Creating a Model for Institutional and Personal Change with Music Theatre Workshop

Keisha,* 19, sits in the center of the administrative lounge at the Illinois Youth Center Warrenville (IYC), a residential juvenile center for girls ages 13-21. It is one hour prior to the final “Fabulous Females” performance of “Believe Me,” Music Theatre Workshop’s (MTW) fall production. Keisha, one of the playwrights and a lead performer, has been in a fight. Around her sit not only MTW staff, but the assistant superintendent, her counselor and the cottage security guard.

Should Keisha be allowed to perform? Everyone feels conflicted. MTW staff has championed Keisha’s participation in the group for over a year in spite of her continuous Level Three behavior (worst level).

Keisha’s own emotions are mixed. Waves of anger flash across her face as she struggles to defend herself. “I do want to perform today. I do.” Over the past two months, she has raised her level first to a two and, for the past two weeks, to a one. After another girl was eliminated from the play for sexual misconduct, Keisha took over the lead. She is one performance away from a week of triumph.

That morning, however, Janeesha, a cottage mate, taunted her about losing her sister in a car accident the past summer. This loss has haunted Keisha. Janeesha kept pushing, first orally then physically. At last, Keisha couldn’t stand it. She threw Janeesha’s mother’s death back in her face and assumed a fighting position. Fists flew.

There is an uncomfortable silence in the room as everyone weighs the right thing to do. At last, Mr. Paulson, the cottage security staff member who witnessed the fight, speaks on Keisha’s behalf. “Keisha wasn’t the aggressor. She’s worked hard to raise her level, and Janeesha is a scary fighter. Even if you curl into a ball on the floor, if she comes at you, you are going to be hurt badly. I can understand why Keisha would fight.”

Molly, MTW’s program manager, and I are willing to go along with Mr. Paulson, but only if the Fabulous Females Ensemble consents to Keisha’s return. Mr. Paulson un-cuffs Keisha, but leads her still shackled to the stage. The girls discuss; then vote. The vote must be unanimous. A few girls waver, then are persuaded. The entire group vote is in favor of Keisha’s performing.

Connecting choices to consequences, IYC staffers mandate that Keisha will perform but she will not stay for the post-performance reception, even though her mother is attending. Keisha relays the story to her mother personally before the performance.

Why is this scene important? It represents months of moving MTW’s Fabulous Females from an independent activity (involving one staff member as a liaison to the prison’s female residents) into a program (with the whole institutional staff as stakeholders in the girls’ welfare). In the world of corrections, activities are understood to be rewards for good behavior; programs constitute rehabilitation and, therefore, may serve residents of all behavior levels.

MTW Mission and History

Since 1984, Music Theatre Workshop (MTW) has prepared young people to make positive life choices through the process of writing, producing and performing original musical theater inspired by their personal stories. Using a unique group playwriting process, MTW carries out this mission with youth in community and institutional settings. Young people use the writing process as a roadmap to navigate their past and future lives, observing their environment, relationships and choices, and the consequences of those choices. Using poetic rhyming language, melody and tempo to explore and reflect their emotional reality, youth try on alternative roles and chart for their chosen characters a successful journey through an ever-complicating maze of obstacles.

The cast of “Believe Me,” a musical that focused on rape and the credibility of girls in the justice system. Music Theatre Workshop produced the 2007 musical play by the “Fabulous Females,” young women incarcerated at Illinois Youth Center at Warrenville who used the group playwriting process as a roadmap to navigate their past and future lives, observing their environment, relationships and choices, and the consequences of those choices. Click here to enlarge

MTW artists have worked with incarcerated youth since 1990, initiating a male-specific program, Temporary Lockdown, at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center in 1990 and a female-specific program, Fabulous Females, in 1996. With the support of the Chicago Foundation for Women, MTW transferred its Fabulous Females program to the Illinois Youth Center in Warrenville in 2002. MTW staff wanted to place the program where it could be embedded in and supported by an entire institution.

