Drawing Connections... at The Edges
2019-01-30 - 2019-04-30 | Cambridge – generic, Cambridge, United Kingdom
30th January – April 2019
Opening event Wednesday 30th January (from 2pm)
Radzinowicz Library, University of Cambridge
Free
Drawing Connections will exhibit work from an eight-week project bringing together residents at HMP Springhill with students from the local Banbury and Bicester College Art Faculty in a series of artist-led workshops held at HMP Springhill.
In addition to selected works from the project, visitors will be able to see the library’s permanent selection of Koestler Awards artworks – and meet participants and enjoy light refreshments at the exhibition’s opening on 30th January.
The exhibition continues until April 2019.
Please confirm attendance by emailing crimlib@hermes.cam.ac.uk
Click here for more information about the project

Image courtesy of Rebecca Greene

Rewriting Justice
2019-02-08 08:00 - 16:30 (Europe/London) | London – Generic, London, United Kingdom
Friday 8th February 2019
10am – 4.30pm
London
From £59.88
BOOK NOW
A one day introductory course for theatre-artists, early career playwrights and criminal justice professionals with an interest in the specialised field of theatre, women and criminal justice, led by Anna Herrmann, Clean Break‘s Joint Artistic Director, and Vivienne Franzmann (playwright).
Through drama and play-writing exercises, group work and discussion, participants will:

Learn creative ideas and exercises for facilitating playwriting with women in criminal justice settings
Explore best practice when working creatively with adults in vulnerable circumstances
Gain confidence and skills for managing challenging situations
Hear insights about working in prisons as a playwright for Clean Break.

Clean Break is the UK’s leading theatre company focusing exclusively on women in the criminal justice system. With a 40 year track record, this training will give participants a unique insight into the company’s successful approach to theatre practice in both prison and community settings.
Click here to book your place

Clean Break is offering three free bursary places to applicants who have had personal experience of the criminal justice system. If you qualify for one of these places email participation@cleanbreak.org.uk quoting ‘Rewriting Justice bursary place’ stating why you are eligible, and what you would like to get out of the day.

Image courtesy of Clean Break

Music in prisons: defining a successful project
2019-02-11 18:00 - 19:00 | London – Generic, London, United Kingdom
Monday 11th February
6pm – 7pm
Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London
Free
Register to attend here

The idea that music has the power to transform is as old as music itself. In recent years, this idea has been outworked most evidently in the various musical interventions and projects taking place around the world intended to bring about individual and social transformation.
In this evening seminar, Sarah Doxat-Pratt (University of Nottingham) will look specifically at music projects in a prison context, raising questions regarding who defines success in this area. Drawing on over a year of fieldwork with the Irene Taylor Trust, her paper will discuss the motivations and success criteria of prisoner participants themselves.

Image courtesy of Irene Taylor Trust, credit: Lizzie Coombes

Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train
2019-02-14 - 2019-03-30 | London – Generic, London, United Kingdom
14th February – 30th March 2019
Monday to Saturday
London
From £10
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From Pulitzer Prize winner Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Motherfucker with the Hat) and directed by Kate Hewitt, Young Vic present a dark comedy about the contradictory nature of faith.
Inside the lockdown wing of Rikers Island prison, a frightened young man accused of murdering a cult leader is confronted with a charismatic born-again serial killer and a sadistic guard. Will one man’s redemption lead to another’s damnation?
“Like a shot of caffeine straight in the veins”
– The Guardian

There is a Field
2019-02-20 - 2019-03-16 | London – Generic, London, United Kingdom
20th February – 16th March 2019
Theatre503, London
£17 / £12 / £10
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“Why you all looking at me like that? Eh? You never seen a real Muslim before? Is it cos I’m white?”
Mark’s mother wants him to bury his father and it’s up to Saleh to find him and bring him home for a proper East End send off. Only Mark is no longer Mark, he’s Abdullah. There is A Field is a London story of faith, death and family strife reshaped by local crises and global events.

Synergy Theatre Project’s new production is written by former prisoner Martin Askew, directed by Esther Baker and features Archie Backhouse, Sarah Finigan, Roseanna Frascona, Sam Frenchum, Fabrizio Santino.
Synergy began working with Martin after his release from prison, commissioning There is a Field as his debut, full-length play. Martin grew up in the East End and started writing after witnessing the murder of a close friend. His screenplay Snow in Paradise was selected for the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.
Find out more and book here

Image courtesy of Synergy Theatre Project

The Biomechanics of the Treadwheel
2019-02-21 | Stafford – generic, Stafford, United Kingdom
21st February 2019
Morning
HMP Stafford
This is a public performance of Rideout‘s performing arts residency at HMP Stafford. If you would like to attend, please contact saul@rideout.org.uk no later than 14th February.

