ANN ARBOR: U of M-based Prison Creative Arts Project enters 21st year

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ANN ARBOR: U of M-based Prison Creative Arts Project enters 21st year

Sunday, September 5, 2010
By Donna Iadipaolo, Special Writer

In the 1980s, University of Michigan professor William "Buzz" Alexander introduced a powerful theater exercise to Peruvian shanty-town peasants. In 1990, he and two of his U of M guerilla theater students conducted that same exercise with two women prisoners at Florence Crane Correctional Facility in Coldwater.

Alexander identifies this exercise as a pivotal point in the start of PCAP, the Prison Creative Arts Project, having since performed 528 plays, 200 readings, and countless workshops in Michigan prisons, juvenile facilities and urban highs schools.

The professor and two undergraduates directed the two women, who had been sentenced to life terms, to go in the corner and write questions for them during that moment in 1990 at Florence Crane. The power dynamic then transformed. The two women were given a space to challenge these U of M folks' very intentions:

"Why are you here?"

"Are you interested in prisoners?"

Based on such experiences, the prisoners decided to open the program to the entire prison population. After approval from the warden, the women formed their own "Sisters Within Theatre Troupe." A specific group within PCAP, Sisters is presenting its 29th play this fall...

http://realcostofprisons.org/blog/ar...u_of.html#more