percentage

"Since 1980, the number of people in U.S. prisons has increased more than 450%.

Despite a crime rate that has been falling steadily for decades."

from the book: "Golden Gulag" (Ruth Wilson Gilmore)

why?

Another comment left on an envelope at the dinner party:

"While we know that prisons aren’t perfect, still remember that some people need to be in prison (or something like it). Some people “deserve” to be dealt with."

Thank you for this - for bringing this into the conversation. Actually this has been coming up a lot for me - that my natural sympathy, and desire for understanding is not meant to excuse or justify crime. But how can we heal, how can there be rehabilitation without trying to understand what motivates crime/ violence in the first place?

I have been reading James Gilligan's book: VIOLENCE.

Phew - check it out. Pretty intense, and really interesting how Mr. Gilligan has found in his 30 years of working with some of the most violent men in the nation - as an MD and psychiatrist - that Shakespeare and the Greeks provide some of the most useful information and archetypes for getting at an understanding of even the most horrendous crimes. But rather than turn this post into an exploration of Gilligan's book - I return to my the quote above...

So I recognize that yes, I tend naturally to be sympathetic to the struggles and experiences of people in prison. The more I learn and expose myself to - the more painfully obvious appears the injustice of the justice system. A system that in many cases, works to break the spirit and souls of the prisoners, quite contrary to any sense of rehab. Why bother trying to understand why people commit crimes? I mean not just the MOMENT of the crime, but the larger social and cultural conditions urging someone, the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to, the pressures, confusions. Can you imagine only being remembered for the rest of forever as the one worst thing you ever did ? To have your whole self condensed into that one instance ? Okay so this trying to understand is not meant to gloss over the real horror of the crime committed, the suffering unleashed upon the victim and relations, not to justify or ignore the crime that put someone in prison, but trying to place it and understand it within a larger framework - that this could be a way to uncover solutions for healing and change.

And I'm finding that many effective programs exist – art, education, and meditation based programs that return a sense of Self, Strength, and Hope to a person – except these programs are getting slashed and burned.

I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to meet some of these artists / educators / activists working within the prison system and learn from them. We Players will strive to incorporate what we learn and gather into our performances.

The other part of WHY is this...

We all have one thing in common - we are Human Beings.

This is at the heart of the work in the theater. It's a vehicle for better understanding myself, this being human, the layers, subtleties, complications, influences...Who Am I? How Must I Act?

i believe it is part of our job as artists is to remain open and curious and willing to feel. all of it.

and it's all breaking my heart a little every day

it's also strengthening that same muscle

On the Menu

At last...here are some of your comments from the February Feast:

(and thank you for the lovely pictures on your envelopes too!)

“I noticed that Hamlet called Denmark a prison…You probably noticed this.”

We thought there was some kind of connection in there! ;)

“Invite ex-prisoners to come see the show” / “Will (former) prisoners be able to participate in the production?”

Yes! In fact we are exploring a number of ways for prisoners to be involved in this work. Including incorporating their poetry and artwork, and inviting some former prisoners to be involved as crew and performers.

“Local schools would love to see the energy of We Players!” / “Get local schools to come on field trip?”

We agree. Our thanks to Michele Haner, who will arrange for Ava to visit the French-American International High School and lead a discussion about site-specific theater, and using theater as a tool for social action. We plan to arrange student internships for the summer rehearsal and production period. We are hoping to team up with other teachers and existing outreach programs to incorporate work with at-risk youth.

Please let us know if there's a teacher you think we should talk to!

“A haiku for We:

You are amazing

Your manifested beauty’s

Magnified by love

Keep it up.”

Thank you. We are buoyed up and strengthened by your support!

“How long by homing pigeon flight is a trip from Alcatraz to San Quentin?”

Very good question. Please let us know the answer. Although it may be more relevant to ask this of cormorants, gulls, egrets…other bird species that make their seasonal nesting home on Alcatraz.

