A new play by Summit Performance Indianapolis is shining a light on the experiences of women piecing their lives back together after incarceration.
“Re-Entry: Building a life after incarceration” is a one-act play by playwrights Kelsey Johnson Lyons and Lauren Briggeman. The script is based on 20 interviews with Indianapolis women conducted by researcher Sally Wasmuth of IU Indianapolis School of Health and Human Sciences.
If you go
“Re-Entry: Building a life after incarceration”
🗓️ March 20-22
📍 Phoenix Theatre, 705 N. Illinois St.
🎟️ Free with RSVP
After each performance is a panel discussion with interviewees and community members.
Briggeman — who’s also Summit’s founding artistic director — and Wasmuth have worked together on similar productions in the past. Their past projects focused on issues like climate change, opioid addiction and the effects of reproductive legislation on healthcare providers.
After “Re-Entry” came together, the Summit team and Wasmuth invited the interviewees for a roundtable discussion to give them a chance to weigh in.
“Part of that process is bringing lots of diverse perspectives to that roundtable so that we can make sure that the content of the play is … actually representing people appropriately and in line with what they shared,” Wasmuth said.
“Re-Entry” is free and open to the public at Phoenix Theatre’s 144-seat Steve and Livia Russell Theatre March 20-22. After each show, attendees will have a chance to speak with the people whose stories they just experienced.
As someone with backgrounds in both theater and prison arts programming, director Morgan Morton hopes “Re-Entry” attendees walk away with a new perspective on those who have been incarcerated.
“People forget that these are not just folks we tuck away and never think about or talk about again,” Morton said. “We should be reframing things so that we really do think about them as our neighbors.”
Briggeman wants “Re-Entry” to give audience members a better understanding of what coming out of incarceration looks like.
“I think the topics that we have worked on in the past have been varied, but ultimately, the goal kind of remains the same,” she said. “We want to create awareness of what they’ve gone through specifically, and then increase empathy for their experiences.”
“Re-Entry”’s cast features Carrie Ann Schlatter, Shelbi Berry Kamohara, Alicia Sims, Tracy Manning and Caroline Vahrenkamp, with choreography from Mariel Greenlee, lighting by Laura Glover, and sound by Olivia Lawson.
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Seth Johnson is a Mirror Indy freelance contributor. You can reach him at seth.johnson4291@gmail.com.
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