With foundation support, MTW quickly instituted the IYC Fabulous Females as an eight-to twelve week recreational writing and performance workshop. This program operated through a Leisure Time Activity staff person who did not herself attend staff meetings on the girls’ issues and behavior. Leisure activities are understood to be purely recreational, with no connection to the girls’ therapeutic programming. Today, MTW operates a year-round program of performance skills built into story, song and script writing, leading to a full musical production in the fall.

MTW Process

MTW’s highly structured program, formulated in over 20 years working in Chicago’s schools, parks, hospitals, museums and detention centers, includes many components that create a sense of safety and structure. The first at IYC is a sign-in sheet where the girls record their beginning time, their institutional behavior level and their pen number. The institution considers pens to be contraband so they are numbered, counted and given out in exchange for the girls’ name tags. If a pen turns up missing, security searches all the participants, a procedure the girls understandably prefer to avoid. MTW’s second sheet provides spaces for emotional-temperature assessment, artistic, group and personal goals, and a final reflection on the session.

Each girl fills out a blank for her “outside” and “beginning inside.” “Outside” is a statement of something obvious about one’s outer appearance. “On the outside, I am wearing blue.” “On the outside, I look like one hot mess.” The positive versus negative choice helps the staff assess individual self-esteem. “I’m big.” “I have a pimple on my face.” Over time, with this constant assessment, subtle changes often occur: hair is combed or “done.” Girls may choose to wear make-up.

The “Inside” choice is emotional. “On the inside, I feel angry and frustrated.” “On the inside, I feel anxious.” Participants have the option of explaining themselves “because my Mom said she was coming for a visit and she didn’t show up.” “A letter from my sister says a lot of bad things are happening at home.” “Oooh! This girl just made me really mad in the gym!”

This emotional-temperature taking has many values. It allows MTW’s teaching artists to know what baggage the girls are bringing in from the outside. The artists will gauge the amount of “play” versus “work” directly on the feelings of the group. If everyone enters the workshop with a smile on their face, the group is ready to be engaged in “work.” If they enter stormy-eyed and feral-haired, it’s wise to take extra time to play.

MTW staff recently added space at the bottom of the reflection-and-goal sheet for an “Ending Inside,” so the girls are able to see, at session’s end from their own point of view, how their moods have changed. To date, the “Ending Inside” frequently reflects a happy, content and satisfied teen who feels that she has accomplished something both on her own and with the group. Over time, this underscores for the girls how their emotions are under their control and if they engage themselves in activity – playing, writing, dancing and singing – they will generally feel better about themselves.

The sheet also contains Artistic, Group and Personal Goals. The Artistic Goals may shift depending on the focus of the session, whether it is a creative workshop or a rehearsal. In a writing workshop, Artistic Goals may be “Crafted my story diligently,” “Used new vocabulary,” “Read aloud,” “Participated in discussion,” and “Projected my voice loudly and clearly,” etc.

Group Goals focus on healthy and respectful interactions; “Paid attention while listening to others,” “Voiced opinion in a positive way,” “Supported everyone,” and “Used respectful language.”

A Personal Goal is just that: what the participant wishes to accomplish by the end of the session. All fill out a personal goal at the top of the session. At session’s end, they will use the sheet to assess what they have accomplished. Later, staffers will collaboratively examine the sheets and add their own judgment.

All discussion and ritual is carried out sitting in a circle. It is important that everyone see and hear each person. The session officially begins with each girl, artist and volunteer stating his/her “Outside” and “Inside.” This makes the point that what seems obvious on the “Outside” is not necessarily reflective of the “Inside” and how often judgments are based only on the “Outside.” Later, in acting exercises, this will support the idea of subtext in the actor’s character and dialogue.

The teaching artists make decisions about the amount and kind of play necessary based on girls’ responses during “Outside – Inside.“ The Play Section of the workshop is a mixture of theater games and warm-ups. The session generally starts with a game that forces everyone to move, let go and connect. The first exercise/game must allow everyone to feel free and childlike. When laughter and squealing fill the room, it signals time to work.

