Oh What a Lovely War

Lessons from Prison - Paper delivered at Conference Critical Connections: education for social change Arts for Social Justice at Queen Margaret University Edinburgh May 2007

Methodology
Recruitment to the project
Second year participants
Significance of the experience
Creating normality

This presentation is going to focus on the third theatre production in West Hill HMP Winchester which took place in April 2006.  The play staged was the music theatre piece Oh What a Lovely War'  by Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop. The play was directed by professional theatre director; Martin Constantine, and culminated in five performances.  Four of these performances were to the general public and one was a matinee for prisoners.

As in the previous prison theatre projects the production was performed by volunteer students who worked with  prisoners from West Hill HMP Winchester.  In educational terms, as with the previous productions, the project fits framework of Arts and Social Inclusion', and at the end of the project all prisoners who were involved achieved accreditation by the Open College Network in three subjects; Performance, Preparation for Production, plus Group and Teamwork.

The aims of the project were focused on promoting art as a valuable activity, and in particular on the application of drama as an educative and rehabilitative tool through which it is possible to promote in prisoners communication, group and teamwork skills, an increase in self awareness, improvement of self-discipline and control, plus attitudinal changes. All of these changes are intended to lead to a positive sense of identity and enhancement of self esteem, which, in turn, may alter prisoners' view of their offending behaviour, and may impact on rates of recidivism.

Central to these projects is the role that undergraduate students play.  Students are recruited to the projects as volunteers and take on the role of mentors, helping prisoners with aspects of performance, line learning, self-presentation, choreography and any devising work that a show requires.

In the case of students, the prison theatre projects are conceived within the framework of the non-traditional learning experience.

Students have different reasons for joining these projects:
The students are expected to become immersed in a very particular area of the social reality, namely the margins of society, the “anomic” area of society, where students have to learn not just about a form of space that is new to them (the prison), and its dynamic, but also about themselves and their attitudes and the personal and social conditions they encounter.

Within this framework, the focus of the prison theatre project is on the way in which the experience of taking part in theatre might contribute to the process of maturation as students have to exercise greater responsibility by working in a very particular and sensitive environment which requires from participants much empathy and understanding. These qualities are required when encountering a particular area of the social structure, namely an area at the margins of the society, the prison system. These students would not usually have had the opportunity to encounter this area of society during their university life.

Encountering people from a very different background may help the students to acquire or develop some knowledge and sensitivity towards societal aspects previously unknown to them. This in turn can lead them to develop sensitivity towards social and community issues that may help them to become further involved in arts activities within the ambit of social inclusion.

The areas that the project aims to contribute to students can be summed up as follows:

In the 2006 project, research focussed on the students.  Their changing attitudes and behaviour were the main source of information and were used to evaluate the impact of the whole experience on their personal development, namely potential stimulation of the students' sense of responsibility, their sense of understanding and empathy; possible promotion of community involvement and service through involvement in arts activities within the framework of a social inclusion' agenda, and in doing so potential challenge to their  possible prejudices and misconceptions about prisons and prisoners.  Undertaking work in this context allows the students to re-evaluate their own position in social life, and their attitudes towards issues of crime and punishment.

It is important to consider that students, as members of society,  share the knowledge and perceptions of crime and criminal justice in general circulation among citizens; to an extent these are based on stereotypes and unquestioned assumptions.  The main source of knowledge for the public regarding criminal issues comes from the media which very often distort information by exaggerating and dramatizing facts, very often for political purposes. Working with prisoners often challenges these stereotyped views and prejudices.

Methodology:

The main data collection tool for assessing the impact this work had on the students was participant observation and semi-structured interviews.

During the rehearsal period a first collective interview with all the participants was carried out, followed by a set of semi-structured interviews conducted individually with every student.  A second round of interviews, this time collective, was carried out once the prison theatre project was finished, one set exclusively with students, another where students were combined with prisoners. The final collective interviews were solely with prisoners.

After the end of the project a semi-structured interview was carried out with the head of the prison education department.

Recruitment to the Project:

The prison theatre projects are set up as an extra-curricular activity.  Students do not receive accreditation for their work. They rehearse part-time for 4 weeks and once the Easter vacation starts they rehearse for 4 weeks full time.   Being engaged in the project means that all the students had to give curtail activities they might otherwise have undertaken such as earning money and to some extent potentially neglecting their academic work.  One student had a family problem and made a decision not to travel abroad to see a parent who had become ill.  Her reasons for prioritising the project over and above seeing her Mum were indicators of a level of maturity and understanding of the importance of the work to the participating prisoners.

