There
shall have been sixty one (62) London Shakespeare Workout (LSW) Prison
Project sessions in LSW’s second year as a registered charity (calendar
2002) within 37 of Her Majesty’s correctional centres, ranging from
juvenile estates, through to young offender institutions and adult
prisons; all geographically centred between Sussex and Staffordshire.
In these, 1,843 inmates both male and female shall have actively
participated alongside 187 Prison Officers and educational staff and,
amazingly, 693 professional performers ranging from Fiona Shaw to Sir
Jonathan Miller, each and all energetically contributing.
LSW’s
second year has also witnessed:
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The development of the Ex-Offender/Professional Workouts in which 96
ex-offenders have participated since the April ’02 launch and from
which an additional 473 professional performers have gained insight
since January both in London and Manchester, where we where we have
been most proud to launch an initial base in tandem with Theatre in
Prisons and Probation and the Contact Theatre.
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The successful premiere of LSW’s VOICES programme, giving voice to
inmates currently incarcerated as inspired through LSW core
incentives. The first presentation featuring the creative
written input of eleven inmates, Voices, a tale about a sixteen year
old boy and his perspective of the world around him (from which the
incentive has now taken its name) was proudly performed in tandem with
an original score by Tom Wiggall at The Oxford Playhouse, The ADC in
Cambridge and within The Clore Studio in London’s Royal Opera House.
In the latter case, the presentation had a cast of 29, a third of whom
were ex-offenders. Each was followed by an animated debate on
the importance of Arts in Criminal Justice Regimes. The
2003 programme, A Homage Behind (a celebration of the Queen’s Golden
Jubilee as perceived by those currently serving at Her Pleasure) has
been conceived to by 29 serving inmates from as many different
institutions. This was proudly previewed at The Criterion
Theatre in London’s West End on 19th November 2002 and shall, after
revision, officially open on 9th March 2003 at The Oxford Playhouse.
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LSW was honoured in 2002 to be chosen for inclusion in the BBC2
flagship presentation of its ‘Shakespeare’ segment of the Great
Britons Series. This was most refreshing as the segment’s
primary focus was one based well beyond the Prison Service itself.
Here the fine words of the men from HMP Lowdham Grange as inspired by
the Bard were allowed to speak for themselves. Moreover, many
feature articles, (such as the two page article from The Guardian
enclosed) were written on LSW’s work further enhancing the
public’s awareness of its importance as an educational tool both
inside and out. LSW’s last project in regard to public
awareness in 2002 is a video feature being made in tandem with London
Weekend Television which shall be distributed to all Foreign Office
locations by the end of the year, one to be broadcast by networks
world-wide.
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One of the most outstanding aspects of LSW’s work in 2002 has been
the joint ventures we have enjoyed with the professional theatrical
and educational communities, namely, The Birmingham Repertory Theatre,
The Nottingham Playhouse, Chichester Festival Theatre, Oxford and
Cambridge Universities, the Royal Shakespeare Company, The Old Vic,
Shakespeare’s Globe and Thelma Holt Productions. All of these
I am delighted to report shall be on-going in 2003 and the development
of new incentives are currently underway.
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“We know full well that if we are to cut off the roots of crime, we
have to give people something positive, not simply take away their
liberty,” Tessa Jowl, Minister of Culture, Media and Sport has
noted, “LSW’s projects have successfully raised individual
horizons and improved participants’
sense of self-esteem.” The year 2002 marked one in which the
LSW Prison Project largely came out of the shadows. “LSW is It
is not all about clamping people down;” Lord Rooker noted in a House
of Lords debate, “it is about opening people up and encouraging them
to be positive, whether they have offended or not. This is an
important issue to have been raised in the House.”
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This year shall have also marked the launch of LSW’s new media arts
project ‘Dreaming Will’, which, as promised in my inaugural
Chairman’s report of last year, shall have drawn its name from the
wonderful documentary film directed by Lucy Fyson for Films of Record
on LSW’s work in 2001. On 10th November 2002 at Cambridge
University, 12 ex-offenders met with eight Cambridge University
students and five key professional film makers. By the end of
the day in interactive groups of four, each individual had served as
interviewer, interviewee, camera operator, sound operator and director
and each collective group had additionally made a five minute film
from storyboard to in-camera editing. It was an outstanding
success. Here, quite obviously, inclusion was working because it
was invisible and the key skills of literacy and innumeracy where
magically employed by all in a fundamentally practical manner.
Above
all, LSW has collectively strengthened its purpose by, simply, utilising
the works of Shakespeare and other major dramatic writers/voices as an
interactive tool by which to promote confidence through the Will to dream
for all. In this way LSW has begun to achieve success in its quest
to address all of what we refer to as the 'applied' literacies, e.g.,
written, verbal, visual, musical and numeric. Notwithstanding, this
Year End Report must deal in futures as that is, in effect, LSW’s
stock-in-trade. Whilst prison residents may pay for past errors
inside, LSW must dynamically deal with their universal potential without
by means of an active engagement. The future is, as it should be,
bright, both profiting from and building (as it must) on past lessons and
achievements. Thus in 2003, LSW Prison Project incentives shall include:-
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A
production of Henry VI, Pt. 3 (herein called ‘The Wax King’) at
HMP Pentonville (public performances 10 & 11.2.03) thanks to
London Arts Regional Lottery programme;
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The
recording of Shakespeare sonnets and original inmate writing with
named professionals and inmates at HMP Bullingdon thanks to the
Southern Arts Regional Lottery programme to be distributed free of
charge to all prison educational centres in the United Kingdom and
Ireland;
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A
week’s sojourn in October in Canada working with the Canadian
Stratford and Shaw Festivals in Toronto
Jail
and
Niagara
and Stratford Detention Centres;
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An
active association with Chris Grace and the Animated Shakespeare Tales
for prison performances utilising inmates and professionals;
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Encouraging
our on-going associations with Oxford and Cambridge Universities in
terms of the ‘VOICES’ programme celebrating new writing inside on
the out and further strengthening our bond with The Koestler Arts
Trust
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The
realisation of two episodes in the inaugural ‘Dreaming Will’ dv
series to be distributed free of charge to all prison educational
centres in the United Kingdom and Ireland in tandem with our principal
partners, Prisons Video Magazine. The themes initially addressed
in these episodes shall be (a) On Violence/Bullying and (b) On Matters
of State and Citizenship.