When beginning a workshop period where writing stories will lead to a staged reading or performance workshop, the time allotted to play will be longer at the beginning sessions than at later sessions. The play creates a sense of ensemble and a shared purpose. Girls often “notice” on their reflection sheets how surprised they are that they could all get along for three hours. As the participants feel a greater stake in completing their work and presenting it well, they will want to portion their time accordingly. When performance is near, the “Inside” often becomes “I feel ready to work.” When work is pressing, a ritual of snapping fingers and throwing bad emotions over the shoulder helps to give the girls immediate control over the emotional impediments to achievement.

Processing Experience through Dramatization

MTW is a writing-based company. By year’s end, the Fabulous Females group will end up with a one-act musical-theater script, approximately 45 to 60 pages long, produced through an individual and group storytelling process.

Because the girls’ personal stories frequently disclose high levels of trauma, and often are first-time revelations, MTW staff realized that it is crucial to work closely with the girls’ counselors and therapists.

At the beginning of a session, the IYC counseling staff can provide insight into the girls’ family background, mental health issues and behavioral concerns. At the same time, the MTW staff can support the IYC counselors’ goals.

Peer-group storytelling feels safer to many girls than one-on-one counseling with an adult. Girls realize quickly that they are all relating versions of the same story. The group storytelling encourages empathy. And, once told, a story becomes easier to tell again. Thus, the catharsis of the peer-group storytelling can serve as a useful bridge to therapy with an adult.

This summer 2007, Ms. Hall, one of the girls’ counselors, brought a girl to MTW’s attention. “Anne’s mother is going to jail. Her father is abusive. She’s supposed to get out soon but has nowhere to go. She refuses to talk to me. Maybe she’ll open up in your group.”

Anne joined MTW’s summer group and not only discussed the issue of no healthy placement but told, for the first time, a story of sexual abuse. She joined MTW’s playwriting group to contribute to “Believe Me,” a musical that focused on rape and the credibility of girls in the justice system. The other playwrights encouraged her to remain at IYC until her mother’s incarceration ended, rather than expose herself to the potential abuse of her mother’s alcoholic boyfriend, the only other option for her release.

In 2007, the Chicago Foundation for Women funded Music Theatre Workshop’s efforts with girls at the IYC under the Governor’s Initiative: What Will It Take? Building the Safest State for all Women and Girls! While the IYC girls have often focused their important stories on the abuse experienced in their lives, this funding gave the girls a mission to examine their lives as a prism for girls across the state and the country.

The initial story-writing sessions focused on situations where others inflicted unexpected violence upon the girls’ lives. As in all of MTW’s writing sessions, this one began with a professionally written and performed prompting story. Starting this way opens the group up emotionally, immerses them in a vivid and well-told story, and gives them the courage, direction, and permission to be intensely personal themselves in an artistic, creative manner. They are not telling their story to shock but to communicate. The prompt for this session was Girls in the River, a true story of a young girl attacked on the street by an unknown man with a butcher knife.

You read about girls.
Girls who are found in the river,
In the back alley,
In the corn field,
In the forest,
Beside the highway;
Girls who are running away
From the thoughts inside of them,
From the person they don’t want to be anymore.
And girls who are just out walking,
Laughing, talking, thinking, dreaming,
Girls who are out under the stars
Under the moon
Under the sharp blunt neon
Out for their own reasons [1]

As part of the What Will It Take? Initiative, MTW’s partner, the Health Medicine Policy Research Group, coded the Summer Workshop stories for levels of violence, looking for the link between abuse and incarceration.

