creative risk-taking. Having worked within the criminal justice system as a trainee teacher, I found it to be both overwhelming and demoralising; now, working with students in prisons, I still find it a tremendous challenge. Annie has been a source of inspiration to me ove