From the Northwestern Prison Education Program
directed by spenser davis
FREE PUBLIC READING
SATURDAY, APRIL 22
7PM – 10PM (ALICE EDUCATION LAB, WALTER FAMILY LAB)
Originally developed with incarcerated students at the Stateville Correctional Facility in a playwrighting class taught by Goodman Artistic Associate Rebecca Gilman, we’re thrilled to offer these in-person readings to the public.
This is a FREE event. Tickets availability is extremely limited.
Please be aware that the plays in Stateville Voices contains adult language, sexual language and mentions of suicide/suicidal ideation, self-harm, sexual violence, police violence, domestic abuse, drug and alcohol addiction, abortion, death and loss.
Goodman Artistic Associate Rebecca Gilman taught playwriting at the Stateville Correctional Center in the Spring of 2019, as part of Northwestern University’s Prison Education Program.
Her students embraced their first playwriting class and, for their final projects, each wrote a short play. Ranging from comic to tragic, the plays tackle subjects as unique, original, and inspiring as the men who wrote them. In March 2020, Goodman had planned to present the plays at the Goodman and in Stateville. The Covid-19 pandemic moved us to a dynamic virtual presentation and talk back with then recently released writer Antonio McDowell and others. You can watch that presentation below:
About Northwestern’s Prison Education Program (NPEP)
The Northwestern Prison Education Program (NPEP) is an initiative of Northwestern University to provide a high-quality liberal arts education to incarcerated students in Illinois in partnership with Oakton Community College and the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC). NPEP fills a vital need by being the only degree-granting program in the state providing a full liberal arts curriculum—humanities, fine arts, social sciences, and STEM courses—to incarcerated students. NPEP accepts applications from facilities throughout the state, including from medium- and maximum-security prisons, enabling it to have statewide impact and to reach students at various stages of their incarceration. The liberal arts degrees conferred by NPEP prepare students for success across a broad range of future pursuits and add value to the lives of both the students and their teachers.