Linking Stories to Create a Collective Picture

As each girl read her story aloud, the circle of girls respectfully asked detailed questions. A girl designated as the note-taker wrote out character names, traits, choices and consequences. Girls discussed the links between their stories and whether the situations could have been avoided. Later, at the final production, the playwrights presented their statistics to the audience. These statistics included the following:

The first set of 44 stories contained 32 accounts of direct violence inflicted on the girls:

• 10 rapes (31%)
• 3 gang rapes (9%)
• 5 cases of child molestation (15%)
• 9 physical assaults (28%)
• 2 instances of being shot (6%)
• 3 instances of being physically threatened (9%)
• 5 of the 32 violent instances involved a gun.

In addition, the stories revealed the following:

• Almost one-third of the violence was frequent and ongoing (as opposed to an isolated event).
• The perpetrator was known by the girl in the majority of cases (oftentimes a relative, friend or ex-boyfriend).
• The perpetrators were all male.
• In 44 stories, there were 15 mentions of a close friend or family member’s death. Half of these were due to violence.
• 30 instances of the writer’s mental health were mentioned.
• 11 mentions of depression (37%)
• 5 mentions of self-blame (17%)
• 5 mentions of anger (17%)
• 3 mentions of suicidal thoughts (10%)
• 5 mentions of general anguish (17%)

The second session narrowed the topic of violence to instances of rape, physical abuse, psychological abuse by partner, sexual abuse, psychological abuse by gang members and girl-on-girl violence. The second set of stories included 34 instances of violence.

By the third workshop, the group of 20 girls writing for MTW’s summer session voted to narrow the focus of the play to the subject of rape and the credibility of girls in the justice system who name perpetrators of sexual violence. From within this group, ten girls became playwrights with the jobs of synthesizing and focusing all the stories into a musical-theater script.

As another prompt to conversation for the summer, all 20 girls read the book “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson. This young-adult novel relates the tale of a teenage girl who is raped at a party by an upperclassman and is unable to tell her story. For almost a full school year, she suffers from loss of self-esteem, depression and loneliness. Like the character in the story, the girls at IYC drew self-portrait trees and talked about the importance of telling their stories in order to let them go and move on with their lives.

Rebecca’s Story
The winter session paired the girls with Honors English students from the College of DuPage (COD). After a prompt seeking childhood memories, Rebecca, who had already been working with MTW since the fall of 2006, wrote the story of her rape by her uncle. While this prompt was meant to help the participants think about happier, lighter moments, Rebecca reported that she had no pleasant childhood recollections. She was reluctant to write about her past because she said it was too painful. At last, she related the story of her 7th birthday which was performed as part of a collage of stories by the girls and COD students.

REBECCA
Today is my birthday. I am seven years old, getting ready for my party at Chuck E. Cheese.
EVERYONE
Where a kid can be a kid!
REBECCA
I’m upstairs cleaning the room I share with my sister Sherry and trying on my new pink party dress. After an hour or so of cleaning our room, my grandfather calls up to me.
GRANDPA
Rebecca, time to take a bath for your party!
REBECCA
After my nice warm bubble bath, I go into my room to get dressed. While I’m starting to get dressed, I hear my bedroom door open. I don’t think anything of it. I think it’s my sister Sherry. I hear my Uncle David call my name.
UNCLE DAVID
Rebecca!
REBECCA
He sounds like he is right behind me, so I turn around and see him standing there. Now he is a pretty tall man, he is about 6’2”, has dark brown hair and is very muscular. He is staring at me from head to toe. What he’s telling me is kind of strange. He says to me.
UNCLE DAVID
I have a present for you.
REBECCA
I don’t say anything to him; I am trying to figure out why he is staring at me and why he is acting so strange. My party dress falls to the floor. I am naked.[2]

Rebecca was reluctant to speak aloud of the actual rape, so for the reading, the MTW teaching artist blended the story with other similar rape/attack stories. At this point, another girl’s story took over the action, leaving the implication of what happened but allowing Rebecca to tell her story without voicing it. After the performance, in the spring session of the workshop, Rebecca became more outgoing. At one point, she encouraged a girl new to the workshop to tell her story of abuse. “I feel so much better now that I’ve told it. It really helps.” In the spring session, Rebecca took a further risk. She told the story of how as a result of her anger, she had perpetrated violence on others. Several other girls took this same risk by portraying themselves as “perpetrators” rather than “victims.” One girl explored her obsession with gangbanging and admitted her excitement at watching one of the college students portray her beating another girl on the street. Interestingly, the second set of stories by the college students also showed a greater willingness to expose themselves with tales of family deaths, unexpected pregnancy and cancer.

