Shakespeare Behind Bars Residency
The Xavier Theatre and Digital Innovation Film & Television programs present Shakespeare Behind Bars Screening and Talkback
Xavier Theatre, in collaboration with the DIFT program, will host a screening of the documentary film Shakespeare Behind Bars, followed by an audience talkback with the founder and producing director of the program, Curt Tofteland. The event will take place on Friday, April 5, at 7:00 pm in the Gallagher Student Center Theatre and is free and open to the public. Curt Tofteland is the founder of the internationally acclaimed Shakespeare Behind/BEYOND Bars program. Since 1995, he has been working as a prison arts practitioner. From 1995-2008, Curt facilitated the SBB/KY program at the Luther Luckett Correctional Complex in LaGrange, Kentucky. During his thirteen-year tenure, Curt produced and directed fourteen Shakespeare productions. SBB is the subject of award- winning documentary by Philomath Films.
Shakespeare Behind Bars is the oldest, continuously operating program of its kind in North America. Its mission is to “offer theatrical encounters with personal and social issues to incarcerated, post-incarcerated, marginalized, and at-risk communities, allowing them to develop and expand life skills to reintegrate into society.” Compared to the national average recidivism rate of 68%, SBB operates at a 6% participant recidivism rate. It currently serves 200 incarcerated adults and juveniles throughout the Midwest.
Xavier Theatre presents Othello’s Tribunal, in collaboration with the Shakespeare Behind/BEYOND Bars program
On Saturday, April 6 at 7:00pm, Xavier Theatre will host a special performance of Sammie Byron’s memoir one-person play, Othello’s Tribunal, in the Gallagher Student Center Theatre. After the performance, there will be an audience talkback with Byron and Curt Tofteland, founder and producing director of the Shakespeare Behind/BEYOND Bars program. The performance and audience discussion are free and open to the public.
Sammie Byron is a Founding Member of Shakespeare Behind Bars at the Luther Luckett Correctional Complex in LaGrange, Kentucky. During his ten years with Shakespeare Behind Bars (1995-2005) Sammie played 20 of Shakespeare’s characters, ranging from Othello to Henry V. Sammie appears in Philomath Films award-winning documentary, Shakespeare Behind Bars, which follows the 2003 SBB production of The Tempest from the first day of rehearsal through the conclusion of the tour of the production to other Kentucky prisons. Sammie is employed full-time with The Spot at Goodwill Industries as a Youth Training Facilitator working with young adults 16-24 years of age.