Following the success of last year’s Past Time partnership with Prisoners, Medical Care and Entitlement to Health in England and Ireland, 1850-2000 – a five-year Wellcome Trust-funded project led by Professor Hilary Marland (University of Warwick) and Dr Catherine Cox (University College Dublin) – Rideout (Creative Arts for Rehabilitation) is embarking on three further performing arts residencies, known collectively as Staging Time.
The first of these, The Biomechanics of the Treadwheel, will use a mix of parkour, contact improvisation, and Meyerhold’s actor training methodology to create a dance performance exploring the history of hard labour in Victorian prisons.
As part of this process, participants will create a new biomechanic etude based on hard labour, which will be made available in the form of an illustrated pamphlet.
Working with Rideout will be choreographer Dave McKenna from Being Frank Physical Theatre, illustrator Paul Gent, historian Professor Marland and theatre academic Dr Silvija Jestrovic, both from University of Warwick.
To find out more, or register your interest in attending the public performance, please contact saul@rideout.org.uk no later than 14th February.

Staging Time is funded by Arts Council England, University of Warwick and HMP Stafford. An external evaluation of the programme using a World Cafe methodology is being conducted by researchers from Staffordshire University and will be available in late 2019/early 2020.

Image courtesy of Rideout

Inside Bitch
2019-02-23 - 2019-03-19 | London – Generic, London, United Kingdom
27th February – 23rd March 2019
Royal Court Theatre, London
£18 (£12 Mondays)
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“You’ve seen Orange is the New Black. You’ve seen Locked Up. You’ve seen Bad Girls. So, what have we got that’s different? Well, for one, we’ve been to prison.”
Clean Break and Royal Court Theatre present a play devised and performed by Clean Break members Lucy Edkins, Jennifer Joseph, Terri Ann Oudjar and Jade Small.
Created by women who aren’t guessing, Inside Bitch is a playful subversion of the representation of women in prison and how things aren’t quite as seen on TV.
Conceived by Stacey Gregg and Deborah Pearson.
Find out more and book here

Image courtesy of Clean Break

The Jumper Factory
2019-02-27 - 2019-03-09 | London – Generic, London, United Kingdom
27th February – 9th March
The Maria, Young Vic, London
From £15
Book now

“I wait whilst the world carries on, whilst my family grow old, whilst my lovers move on, and I count down the days, and I wait…
How would you survive in prison?”

From Young Vic Taking Part, created in collaboration with inmates at HMP Wandsworth and written by Luke Barnes, this new piece explores the stories of people behind bars and the resilience they need to face a world that moves without them.
Click here to book

Image courtesy of Young Vic, credit: Leon Puplett

Cultural eXchanges: Art in prisons
2019-02-28 14:00 - 16:00 | Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom
Thursday 28th February 2019
De Montford University, Leicester, LE1 5XY
FREE
The Cultural eXchanges festival (25th February – 1st March 2019) features a variety of guests and speakers from the cultural and creative industries. Now in its eighteenth year, the festival is held annually at De Montford University; hosted by the Faculty of Arts, Design and Humanities and run by the third year Arts and Festivals Management BA (Hons) students.
The festival features a two-part Art in prisons event.

PART I: 2-3pm, Clephan 3.03
2017 saw the launch of Talent Unlocked, a two-week prison arts festival. As part of the partnership between DMU and HMP Leicester the festival is produced from both inside and outside of the “wall.” During 2018, the festival ran simultaneously in HMP Leicester and HMP Stafford. This session provides an opportunity to discuss the challenges and the organisational differences between the two prisons. The panel is led by Jacqui Norton (DMU) and Dr Victoria Knight (DMU).

PART II: 3-4pm, Clephan 3.03
Chris Heighton (DMU), presents an insight into the evolution of participatory music programmes at HMP Leicester. He will share the journeys of professional and student musicians. Chris creates platforms for musicians from both sides of the “bars” to produce original music. This has included working with DMU partners, the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Find out more here