Fourteen female students whose ages ranged from between 19 and mid-twenties started the project; after approximately a month one of these students dropped out for personal reasons. Three had participated in the previous project.

Students who engaged in the project carried out a variety of roles:

Apart from the particular roles and responsibilities described above, the students had assigned to them a prisoner with whom they had to work as mentor and understudy in case of any prisoner having to leave the project.

A total of 14 prisoners took part.  One of them was in charge of sound effects. It is important to mention that two prisoners with normal duties in the gym (the production site) joined the team as backstage assistants; one of them was later excluded for disciplinary reasons.

Before students entered the prison they had induction meetings with myself the project manager, the researcher, and with the professional director of the play specially appointed for the project.

These induction meetings had as their main aim to make students aware of the special setting and circumstances that they were to encounter, and the consequent necessary rules and requirements which they needed to abide by in order to contribute to the smooth development of the project. Before the students entered the prison it was necessary to make students aware of what constitutes appropriate behaviour, self-presentation, and dress codes there, and to offer advice on physical contact with prisoners. The sort of behaviour that they had to adopt inside the prison and the necessary precautions in regard to any personal information disclosed to prisoners were among the other recommendations and advice given to the students. Students were also made aware of issues concerning their emotional well-being and safety in the prison context.

It is important to point out as one of the important changes from the previous year's project that in this third prison theatre production two members of the education department took part in the production as members of the band. The Education Manager took on the role of Musical Director and one of the music teachers in the prison took a large role in teaching the cast the songs and in performing the musical aspects of the play. Their presence contributed to the creation of a more integrative atmosphere; the two acted as a link between prisoners and the external participants, smoothing the relationship between insiders and outsiders, especially when there were some difficulties for the production team with some of the prisoners.  There was also a drama tutor whose work was mainly focused on ensuring that the prisoners kept the necessary documentation to allow them to complete the tasks required by the programme of accreditation.  The drama tutor was a graduate from the Drama programme at the University.  It was her first job in a prison education department and so she too was on a steep learning curve with everyone else on the project.

Every rehearsal session had a refreshment break during which students and prisoners had the opportunity to establish communication through which they were able to obtain insights into the other group, and especially the opportunity for the students to acquire a closer impression of prisoners and their conditions.  These breaks are probably the most important times in the day for both groups in terms of allowing opportunities for both groups to learn a about each other.

The students came from fairly different backgrounds the one from the other, and had different levels of maturity. These differing characteristics informed their differential ability to behave carefully and judiciously during the process of production and performance.

Although the students had experienced induction sessions on the rules and requirements of prison life, once they entered the prison they became more obviously aware that they needed to take heed of their behaviour and conduct within the prison, and to adopt cautious and very responsible ways of behaving. In their comings and goings and during the rehearsals within the prison, they had to exercise a great sense of awareness of the strange setting of a total institution with which they were confronted. After a while the students became familiar with the environment and showed a great sense of awareness of the peculiarities of the context that they had entered.

Student project members were constantly under the pressure of being in a non-familiar setting.  This setting was, furthermore, a hostile environment in that the space and time shared with the prison population was suspended' somewhere inside the prison.  Normal prison rules were suspended' in order for the project to take place, but all activities remained under scrutiny  because they took place under the umbrella of the repressive rules of a prison.

As the process continued to unfold it was evident that students and prisoners were able to become overall a very fruitful team, despite some disruptions from both sides. In the case of students these disruptions came from those whose lack of maturity was exposed by their lack of ability to maintain order and focus. During the project the students were expected to help to minimise disruption in the rehearsal space, to maintain focus, and to help the prisoners to progress within the project. However at the beginning there were a couple of occasions when some students were as disruptive as some of the most difficult prisoners. In these cases student behaviour was a clear demonstration of a lack of maturity and sense of awareness of the importance of the need to maintain a professional standard of work and behaviour.

In general, during interviews, students showed clear signs of excitement about the prison theatre project. It was expressly stated by students that the experience was without a doubt very valuable for them. That value was a key element to “keep them going”, despite the difficulties encountered working in a challenging  environment.

As one student stated: the experience “brings to students excitement, and enrichment to their lives”

In general, students showed a great awareness and appreciation of the opportunity given to them to participate in this sort of project. This, in turn, increased their esteem of the University as an educational institution.

As one of the students pointed out; “This opportunity represents a huge experience out of the normal”. And another stated; “Brings enthusiasm to students because their experience in university lacks enthusiasm”.

