Pioneering the Shakespeare in Prisons Movement

Listen in to a conversation between prison theatre practitioner and activist Jean Trounstine and Mary Irene Ryan Family Executive Artistic Director of Shakespeare at Notre Dame Scott Jackson. Jean’s work at the MCI Framingham Prison for Women in Massachusetts during the 1980’s and 90’s represents perhaps the very first productions of Shakespeare staged by incarcerated women in the modern era. Her program became the focus of her first book, Shakespeare Behind Bars, an in-depth journey into both her experience as facilitator/director of the program and that of the core ensemble of women who explored the works of Shakespeare in the most nontraditional of environments. Jean’s work was to become the early inspiration for the larger Shakespeare in Prisons movement, a global cohort of practitioners that today encompasses programs in more than 30 U.S. states and 17 nations.

Shakespeare at Notre Dame, the founding organization of the Shakespeare in Prisons Network, is proud to feature the work of this inspirational visionary and, further, to serve as the permanent home of her legacy archive. Our partnership will ensure that her seminal work is accessible to future generations of scholars, researchers, and practitioners in perpetuity.