The intrigue and drama of Shakespeare’s plays will help prisoners control their raw emotions when a University of Queensland academic leads a world-first program in a Queensland prison.
Young male prisoners at Borallon Correctional Centre will have the opportunity to learn and perform scenes from Shakespeare’s iconic works, in a pilot program to start in June – in the count-down to the UQ-hosted World Shakespeare Congress.
A key philosophy behind the program was that “violence begins when the words run out”, said project co-ordinator Dr Rob Pensalfini, Artistic Director of the Queensland Shakespeare Ensemble www.qldshakespeare.org and a senior lecturer in UQ’s School of English, Media Studies and Art History.
“People who have studied violence for some years say that violence begins when the words run out,” Dr Pensalfini said.
“Shakespeare is an antidote to violence because he enables people to express a wide range of emotions, especially the most difficult ones, through language.
“Shakespeare is in a league of his own when it comes to giving everyday people the means to elegantly articulate the most complex of emotions.”
Dr Pensalfini said acting out the murder and mayhem of Shakespeare’s plays was very different to being physically violent in real life.
“When you act out violence on stage the victim is always in control. It turns the violent relationship on its head and allows you to explore the nature of violence in safe ways.”
The program, called Arts in Community Enhancement (ACE), will be funded by UQ and the Queensland Law Society through the Queensland Shakespeare Ensemble and the Supreme Court of Queensland Library.
“The Queensland Corrective Services Department has rigorously assessed ACE, and the Department’s co-operation has made it possible to pilot this innovative program in Queensland,” Dr Pensalfini said.
“The aim is to help prisoners become more skilled at managing their emotions, and then more able to make a positive contribution to the community when they are released.”
ACE grew out of meetings in the United States between Dr Pensalfini and Brent Blair, an American actor, director, voice teacher and counselor who founded the Theatre of the Oppressed Centre in the USA. Back in Brisbane, Dr Pensalfini – encouraged by Professor Richard Fotheringham, UQ’s Executive Dean of Arts and Convenor of the World Shakespeare Congress - gained the interest of members of the judiciary including Supreme Court Chief Justice de Jersey.
While Shakespeare has been tried and tested in prisons in the USA and the UK, this is the world’s first behind-the-bars marriage of Theatre of the Oppressed and Shakespeare. It is believed to be the first use of Shakespeare in this way in an Australian prison.
Dr Pensalfini said Mr Blair will make his first visit to Australia in June, when he will begin training the ACE artist-facilitators at UQ Ipswich.
Up to 12 prisoners will be involved in the pilot program. Meanwhile, ACE workers, all professional actors with the Queensland Shakespeare Ensemble, will engage with members of some prisoners’ families, to encourage them to use writing and other art forms to deal with the rupture in their lives.
After an intensive three weeks of work with Mr Blair, the prisoners will participate in four months of weekly sessions with the artist-facilitators.
The closing scene will be the prisoners’ performance, before an audience of other prisoners, prison staff and their own family members. For their part, the family members will read works they have created as part of ACE.
UQ will host the VIII World Shakespeare Congress in Brisbane, July 16-21. This will be the first Southern Hemisphere staging of the event, which is the world’s biggest literary studies conference.
For more information on ACE, including Brent Blair’s workshops, contact r.pensalfini@uq.edu.au.
Media contact: Rob Pensalfini 0433 648 101; Fiona Kennedy (UQ Marketing & Communications) 07 3365 1088 / 0413 380 012
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