THEA 205: Prison Outreach

Course Description: Students will have the opportunity to put social activism into practice through working on theater projects in community settings. One of the course’s projects will include teaching Shakespeare and other plays to incarcerated persons using methods described in Jean Trounstine’s Shakespeare Behind Bars. Students will also have the opportunity to create “invisible theater” events on themes of social justice inspired by the work of Augusto Boal, the Brazilian actor/politician/activist whose book (Theater of the Oppressed) proposes ways in which theater can be used to achieve social change. Students need no theatrical experience but can use whatever artistic interests they possess (acting, puppetry, drawing, writing, storytelling, vocal and instrumental music) in collective work with other students.