from “le détroit” · the strait
Detroit Public Theatre's Shakespeare in Prison program opened its fall session on September 8 with a room full of new and returning members, one of whom recognized a teaching artist from a 2015 production of The Taming of the Shrew.
Detroit Public Theatre's Shakespeare in Prison program opened its fall session on September 8, and the room was full.
The company published its account of the day on September 12. The ensemble that gathered was a mix of new members and returning ones.
Early on, the group worked through a simple question: what is an ensemble?
"I just realized I'm part of the ensemble," the member said. "I don't have to try out!"
That is the quiet math of Shakespeare in Prison. Nobody auditions. If you are in the room, you are in the ensemble.
From there, the session turned to the text. Urged to try the words plainly ("I dare you to do it in your own voice"), she found the speech opened up. "The mockery was louder."
The recognition is the part worth sitting with. Eleven years after that Taming of the Shrew production, a member still knew Kyle on sight. That kind of continuity is rare in any theater company, and rarer still inside a correctional facility, where people move, transfer, and cycle out. SIP keeps showing up, and enough of it stays constant that the work carries forward.
For readers on the outside, the point lands close to home. Belonging is not always earned through a gauntlet. Sometimes it is simply granted, and the person granted it feels the difference immediately.
The full account of September 8, quotes and all, is on the company's site at detroitpublictheatre.org.
One dispatch a week. No tracking, no filler. Free, always.