monsoonmartin

First, to set your minds at ease (or, for those of you who’d like to see me behind bars, to cruelly disappoint you): I am not being incarcerated, and I have not been accused of a crime; unless and until our government officially outlaws thinking for oneself, I hope never to be arrested or jailed.

Nor am I visiting an uncle or acquaintance in the pokey; none of my kith and kin are, to my knowledge, currently in jail.

It’s actually an educational opportunity (no, not “Scared Straight”) that will take me to the Luther Luckett Correctional Complex in La Grange, Kentucky next week.

About a year ago, I was flipping channels and happened upon a film on one of the premium channels called Shakespeare Behind Bars. I watched as convicted felons analyzed, parsed, rehearsed, reflected, and argued their way to creating a performance of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Led by Curt Tofteland, the men who participated in the program which shares the film’s title were as breathtaking as the “forces of nature” that open the play.

[Check out the film's official website, which has the trailer, photos, and information about cast and crew.]

As I watched the film, I was struck by the fact that we met the members of the troupe first as actors, then as convicts. In moving scenes throughout the film, some of the principal players painfully and honestly discuss their crimes (one man killed his wife, another his mistress; one man is behind bars for armed robbery; still another sexually assaulted seven girls)—but not before we meet them as men. Our society has a frightening tendency to regard its incarcerated as less than human—cast-offs without whom society is far better off. But the reality is that these are flawed individuals, like all of us (though, as an inmate named Leonard acknowledges in the film, their mistakes are far more grave than most of ours).

The program exists largely thanks to then-Warden Larry Chandler, who believed strongly that prisoners should be rehabilitated (it is, after all, the corrections system) because most of them are going to rejoin society at some point.

It’s a theme that runs through both the play they perform in the film and the film itself: restorative vs. retributive justice. In The Tempest, a character named Prospero (played by inmate Hal, below) is exiled to an island and spends twelve years honing his magical powers and plotting his revenge again his usurpers. When he creates a magnificent storm (the tempest of the title) that shipwrecks them and delivers them to his island, he gradually realizes the value of forgiveness: “Though with their high wrongs I am struck to th’ quick, / Yet with my nobler reason ‘gainst my fury / Do I take part. The rarer action is / In virtue than in vengeance” (5.1.32-36).

Inspired by the resonance and emotional power of the film, I contacted Curt Tofteland, who is the founder and volunteer director of the Shakespeare Behind Bars program. We began an email correspondence about the themes of the film, updates on the prisoners, and the background of the program.

Curt is a trained actor who became involved in the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival in the 1980s, becoming its director in the late 1980s and revitalizing the program. He began Shakespeare Behind Bars (SBB) in the 1990s and a few media outlets took notice; the Christian Science Monitor did an outstanding, in-depth piece on the program in 2002.

By the early aughts he was fielding requests from filmmakers who wanted to document his program. He reportedly turned many of them down, however, after viewing their previous work: he is understandably protective of SBB, and knew it had to be portrayed in just the right light in a film. Eventually filmmakers Hank Rogerson and Jilann Spitzmiller fit the bill; filming took place over a year in 2003-04; and it was released in 2005. Curt is planning on retiring from the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival (and SBB) next year and writing a book about the SBB program.

Shakespeare Behind Bars made a splash at Sundance, where it received enthusiastic and warm responses from packed houses all week. The actor and director Steve Buscemi attended a screening and said, “It's a wonderful film. I was amazed by what they could do and by Curt’s commitment. And I see that these men are trying and it's heartbreaking. I hope they all make it – it’s in our interest that they do,” he said. The movie “totally captivated me and it moved me—and that’s a great film.”

In the course of my email correspondence with Curt Tofteland, I explained that I was teaching the play The Tempest to my Honors English 11 class, and that I had purchased the DVD and would be showing the film immediately following our study of the play, then having the students write reaction pieces. He asked if I would send him copies of what the students wrote, and then extended a thrilling offer that stunned me with its openness:

glen,
if you would like to visit the sbb program, let me know. we are preparing julius caesar for may performances.
blessings,
curt

He sent me a list of rehearsal and performance dates; I decided it might be more fruitful to see rehearsals than the finished product (it is, after all, about the process) so I chose some dates in the middle of April. I made arrangements to drive out there (I eschew flying), filled out a security form, and that was that: I’m visiting Luther Luckett Correctional Complex next week!

My students read The Tempest and responded wonderfully to the play (and after having read two tragedies this year, Macbeth and Hamlet, they should have been thrilled to read a comedy/romance), after which I showed the Shakespeare Behind Bars. They were moved—if a bit troubled, at first—by the stories of these men, and wrote beautiful reaction pieces. “The prisoners gain an intense appreciation for Shakespeare’s art when they experience it on a personal level,” wrote one student. Another student echoed, “Curt Tofteland’s rigorous program requires the participants to fully analyze the play by searching beyond the text to make an emotional connection.” Still another observed, “I used to think that criminals were monsters who took great pleasure in doing heinous crimes. But as I listened to the confessions of the inmates, I realized that they weren’t monsters at all but were as human as everyone else.”

After we had viewed and discussed the film, I told them of my plans to visit the program in April. “Can we come too?” was one immediate question (no; when I talked to my principal about the potential visitation, he went pale as a ghost until he realized that I wanted to undertake the visit alone and was not interested in taking my students to the prison). “Will you stay overnight in the prison?” was another (no; again, this is not “Scared Straight,” and one of my greatest fears is confinement. One hour in a cell and I’d be crying out like new prisoner “Fat Ass” in the beginning of the film The Shawshank Redemption: “You don’t understand! I’m not supposed to be here!”). Mostly they were excited that I would be getting to meet Curt Tofteland and some of the prisoners (many of whom, after all, are still in prison and involved with the program), that I would take copious notes, and that I would be sure and share all the details on my return.

And so I’m off on a grand adventure to La Grange, Kentucky. It may seem to some like a strange way to use one’s personal days, but I wouldn't want to spend them stuck on some beach.  I think my trip to the Luther Luckett Correctional Complex will be an engaging and unforgettable. No matter what happens, though, I can be certain of one thing: I’ll have good stories to tell!

Monsoon

[Shakespeare Behind Bars can be purchased directly from the filmmakers’ website, via amazon.com, or at any number of other outlets, but is generally not available as in-stock merchandise in stores.]