These findings clearly indicate the level of engagement, commitment and sense of responsibility evidenced by the students during the project.

And such commitment and the support received from students were also highly appreciated by the prisoners. During their last collective interview the prisoners, expressed the generally shared feeling that the students had played a key supportive role for them. One of the prisoners stated, “In the beginning I did not feel confident enough so was about to leave, but the students encouraged me to continue. And you see, I was able to stay until the end thanks to their encouragement”.

The prison theatre experience also showed itself to be fruitful in the reflection and social awareness triggered in the students. The experience precipitated in them social and personal awareness on the theme of developing working relationships with people from different social conditions. During interviews some of the students declared that “to face such a context makes you aware about the freedom and opportunities you have.” “You encounter different people from different backgrounds that generates reflections, makes you appreciate what you have”. The prison theatre helped the students to confront their own preconceptions. During the post-production interview some of them also declared that once they started to work with prisoners “stereotypes fell, you learn not to judge people for their cover, to respect them for their achievements. You learn to be open minded”.

They students also became aware of the impact of their behaviour on others. As acknowledged by the majority of the students they had to remain aware of their behaviour once inside prison; they had to manage their behaviour and the way in which they communicated.  “You learn to be aware about your own behaviour” was a common phase used by the most of them. These explicit references to awareness of their own behaviour demonstrate that the project was an important opportunity for young participants to learn how to conduct themselves in difficult contexts.  The level of engagement and responsibility required of the students - and of the rest of the actors involved - to accomplish the central aim, the staging of a theatrical work in very particular conditions, constitutes in itself an important evidence of the process of personal development that some went through as a consequence of their participation in the project.
After a while two important phenomena developed amongst some of students.

Once the project was underwaqy and during the first personal interviews, most of students named their relationship with prisoners as one of friendship. When asked about their experience during evaluation of the theatre project, some students showed difficulty in differentiating between a good working relationship and a friendship. Most of the students showed clear signs of surprise that they had been able to build a positive and creative relationship with people from a completely different social background and were able to empathise with their situation.  All of this added to the intensity and excitement of the novel experience and induced the students to categorise their relationship with the prisoners as one of friendship rather than professional engagement. There were two students who had been involved in the previous project.  They were able to define the relationship between them and the prisoners as a “Good relationship”, rather than refer to it as “friendship”.

Another feature that developed during the prison theatre project could be described as the sexualisation of the student-prisoner relationship.

The way in which some of the students dressed, the use of jewellery and make-up, the care put into hair style, features that have a clear sexual connotation, provide some evidence that the students were highly aware of their impression management' in accentuating their feminine appearance, especially in a context where they had been instructed not to do so.

It was common to observe that before prisoners joined the team for rehearsals, some students checked their make-up, their hair and made an overall check on their appearance. These behaviours served to further sexualise a relationship that already came with a strong erotic charge because of the confinement of the prisoners, all of whom were male.

Although the students had been inducted received an induction that had stressed prison dress code and the need to refrain from using jewellery and make-up, some of the students paid little attention to the advice and often had to be reminded of what was appropriate.

On rare occasions students have joined projects because of an agenda which is related to an experience of the criminal justice system where they have been a victim of crime.  This has been problematic in each case with students sometimes behaving in an inappropriate way whilst in the prison because of the ways in which being in that environment affected them emotionally.  It is important for issues which student face in relation to the context to be dealt with outside the project time as the theatre projects cannot be used as self-help, catharsis or therapy for the participating students.

It is difficult to assess the long-term effects of undertaking this work on the students, but it is clear that an intense emotional dynamic developed in the production, triggering different sorts of personal and emotional reactions. The project undeniably represented a key life experience for many participants.
This experience contains important experiential elements such as excitement, development of the sense of collectivism, the sense of achievement, the positive and emotive dynamic towards a collective aim, the gratification of the final reward, all of which make it a highly memorable one.

There is no doubt that the experience will be retained as a source of knowledge and experience which might inform future work in community contexts. 

Further, the prison theatre experience might be considered more relevant for students when one considers that they are in a process of adaptation to a completely new setting and facing a very particular stage in life, i.e. their university life as undergraduates.

Consequently, it is not strange for students during such an experience to face periods of important emotional upheaval, with feelings of loneliness, homesickness, depression and anxiety. These are feelings frequent in the student experience, especially during their first year at university, a result of the great changes that they have undertaken. All of this makes students especially vulnerable.   In this context it is important to keep in mind that an experience like entry into a prison context may have a large impact on them.