“How are the prisons related?”

Amazing how few people are asking that question. Thank you. We will provide information through the project, and infuse our work on site with current stories and statistics to help make the connection between the two.

“Can we watch the play from a boat?”

Do you think we would leave out any detail?

“Will you reinstate the Alcatraz garden?”

Please check out: http://www.alcatrazgardens.org/

The volunteer garden crew on the Rock is amazing. They are restoring the gardens throughout the island.

In November we ate figs from the trees as part of our harvest / fire ceremony.

“What prisoners were sent to Alcatraz and why?”

The so called “worst of the worst”. That is, if you went to prison, but then got in trouble there you could be sent to Alcatraz. Very few prisoners were sent to Alcatraz directly. It was, “reserved for those desperate and irredeemable types”.

Irredeemable?

“The insane are often incarcerated. Is Hamlet insane? Depressed? What about Ophelia? I’m excited to find out.”

Me too.

“Put Hamlet/We player info on the Alcatraz/Park Service website (including background on Shakespeare and the play itself)”
Despite our partnership with the park, we are running into fields of red tape on this one.

Please consider sending this request to the Park Service!

A story from Stanley Williams who was executed at San Quentin in 2006: A friend snuck a rose petal in to him on a visit to death row. Stanley took it from her, held it in his palm for a minute, then put it in his mouth…and swallowed it. He told her he though it might be his last and only chance to connect with the natural world and he wanted to experience it fully.

How can I support you without giving money? / I would like to be of service, even if I can’t give money.

There are so many aspects to this project. We welcome your support, your talents, your thoughts, your questions. Please write to info@weplayers.org and tell us what you're interested in, what aspects of the project ignite you, and we will find a fit. YES. We want your help.

Can we tie race into the picture?

Yes please. This begs a longer response...perhaps a blog post unto itself...

More opportunities like this for fans and supporters to get together and get to know We Players better. Doesn’t have to be as lush as this one, even a pot-luck would do.

Salons / work-in-progress / conversations this spring. Stay tuned here.

I’ve left out most of the general praise and support of we comments – though we thank you truly – oh but here are a few anyway...

Take good care of yourselves throughout this process and KNOW that you are serving this community in a profound way.

I can’t wait to see the show! Your company is singular in making these spaces available through a trans-historical yet extremely current performance tradition. Bravo!

This has been magical.

I’ve never attended an event such as this. I have nothing to add or change.

I am he as you are she as you are me and WE are all together.

Apologies to the Beatles for changing their I Am The Walrus lyric to be gender inclusive (ooooohhh I'm so evolved, I wear my short sleeved shirt over my long sleeved shirt over my short sleeved shirt). I gotta get this thing out about the AZ Overnight, remember that game WE played there, getting the nod and walking across that circle, leaving your safe place to take another's place? Made me feel so weird when I left my spot, like I didn't exist for a moment, reminded me of this conversation I had about quantum physics where scientists can see an electron in one shell before it jumps to the other shell, then see it in the other shell, but they can't find any evidence of its existence when it jumps, when it's in between those shells. Then I heard about these eleven dimensions where you can exist in different dimensions/times/places at the same time, spending years somewhere else in between moments. I brought a book that night because it had a scary story, Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston, where she describes her grandmother's experience at a medical school in China where all the women slept in a dorm, when there was a fine empty room, but it was haunted. Well, Grandmother took that room and battled a ghost all night, she left her body in the battle and was gone twelve years, and then woke up in that room the next morning. What does this mean? What's it all about Mr. Natural? Well, that night I thought that's what life was like on Alcatraz, a parenthesis, a dimensional jump, where there was no evidence of a man's existence, a place where men battled ghosts. One man described it as closing his eyes and seeing things then going places in his mind, that's how he dealt with it. Anyway, in the morning WE were all there, no matter where WE went that night, the one chance WE had to sleep in those cells. So for me that night was all about existence, being and non being, here and there, now and then, "to be or not to be" and everything in between.

