Prison Theatre and an Embodied Aesthetics of Liberation: Exploring the Potentials and Limits

Abstract

Prison theatre practitioners and scholars often describe the sense of imaginative freedom or “escape” that theatre and drama can facilitate for incarcerated actors, in contrast to the strict regimes of the institution. Despite this, the concept of freedom or liberation is rarely interrogated, being presented instead as a given—a natural by-product of creative practice. Drawing from John Dewey’s (1934) pragmatist aesthetics and the liberatory pedagogies of Bell Hooks (2000) and Paulo Freire (1996), I propose an embodied aesthetics of liberation in prison theatre that adds depth and complexity to claims for freedom through creativity. Reflecting on over twenty years of prison theatre practice and research, I propose that the initial “acts of escape” performed through engaging the imagination are merely the first threshold toward more meaningful forms of freedom. I frame these as the following three intersecting domains: “Acts of unbinding”, which represents the personal liberation afforded by experiences with theatre in prison; “acts of love”, which expresses how the theatre ensemble might represent a “beloved community” (hooks); and “acts of liberation”, which articulates how these experiences of self-and-world creation may ripple out to impact audiences and communities. An aesthetics of liberation in prison theatre can, therefore, be conceived as an embodied movement towards personal and social renewal; an approach that deepens our understanding of its oft-cited humanising potential, and its limits.

Decolonising and Critical Approaches to Community Arts: Centering Relationality, Communality, And Power

“…In Hazou and Daniels (2022) incarcerated participants in a prison theatre project encounter shifts away from individual concerns to care for others. For the incarcerated people described by Woodland (2021) participation in a prison theatre project facilitated the creation of a "beloved community", a concept drawn from the writing of bell hooks expanding on the teachings of Martin Luther King Jr (see The King Centre ).…”

Ενδυναμώνοντας Την Ταυτότητα Και Την Επικοινωνία Εγκλείστων Μέσω Της Δραματικής Τέχνης Στην Εκπαίδευση Και Της Εμψύχωσης Κουκλών: Μια Έρευνα-Δράση Στο Ειδικό Κατάστημα Κράτησης Νέων Βόλου

“…Εισαγωγή Ο βασικός λόγος που οδήγησε στη διεξαγωγή της συγκεκριμένης έρευνας δεν είναι μόνο η θεατροπαιδαγωγική/κουκλοθεατρική πρακτική, αλλά η διάσωση της ταυτότητας των εγκλείστων, της ιστορίας τους, της μνήμης τους και της επανα-νοηματοδότησης της ζωής μέσα και έξω από τη φυλακή (Ellison et al, 2017• Woodland, 2021. Επιπροσθέτως, επιχειρείται να αποτυπωθεί με ενδιαφέροντα τρόπο ο κενός χρόνος της φυλάκισης και να δοθεί φωνή στους κρατούμενους, ώστε να βγει στην επιφάνεια ένας ευαίσθητος (εσωτερικός) λόγος, που, σύμφωνα με τον Maffesoli, είναι «[...] στο πάθος, στο συναίσθημα, με μια λέξη, στις στοργές που εμποτίζονται τα ανθρώπινα φαινόμενα» (1998, σ.…”