Indeed, it was possible to observe that the impact of the project on the students who, at the beginning, appeared fairly unsuited to work in a prison environment, was beneficial by the conclusion of the project. By the end of the project, it was possible to observe that the views of these students had been radically altered, and that many had undergone a process of maturation which would not necessarily have happened in the same way had they been working only with their peer group in a university or conventional theatre context.

Overall, the experience was highly beneficial for students. They experienced a boost to their psychological growth, namely they showed signs of enhanced maturity, a higher sense of commitment and responsibility, and an important ability to manage themselves in difficult contexts.

Second year participant; the signs of long term effects:

Although there are few elements to evaluate the long lasting impact on the students, the changes shown by students who participated in the project for the second time, especially their tremendous boost in maturity and adult attitude and behaviour, may be considered an important indicator of the sort of long lasting impact that the project has had on students.

By assessing the changes shown in behaviour and maturity in the students who participated in the previous prison project and the elaboration of some problems brought to the project by students on their second experience of theatre in prisons, it is possible to demonstrate long term effects on students and also the limitations of the project.

As stated earlier, three students repeated their participation and enrolled again in the third (2006) version of the project. As soon as the project started two of them showed clear changes in their general attitudes.

As a consequence of the knowledge accumulated from their previous experience, they acted clearly in a more secure, confident and relaxed manner in difficult terrain already known to them. They were also able to mentor the new students and give them advice as to how they should behave.  They were also able to talk to the other students about how and why the experience was one which could become highly charged and emotional.
From the previous year's project to the 2006's one the attitude of these students changed considerably. These students had acquired much more experience and showed consistently greater awareness of the whole process, and also of the way in which they related to people and communicated within the prison context. They contributed with great commitment and responsibility to the multiple tasks of the project. In general these more experienced students acted as powerful facilitators in the development of the project.

As one of the students declared in the interview “This year I feel more relaxed and confident working here in prison. This year I am less concerned about things, because the information and experience of last year is in the back of my mind” This statement is without doubt a confirmation that the learning taken from the previous year's project had indeed been incorporated into their mindset.

The case of the two students who participated for the second time can shed some light on the impact and contribution that this sort of project can provide for students in their passage to adulthood.

Another student who participated for the second time can be cited as an example to show the limited scope of the effects generated by the project.

We should point out that although the prison theatre experience was enormously rich in opportunities for triggering in students sensitive reflection, and although the project could help them in their process of personal development towards becoming adult, the project cannot be considered a therapeutic tool which can help to resolve more delicate or dysfunctional personal or psychological problems.

During the previous project the student in question had showed clear difficulties in cooperating with the rest of the team, and on several occasions this student manifested an inappropriate reaction on facing some difficult moments within the project.
During her second involvement in the prison theatre project, although to a lesser degree, she manifested the same problems and she indulged in a repetition of problematic behaviour. All of this was a manifestation of deeper personal and psychological problems that needed to be tackled.

This last example indicates that a project like this is not a panacea for helping students who have a psychological problem which has emerged as very dysfunctional not just for the project, but for general relationships and self-conception. A project like prison theatre should not be expected to be a therapeutic process for students.

However, the important contribution that the project can make in these cases is that throughout the process dysfunctional behaviour becomes visible, so opening a door on the possibility that the problem may be later addressed.

In such cases it is important that, once the project concludes, those students should be approached individually to identify and discuss the dysfunctional behaviour, with the further possibility of counselling towards the seeking of help for their problems with a competent professional.

Significance of the experience:

Personal

At a personal level, the important contribution that the project can make to young students who are starting to face adult life away from family revolves around facing some aspect of the social world (the extreme context of prison) unknown to most of students. They may learn how to respond and behave in a different and strange setting, to become aware of an aspect of social life and experience of people from a very different social background, people whose lives have not been so fortunate as their own. In other ways the project offers them the opportunity to enrich and widen their experience in their process of development and insertion in adult life.

University life for most of students entails a series of new experiences brought on with distance from family life. Away from the old routines and dynamics within the closeness of family, most students face a process in which they start to define themselves in the roles which will shape their social self and define their adult social identity.

The strength of the prison theatre project as a thought-provoking experience in people's lives lies in the fact that it constitutes an experience loaded with vitality and strong emotions which are experienced by people over a very brief period. In a short period they live through an intense experience.

A project like prison theatre takes people out of their normal routine and immerses them in a very emotionally charged dynamic in which is experienced a great sense of collective endeavour, a sense of a close community where participants share a common experience and a pronounced sense of achievement, and all of this in social territory entirely unknown previously to most of them.