In creating this second set of stories, participants pair up to listen to, write and perform each other’s story. In this instance, Rebecca was paired up with Steve, an older volunteer. In this staged reading, Steve took on the roll of Rebecca.

REBECCA
Whenever I try to talk to Grandpa Willard about my Dad, he gets real mad at me.
GRANDPA
Rebecca, where has your Dad been when you needed him? If he really cared, he wouldn’t have abandoned you and your mom when you were a child. You will be much better off if you put him out of your mind.
REBECCA
I know Grandpa loves me, but he can’t be right. Grandpa is just mad at him. He blames Dad for all my mom’s troubles.
My girlfriends and I like to drink and smoke weed. We talk about all kinds of things.
FRIEND
Don’t you have a daddy? My daddy will do anything for me.
FRIEND 2
That’s right. I’m Daddy’s little girl. He loves me more than anyone!
REBECCA
This makes me sad, and very jealous. I begin to secretly plan to run away and go see my dad. I am going to get my money out of the bank and I’m going! With the help of a friend who has a car, I leave to see my dad. He is totally blown away when I arrive. He hugs me hard so that I can hardly breathe.
DAD
What a big girl you are! I’ve missed you so much.
REBECCA
This is the Dad I have dreamed about for years! The only trouble is he’s living with his girlfriend Edna and her two kids. One is a year-and-a-half and the other is only six months. Suddenly, I am their live-in nanny. Edna drags my dad out every night to party and expects me to take care of them. There’s no food or diapers so I spend all of my money going to the store for them. Soon, I have no money to get away from here!
Every night, Dad and Edna come in late and drunk. I am getting madder and madder. I didn’t come here to be treated like a servant.
EDNA
Rebecca, this house is a mess. Why don’t you clean it?
REBECCA
Are you crazy?! Clean the house yourself!
EDNA
(Pushing Rebecca) Who do you think you’re talking to?!
REBECCA
All the anger that’s been building up inside explodes. I pick up a lamp and I hit her so hard with it, I break her nose. Who does she think? She’s messing with, some little child? I may look small, but if you cross me, watch out!!
“I don’t take orders from you! You’re not my mother!”
The neighbors call the police. They don’t listen to me.
“It’s all her fault! She pushed me!”
COPS
Cuff her.
REBECCA
I can’t think straight, I feel like I’m going to faint. Why are my dad and uncle just standing there not saying a word? It’s not fair, I’m their family. Why won’t you help me?![3]

Rebecca is a thin, hunched-shoulder girl who escapes into books in the library, whose eyes are bare of lashes from her relentless pulling, who has never had a family visit in the year we have known her. It is difficult to see her as the self she describes in this story.

During the summer session, entirely comprising IYC girls, Rebecca, selected as a playwright and leader, clearly felt more confident and opened up even more. She told a story of running away from a group home with two other girls. While attending a party at one of the girl’s homes, given by her brother, the third girl is raped. Rebecca leaves the party, then comes back to rescue her friend but clearly feels responsible and guilty for the other’s rape. This story and Rebecca’s winter-session story together formed an important framework for the eventual play. The story of the uncle who rapes her before her birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese becomes a haunting memory, which recurs at the brother’s party. The role of Rebecca and the girl she feels guilty about become one composite character named Miriam. The memory of the earlier rape prevents Miriam from stopping the abuse of Blade, the gang leader.

