Abstract
My research investigates the growing phenomenon of Prison Shakespeare—a rapidly expanding community of prison arts programs in which ensembles of men or women who are incarcerated work with outside facilitators to stage performances of Shakespeare. This article is drawn from my first-hand research on Jonathan Shailor’s Shakespeare Prison Project, a program for men who are currently incarcerated at Racine Correctional Institution in Wisconsin. This article is based on my observations of two Shakespeare Prison Project (SPP) rehearsals, their 2017 performance of The Merchant of Venice, and focus groups that I conducted with fifteen members of the ensemble. This article focuses on casting practices and explores the ethical paradox that arises within the hypermasculine environment of men’s prisons, where men cast to play women’s roles face a heightened risk of violence, and yet, where creating positive representations of women is of paramount importance for disrupting the violent misogyny demanded by that hypermasculine environment. Setting SPP in relation to other programs for men, I demonstrate how certain casting practices risk perpetuating toxic masculinities, while others demonstrate the potential to foster alternative masculinities. Based on the insights offered by participants, I argue further that this process is contingent upon the ensemble’s authorization of those alternative masculinities.
Highlights
One of most complex ethical questions facing prison performance programs for men is how to cast the women’s roles
Within the hypermasculine context of men’s prisons, facilitators traverse an ethical minefield when it comes to casting the women’s roles in an institutional space in which performing femininity invites physical violence, and yet where creating positive representations of women is of paramount importance for disrupting the violent misogyny demanded by that hypermasculine environment
I take up the following questions: How do prison performance programs propose to empower incarcerated men within the hypermasculine context of men’s prisons, and how do cross-gender performance practices serve or hinder that goal? How are all-male prison performances cast with these complications
Summary
One of most complex ethical questions facing prison performance programs for men is how to cast the women’s roles. The Shakespeare Prison Project offers an explicitly (re)habilitative agenda, and Shailor’s work demonstrates his commitment to the reformative potential of theater, .3 He began his work at Racine Correctional Institution with a course titled The Theater of Empowerment, in which participants used the vehicle of performance to explore archetypal male roles and to learn new strategies for resolving conflict. He launched The Shakespeare Prison Project, a program for which a key element of the mission is to “create positive change in offenders through an array of services aimed at the positive development of human learning, growth, and meaningful behavior control” Project’s 2017 performance of The Merchant of Venice to illustrate how a reversal of these politics can be achieved by casting pillars within the ensemble to play the women’s roles
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