Theatre Across Prison Walls: Using Democratizing Theatre Methodologies to Subvert Carceral Control

Abstract

ABSTRACT In spite of the influx of articles on practitioner experience teaching in carceral settings, little has been written around the methodologies that best level the inherent inequity between practitioner and ensemble. This article seeks to respond to some of the questions and concerns around the balancing of power structures by describing the practice of using democratizing theatre-making practices. Rocchio argues that by centralizing some of these theatre-making practices, the uncomfortable divisions between visitor teacher and inside participants can be named; made transparent; and, eventually, dismantled.