Nov 16, 2009

Interesting Prison Articles

Here's an interesting article about Wesleyan University who is conduction college classes at Chesire Correctional Institution in Connecticut:

Here's another article from The NY Times about a priest who is a prisoner advocate and speaks well about the transformations that are possible for people in prisons:

Week 1

This week Gabe and I received 23 rants from 16 inmates- one man wrote 7! We were shocked at the amount of letters and are still responding to each one. Many of the men wrote us and said that at first they were not sure of what to rant about and then once they had finished they were surprised to find what they had written.

For this weeks prompt, we decided to jump into creating more theatrical pieces. Yesterday, at 3:30pm, Gabe and I went on the air during Sista's Place on KHSU 90.5FM and we gave out the following prompt:

"Waiting for Godot," written by Samuel Beckett, begins similar to this- there are two men waiting on the side of the road for a third man to pick them up. The two men have been waiting for a while and know each other well. One man says to the other, "There's nothing to be done." Using this set up and this opening line, write the rest of this scene as you imagine it. Keep your scene between 1 and 3 pages and remember to write for the radio with sounds and strong images.

Can't wait to see what we get this week.

Nov 11, 2009

We Got Mail!

We launched the project this past Sunday on Sista Soul's Radio show on KHSU and by Tuesday morning we received 8 letters from inmates at Pelican Bay State Prison. The letters are GREAT! They are funny, powerful and potent... the stuff that makes great theater.

Our first writing prompt was to write a rant from the height of an emotional state. We asked that the inmates write their one page rant without lifting their pen to pause or edit, but instead to write write write.

We will be on Sista's Place this coming Sunday, November 15th at 3:30pm. Listen in for some good soul and to hear us give out the next writing prompt.
http://www.khsu.org/listen_live