By Heart

By Heart, a two person memoir by Judith Tannenbaum and Spoon Jackson

We are really excited about both of these poets! We are in conversation with Judith, who has over 30 years experience teaching poetry and working with men in maximum security prisons, and hope to include some of Spoon's writing in our performance on The Rock.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8684AjtFYU

Bookstore Readings

Thursday April 8, 2010 7 PM Diesel, a Bookstore 5433 College Avenue, Oakland, CA

Sunday April 11, 2010 4 PM Booksmith 1644 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA

More on the 2010 Season and We Players Rock Residency…

HAMLET is particularly suited to the island for many reasons. It is a story of a man in isolation wrestling with conscience and consciousness, and is fraught with themes of grief, madness, loss, revenge - all of which extend from the core project themes of isolation, incarceration, and justice. We hope that the play, centered around these issues, will act as a catalyst for conversation.

The root of this conversation is about FREEDOM.

What is it to be free? Is it something that can be granted or taken away?

Or is it something more fundamentally personal than that?

How must I act? To do or not to do?

The show will be built in such a way as to serve both the regular park visitors, with many elements occurring in public areas, as well as the designated audiences who we will guide through a carefully crafted route through the space.

We have already begun conversations artists and teachers who work with local justice advocacy groups, juvenile offenders and with people living in maximum security prisons. We are building partnerships, gathering research, collecting works of art – all of which will be central to the final stage of the residency, culminating in summer 2011.

The Players are a group of traveling actors within Hamlet – and in our production, the Players will be performing virtually non-stop in a public area. In addition to the classical text, they will perform a wide variety of other material which is intended to contextualize the themes…this text will include poetry and first hand materials by those people directly affected by the issues we are exploring - people in prison and their families. The Native American community has a deep connection with the island, and we are inviting their voice into the process as well.

Alcatraz has a magnetic draw. About 5000 people per day in the high season visit the fog enshrouded island in the San Francisco Bay. It is legendary both in the national landscape and within international awareness as well. Both We Players and the National Park Service are asking, “What experience are people having?”, “What are they coming away with?”. This project reflects a true partnership between We Players and the NPS as we join in the shared goal of stimulating more critical conversation of important current issues, issues that are entrenched in the multi-layered history of The Rock.

We feel a tremendous responsibility to those people whose lives are immediately affected by these issues. Please send us your thoughts, reading suggestions, direct us to organizations and individuals you think we should contact.

Write to: alactraz@weplayers.org

HAMLET on The Rock.

O god, I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space......

We Players proudly announce our 2010 production

Shakespeare's HAMLET

to take place as an interactive, island-wide journey on the legendary

Alcatraz Island

this October/November

Stay tuned here for information about salon events, work-in-progress showings and discussions, and special gala performances on-site this summer.

This production is part of our three year residency on The Rock,

in collaboration with the National Park Service.

We are developing outreach programs and diverse on-site installations in conjunction with the production of Hamlet, to incorporate voices of under-served populations, such as people in prison and their families.

write to us at alcatraz@weplayers.org

or info@weplayers.org

with questions, suggestions, or to get involved.

an enterprise of great pith and moment

Join us!

THANK YOU

thank you dear friends and supporters and performers

for filling the church with warm and joyous presence

for savoring and celebrating

this. now. yes!

(more soon. prep for San Quentin tour now...)

join us at the feast!

"That when I waked, I cried to dream again..."

Don't let tomorrow night, THURSDAY February 4th, pass you by!

seriously incredible food and so much heart and spirit poured into every drop and morsel

donations from organic farmers across the land

cases of wine sitting in my living room, waiting for you

hilarious performers lie in wait

music and merriment

WE and YOU

help us manifest this crazy Alcatraz adventure

WE can't do it without YOU...

shall we dare to dream this dream?

you tell us.