This situation demands from participants great commitment and responsibility, and, in prison conditions, puts on them in a heavy demand for delivery to their very best level. During the whole process everybody is put under pressure to deliver the best possible in the individual role under these special circumstances. Everybody, whatever the role, is in some way under scrutiny by the rest of the small community that the drama group becomes during the project's duration. Everybody from director and managers to students, technicians, researcher are involved in a dynamic inside a small community which is working under enormous pressure.

The achievement of staging a play in the special environment of a prison, despite the inherent difficulties, brings to the participants – and not just the students - an enormous sense of satisfaction for having managed such an unexpected result in such difficult conditions. The final (performance) days of the project bring to people one of the most gratifying senses of achievement and satisfaction. All of this makes the whole experience highly emotive.

And it is here that the strength of the whole project lies.
At the institutional level, the sorts of experience offered by prison theatre are of an undeniable value, contributing to widening the role of university by offering to students the opportunity to participate in something very special. To some degree Winchester prison theatre opens the door to creating a wider conception of what the university might or should be.

Today, when the university has become a mass' institution the main aim of which is to deliver knowledge to students in order to launch them into professional life, this sort of extra-curriculum activity allows the university to contribute something else. It can contribute not just to preparing adults for professional life, but also to educating citizens with wider experiences, that few other institutions at present are willing and able to offer.

This sort of project demonstrates that the university can offer students the opportunity of learning to work as a team and of embracing mutual responsibility with people from a completely different background, and in a very particular and delicate setting. Without this opportunity the students would probably not have encountered anything similar. This is an enhancement of the social role of the university. It becomes an institution which prepares students for a profession, but also helps to develop individuals and therefore contribute to creating better educated citizens, better educated in a sense that goes beyond conventional learning.  It an era when education has become commodified the fact that students work on these projects as volunteers is important.  It is important for the prisoners who are often moved to find out that the students are giving up their own time – time which could be spent on their studies or on earning money.  This fact is part of a complex pattern of delivery part of which is about enhancing prisoners' sense of self and self-worth.  Students undertake the work for its intrinsic value and this is an important facet of the work.

Creating normality in an abnormal environment

The prison theatre project is a subversive social intervention, because in its practice there is the attempt to resist the hegemonic conception of criminal justice, where routine practice dehumanises individuals, detaches their behaviour or personal experience from their familiar social and economic conditions. The prison theatre project brings a creative experience which attempts to reclaim and proclaim the humanity of prisoners, their creativity and abilities. It helps them to throw light on and reassess their past experiences, and this in turn can illuminate and empower a process of rehabilitation for the prisoners. Their interactions with the students are essential in bringing into the environment an air of normality' and one in which everyone can work together in partnership.

A prison is a place where the most insignificant and normal part of everyday life most of the time becomes something out of the normal.

The unappreciated normality of life outside becomes, in prison, something special. Normality is suspended to give way to an array of rules which command life there. Normal issues in normal life in prison become exceptional, banned or, are not taken forward;  in such an environment they are transformed into “issues”.

One of the most important aims of the project is to create a space where prisoners can experience a creative freedom, interact and communicate responsibly, working towards a common aim.  However both prisoners and students have to remain aware at all times that the rules of the institution need to be acknowledged.  To flout rules in the name of some kind of radical subversive act would be to put future projects in danger and to risk losing prisoners and students from the projects should the prison deems areas of behaviour unacceptable. 

Because the project intends to create such free space' it is important to balance this issue with the need to respect some inherent rules of the system. It is of the greatest importance to work hard at creating as normal an environment as possible. There is a need to avoid making an issue of things that could be dealt with more informally and sensitively.   

This understanding is one of the most subtle aspects of the project: the need to balance the creation of a normal, free and creative space and dynamic with the need to abide by the inherent rules of a secure institution. This balance is needed in order not to jeopardise the whole project by pushing the boundaries too far'.

The project moves within the constant tension of needing to establish such a balance. However, it is precisely in that tension that the project defines its ethos. The tension, therefore, rather than being a problem is an opportunity which can be taken as a fruitful and creative one where people have the opportunity to exercise their judgement and sensitivity in making the establishment of normality a priority. 

Theatre work in prisons offers an opportunity to reaffirm one reality over another. It is during the interactions generated by the project, set in a context of tension, that people have the opportunity to recreate and give expression to a version of reality different from the common prison reality. Participants are bringing normality into that prison space, acting in a way that militates against the reaffirmation of repressive rules.

Annie McKean & Rosa Martinez
May 2007


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