If you live anywhere near NYC, you might want to catch an altogether amazing production of Julius Caesar before it leaves Brooklyn after this weekend. This is a production by the famed Donmar Warehouse that takes place at St. Ann's Warehouse.

The construct of this production is that it takes place in a prison. All are women prisoners who decide to perform a production of the famed Shakespearean play. The New York Times called the show "gender-bending" but that is not actually accurate. When I directed women in prison, they played male characters and were superb. I attributed this to the fact that women spend so much time watching men than it is not all that difficult to portray them. The women here also superbly step into the shoes of Caesar and his followers and yet there is a sense always that they are playing characters who have so much more power than they do.

Women playing men who have the power. That is the key since women behind bars have so little power and in the raw violence, the grey of the prison and the dramatic singing and need to transcend prison walls the play is always the vehicle.

Some of the best moments in this production directed by Phillyda Lloyd, take place when the audience sees the disjunction between prisoner and play. A woman gets a visit and the actresses break with curses and fury, not wanting to lose their fellow cast member even for a few minutes of the show, a show one imagines will continue on and on since it is the life of women. We discover that Caesar is not the prisoner we thought she was at the end of the play when she unzips her prison garb to reveal a guard's clean white shirt and tie — these are Brits mind you. It is an unexpected stunning moment. 

Likewise, one of the least successful is the herding in of audience members by guards. It feels much more cliché than any other moment. But it is a rarity in a production that truly examines power.The play is 100% clear and even if you forgot your Caesar you get every word, every tension. The actors are physical and the set a warehouse at its best with upper levels and a dimly lit world to jump and descend to

The women in this play impressed me as actors but what I came away with most is how Shakespeare relates so much to the experience of incarcerated persons. This is why so many of us work with prisoners to put on Shakespeare. A reminder once again that universality is not just a word

Shoutout to upcoming Shakespeare in Prison conference next weekend, November 15th-17th.

Check out my new blog on about Andrea James's new book. and if you are you experiencing withdrawal from the hit series Orange is the New Black, maybe you’ll find some solace from her very readable and often funny new release, Upper Bunkies Unite: And Other Thoughts on the Politics of Mass Incarceration.  More

Some years ago my friend and colleague, Curt Tofteland, founded a Shakespeare company behind bars. This was at the same time, ironically that I published my first book. And when we discovered we had coincidentally  chosen the same name for our projects– "Shakespeare Behind Bars," we could not help but be connected. The mission of Toftland's company was always "to offer theatrical encounters with personal and social issues to the incarcerated, allowing them to develop life skills that will ensure their successful reintegration into society."

After five years of planning, Tofteland has worked out a terrific Shakespeare in Prisons Conference hosted by the University of Notre Dame on Friday, November 15, and Saturday, November 16, 2013. The conference,for starters, will feature keynote addresses and screenings by Toftland about Shakespeare Behind Bars.

Sammie, Demond and Big D work on an entrance. Courtesy of ShakespeareBehindBars.org

Tom Magill, the founder of the Educational Shakespeare Company and director of the Irish film Mickey B, an amazing rendition of Shakespeare's Macbeth, will also be a conference highlight.

Photo from Micky B posted on Changing Lives, Changing Minds

The conference aims to bring together artists and educators engaged in transformational arts programs. There are many of us who use or have used Shakespeare in prisons across the United States (and the world) with incarcerated populations. The goal of the conference is to promote a collaborative learning forum, explore craft and allow networking time for practitioners.

See the site here to find out more about registration and housing but it is all incredibly reasonable.

In honor of the work, I give you Shylock and Portia from my production of  The Merchant of Venice at Framingham's Women's Prison in Massachusetts.

Photo from 1988 production of Merchant

These photos give a glimpse into how deeply Shakespeare can penetrate the performer. I applaud all of the practitioners who defy the doubters. Hopefully this conference will pack the house!

This week I wrote on Boston Magazine about a new Venture that gets Homeless people back to work, called
"CarryON!" In particular, it helps the homeless with criminal backgrounds get on their feet again by offering them a business opportunity.

Here are some photos that weren't used in the article I posted online. Tres cool! Fred Smith one of the project's founders and Development Director at Boston's St. Francis House along with intern, Patricia Guiao, are pictured below. Guiao took all the photos posted here.

I'll be honest. I went in very skeptical of this series, Orange is the New Black, which is only on Netflix. Although I loved Weeds in the beginning of its run, I thought the show dragged and moved into absurdity in its last years. Jenji Kohan, whose quirky touch magnified the drug scene on the west coast with an unlikely drug dealer made famous by Mary Louis Parker, has a similar "who knew what hit me" heroine in the form of Piper Chapman, the Waspy naive New Yorker who managed to get caught her one time as drug mule.

photo via Television Blend

But to its credit, the so-called "dramedy," while it moves slowly and is lacking in depth, does have some moments about prison life that in the first two episodes I've watched, touched me.

Full disclosure, I also thought I might be a little jealous: my book Shakespeare Behind Bars was optioned one year for a movie and then 9/11 happened so creating theatre behind bars never got made into the full blown movie we hoped it would have become; and then, who knew–another year, it was optioned by Charlize Theron for a TV series. But her company broke up so again no go. However, I got free money and learned as Ernest Hemingway said, not to try and retain any control of books when someone wants to make them into movies: "Drive to Nevada, throw the book over the border and drive away."  So it was natural that I was suspicious and imagine that the real life Piper has many mixed feelings watching her life magnified and in some ways, twisted by film.

But here's what I like:

1) That the prison dramedy captures the sense of community of women behind bars at  poignant moments. And that it breaks any notion of soft and cuddly pretty quickly.

2) That it is possible to go to Federal Prison on a single insane crime– being a drug mule. This is something not often treated in a series like this and certainly not often about a woman. The fact that her crime landed her in prison for a year and a half is obviously a waste of taxpayer's money like it is for so many unknowing people who make stupid decisions. This is further underscored by the fact that the real life Piper Kerman who wrote the memoir on which the series is based went to Smith College.

3) That we get to know characters through flashbacks about their lives while the drama continues inside the prison.

4) That there's the kind of totally true non-sequitur that happens to people when they first get to prison: Chapman begs her fiance' to not watch Madmen without her and hopes they'll binge on it when she gets out of prison.

5) That there are some interesting characters; that the issue of Chapman's having a lesbian lover before the fiance' and before prison is actually handled with some of the best humor.

6) The truth of finding your way inside prison always involves some risk.

What I don't like:

1) The pacing. Slow. