Decolonising pedagogies in prison performance programmes: making Shakespeare secondary

ABSTRACT

Shakespeare’s elite cultural status bolsters the sense of achievement and empowerment experienced by participants in prison performance programmes; and yet, such engagements paradoxically risk further marginalising participants by reinforcing a colonial mentality in which Shakespeare represents an offering from a morally superior white culture. Taking the Detroit Public Theatre’s Shakespeare in Prison (SIP) programme for women as my central case study, I apply a decolonising lens in order to identify pedagogies and practices that help SIP to prioritise participant knowledge and agency, prioritise an ethics of care over high production standards, and prioritise relationality over the individualist rhetoric of rehabilitation.

KEYWORDS:

• Prison
• theatre
• decolonise
• pedagogy
• Shakespeare

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 This article is drawn from my doctoral dissertation on Prison Shakespeare, which was supported by the Graduate School and the Department of English at the University of Minnesota and successfully defended in May 2020.

2 In Act One, Scene Five of Macbeth (Shakespeare 2016), Lady Macbeth famously calls on ‘you spirits / That tend on mortal thoughts’ to ‘unsex me here / and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full / Of direst cruelty!’ (1.5.38-41). To facilitate the mitigation of what she frames as her natural feminine weakness, she demands of the spirits, ‘Come to my woman’s breasts / And take my milk for gall, you murd’ring ministers’ (1.5.45-46).

3 Indeed, several of the participants were still at least partially ‘on book’ and reading from handheld notecards – which provided yet another indication that the programme places far more emphasis on fostering connection, engaging in critical discussion, and exploring creative possibilities than emphasising the need for a polished performance.

Additional information

Funding

The study was funded by an internal grant by University of Minnesota Department of English: [Grant Number Darwin Patnode Fellowship,Graduate Research Partnership Program Fellowship].

Notes on contributors

Jenna Dreier

Jenna Dreier is Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow in English and Writing at the University of Minnesota. Throughout her academic career she has conducted first hand research on prison arts programmes focused on the study and performance of Shakespeare and has taught a variety of courses in literature and writing.