Ossining – THE invitation described “a very special evening of theater,” and certainly it’s a rare performance that begins with the audience undergoing an hourlong security screening in order to see the play. That’s because this production took place inside the walls of Sing Sing Correctional Facility, transforming it briefly into a kind of Broadway on the Hudson (or in this case up the river).
The play, August Wilson’s “Jitney,” was produced and performed by inmates as part of a program called Rehabilitation Through the Arts, which is run by volunteers from outside the prison and financed through private donations and grants. The idea is that theater can be truly rehabilitative, teaching responsibility and imparting a sense of community, as well as valuable communication skills, to men behind bars.
The cast and crew had worked for months on the production. The set had been built in vocational woodworking, costumes had had to undergo security clearance, and the stage manager, Dexter Robinson, who is serving a life sentence, said that even in the last week, he worried it wouldn’t all come together.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/28/nyregion/theater/county-lines-an-exercise-in-maximum-insecurity.html?smid=pl-share