MIRIAM
I feel sick
I go to the bathroom
The door is hard to close
It keeps popping slightly open
I hold it with my hand                                                      
I let it go when I’m at the sink
That’s when he enters
Blade
“I’ll be out in a minute”
BLADE
No you won’t
MIRIAM
He blocks the door
He pushes me down on the floor
I feel my party dress drop
(BLADE sings the same chorus as the Uncle in the previous story.)
BLADE
I HAVE A PRESENT, MIRIAM,
AND IT’S JUST FOR YOU.
COME HERE AND UNWRAP IT,
LOOK, IT’S SOMETHING NEW.
MIRIAM, I LOVE YOU,
I’M BURNING LIKE A COAL,
BUT I AM GOING TO HURT YOU,
IF YOU TELL A SOUL!
MIRIAM
He holds his hand over my throat
I am completely limp
I can’t scream
I can’t fight back
Party sounds drift through the door
I am back at Chuck E. Cheese
Seven years old with blood on my underwear
I look up and see Star’s face
I think in terror that it’s my mother
BLADE
Do you want to be next, Blue Eyes?

In the full production, the protocol is that no one portrays herself. At first, it’s hard on the playwright/actors to let go. Frowns appear on their faces listening to another girl recite their stories. Often the first reaction to hearing someone else speak the lines or sing their song is tears. After a few rehearsals, they begin to let go of their “possessions.” At some point, however, each will compliment the performer who is playing her.

Rebecca, who is portraying a character based on another playwright, has a song, “Toxic Love.” I have directed it to be sung by the Ensemble since Rebecca had a minor speaking role during the prior year and avoided dancing and singing for the most part. Now, she approaches me.

“Please, Ms. P, I want to sing a solo. I’m ready.” Together, we look at the song and select the part she would like to sing by herself.

GIRLS
TONIGHT, I’M GOING TO PROVE MY LOVE
WAIT IN THE BEDROOM UP ABOVE
SOFTLY, HEAR HIM UP THE STAIRS
MY HEART BEATS, DO I CARE?

ARMS CROSSED TIGHTLY ON MY CHEST
IN THE DARK HE GETS UNDRESSED
IS THIS REALLY GOING TO HAPPEN?
HEART AND MIND SLOWLY UNWRAPPING

TAKE A NEEDLE TO MY HEART
IT’S ADDICTION FROM THE START
IF THREATNIN’ LOOKS ARE ANY GUIDE
THIS KIND OF LOVE IS SUICIDE
IT’S TOXIC LOVE, OH, TOXIC LOVE
IT’S KILLIN’ ME, THIS TOXIC LOVE

TAKE A NEEDLE TO MY MIND
CUZ THIS LOVE AIN’T EVER KIND
MY SELF-ESTEEM TIED TO THIS MAN
IS SLIPPIN’ DOWN A GLASS OF SAND
IT’S TOXIC LOVE, OH, TOXIC LOVE
IT’S KILLIN ME, THIS TOXIC LOVE

SHANNON (REBECCA)
TONIGHT, HE SAYS HE’LL TAKE IT SLOW
SUDDENLY SCARED, HE HAS TO GO
“I’VE BEEN MARRIED TWENTY-FIVE YEARS
YOU’RE THE REASON FOR HER TEARS.”

“SHANNON, GET UP AND GET DRESSED”
I LIE THERE FROZEN, STILL OBSESSED
WAS THIS ALL HIS LITTLE GAME?
HE DOESN’T WANT ME, I’M ASHAMED[4]

During rehearsal and performance, Rebecca shows a remarkable self-assurance. When Mr. Brown, the head of Security, joins the group for a discussion prior to rehearsal, he remarks on Rebecca’s newfound confidence. “Look at you, Rebecca. You hold yourself in a new way. You are proud of yourself. I wouldn’t recognize you from a year ago.”

Collaboration

The fuel of collaboration is communication and time. Since MTW made the leap from recreation to working with the counselors and therapists, the MTW staff schedule at the institution has expanded to include added face-time with IYC staff. This includes supplementary meetings, written communication in the form of daily activity reports, and check-in time before each session with security and the counseling staff.

