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A View From the USA
My research focuses on the culture of prison
from an anthropological and theatrical perspective.
I am in the process of collecting stories from
prisoners who have discovered theatre while inside.
My intention is to provide a platform for inmates
to voice their prison and theatrical experiences
of oppression, resistance, set backs, revolutions,
silencing, communication, isolation/alienation
and community building. Thus, allowing their volumes
of knowledge and experience become the source,
let them become the expert from which the reader
becomes conscious and aware of the reality of
prison and the society in which the prison exists.
After discovering the life changing potential
of the theatre for myself as an actor, and after
a year of volunteer work in San Quentin (eventually
losing access to the prison as a education volunteer),
I embarked on a search for prison theatre companies
inside of the U.S. This was a frustrating and
virtually fruitless search. So I turned to Europe
and discovered the Escape Artists in Cambridge,
which linked me into the European Center of Theatre
in Prison. Which has allowed me the privilege
of collaborating with a large group of international
ex-prisoner and current prisoner actors, directors,
and producers of prison theatre in Berlin, Germany
at the Tegel prison with Aufbrunch; Cambridge/London
who work for the Escape Artists; HMP Wellingborough
prison- England; Belfast, Ireland through the
works of Prison Arts Foundation; and hopefully
future collaborations in Italy and America.
In describing many of the imprisoned men who
I have had the privilege of talking to, I often
utilize the terms of "teacher" or "mentor".
Most are men who have come from the fringes of
society, and most have experienced extreme hardships
and pains that can not be given justice on a piece
of paper. There are many common grounds from which
these men speak. But what seems to be most prevalent
is that they have experienced something that has
delivered a shift in their perspective of themselves
and society. And theatre has been a tool that
has either initiated or deepened the shift.
I know from my life, the most rewarding changes
have been through experiencing struggles and painful
rejection. I grew up in the southeastern part
of the U.S., where the privileged White man’s
interpretation of the Christian church and Bible
served as the cornerstone for slavery, racism
and economic elitism. And having come from an
all white community with family roots very much
in the cultural traditions of the South, I experienced
a jolt in my reality when I was introduced into
an African American working class community in
my hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee.
It was in the African American community in which
I found warmth in friendship, love, and community.
For six years I became a part of the African American
community, I worked in a chicken factory and lived
in the projects with my African American girlfriend.
Though I was very much rebelling against my white
roots, I tried to maintain my relations in the
white community, but experienced a rejection that
angered and pained me unlike anything I have experienced
prior. Even surpassing the many years of being
ridiculed as a child and adolescent for my learning
difficulties, slowness in speech, and physical
awkwardness.
However, during this intense time of my life,
I completed my Masters in Criminal Justice and
began to have a complete shift in my perspective
of the fringes of society: the poverty stricken,
the homeless, and the prisons where racism and
slavery is still reproduced over and over in America.
My next major shift came as I was introduced
to the artist that exists within my own self.
It was not until the age of 26 that I met my first
mentor, Joe, a poet and musician. He saw and made
known to me the artist that we all have within.
He validated my own self worth and showed me that
at his age of 47, and at any age, it is okay to
play. It was Joe that inspired my first steps
as an artist, and inspired me to move to San Francisco,
California where I am now, studying theatre and
anthropology.
Anthropology and theatre are both a practice
of studying one’s self through ones experiences
and relationship with a community/audience in
order to facilitate a change in the self and the
community. Every time I practice theatre, and
every time I go into a prison and witness theatre
or talk with an inmate about his life, I experience
a shift in how I see myself in relation to others.
To gain an awareness of one’s self is the
first step, to put it into one’s daily practice
is the next. Which is what I intend to do with
this research. I hope that with this knowledge
and awareness I can apply it to a practice of
theatre that exists at the fringes of a community.
I have witnessed how such a practice can be liberating,
resisting, revolutionizing, and challenging for
all participants, actors and audience.
Many times of my life, I have escaped entering
into a world of crime and possibly prison. It
has been due to my socially privileged status
that has granted me more than my share of opportunities
for education and creativity. Education and creativity
are two basic human rights that have become increasingly
inaccessible to the social fringes. It is absurd
that a human right is now a privilege. I am dedicated
to repaying my debts to my community that has
given me the privileges I have enjoyed and, so
often, have taken for granted.
Ironically, it has become a privilege to be allowed
the position to give back. I was suppose to help
initiate a theatre project in San Quentin nearly
a year ago, and after having three different delays,
this April of 2001, it was finally terminated
before it had a chance to breath life. In most
American prisons, there is becoming less access
between the inside and the outside community.
The alienation and isolation in our prisons and
social relationships are becoming more enhanced.
I believe, the theatre project at San Quentin
failed because of the fact that prisons are designed
and given the programming, staffing, and funding
for alienation and isolation, not socialization
We say we want rehabilitation and punishment
for those who commit acts of crime, but we want
it without community involvement and responsibility.
We want the criminal punished, but do not want
to address the crime of society, the social relationships
that perpetuate the criminal activity. The walls
must become invisible so that the inside and outside
societies become more visible to each other. Without
visibility there is no awareness, and without
awareness there is no action. This is the intention
of my collaborations and research, and is part
of what can be achieved in prison theatre.
Michael McCamish
March 2001
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