With a common purpose, counselors have brought in additional resources for MTW’s Fabulous Females program. After a recent performance of “Believe Me,” Ms. Johnson, an IYC counselor, invited women from the YWCA’s rape hotline to talk to the girls about what can be done after a rape: calling a hot line, creating a rape kit at the hospital for future evidence, connecting to legal services, and ongoing counseling. The YWCA counselors handed out brochures that informed the statewide residents what they might find in their own community.

Ms. Johnson describes her support for the MTW program:

Having the Music Theatre Workshop participate in volunteer programming at the Illinois Youth Center in Warrenville has been an enlightening and extremely beneficial program for both youth and staff. It brings about the potential for social and emotional healing that some of the youth may not otherwise receive during their incarceration. I have witnessed emotional, social, behavioral, and even some personality changes take place in many youth for the better.

Connecting security personnel to the program opens an additional support system for the girls. When security staffers observe and become aware of how much better girls behave when they process their emotions and connect the way they feel to their actions, the staffers start to see and use other methods of interacting beyond force and reprimand.

A year ago, Mr. Brown, the head of Security, brought Sherry, a 16-year-old resident, to me before a final performance of “Ten Out The Gate.” Mr. Brown asked Sherry to display her pencil-carved arm. He wanted to show me what she had done prior to putting her in confinement, the punishment for self-mutilation. I looked Sherry in the eyes. “Did you do this because your parents aren’t able to come to the show today?” Sherry nodded tearfully. Mr. Brown looked at me. “You’ve opened my eyes.” Instead of putting Sherry in confinement, he took her to the nurse, who bandaged her arm, and then to her counselor. Sherry performed that afternoon.

This year, Mr. Brown joined MTW’s Outside/Inside circle before dress rehearsal. He encouraged the girls to be aware through the tough week ahead of them. “These other girls, they are going to try and sabotage you. They will try to get you to fight in order to get you thrown out of Fabulous Females. They don’t want you to succeed. You have to be strong. You have to help each other.”

Conclusion

Superintendent Jeffery Bargar explains:

When first presented with this program, not having the benefit of understanding how the arts can be intermingled in a correctional atmosphere to promote healing and self-esteem, I was not sure how it would work – and if there would be buy-in from the staff. I’ve been converted over the last five to six years. It is now a big part of the girls’ program, helping them to open up and feel comfortable talking about concerns and past abuses. It’s provided IYC with an additional therapeutic tool, and contributed to a holistic method of gender-specific programming.

Five years ago, MTW’s teaching artists, with a mission focused on the child, worked in virtual isolation within the institution. Having begun the process of engaging and transforming the “village,” it is now possible to envision a future where artists and the “village” together create tangible and lasting change in the life of the child.

This essay is part of the Community Arts Convening & Research Project, 2008, funded by a Nathan Cummings Foundation grant to the Maryland Institute College of Art. The essay was reviewed and selected by the project's Editorial Board: Ron Bechet, Xavier University of Louisiana; Lori Hager, University of Oregon; Marina Gutierrez, Cooper Union; Ken Krafchek, Maryland Institute College of Art; Sonia Mañjon, California College of the Arts; Amalia Mesa-Bains, California State University Monterey Bay; Paul Teruel, Columbia College Chicago; and Stephani Woodson, Arizona State University.

Meade Palidofsky is the founding artistic director of Music Theatre Workshop and an award-winning playwright, lyricist, director and youth-development specialist. She has developed a group playwriting method that allows participants to use the writing process to examine and change their lives. “HUMANKIND,” a Boston NPR program, and "This American Life” (Chicago) have featured her theater work with youth.

Notes

[1] From “Girls in the River”by Meade Palidofsky

[2] From Facing the Unexpected, script of stories by IYC residents and College of DuPage students, presented by Music Theatre Workshop at IYC, March, 2007

[3] From The Road Home, a script of stories by IYC residents and College of DuPage students, presented by Music Theatre Workshop at IYC, May 2007

[4] From “Believe Me”

Original CAN/API publication: June 2008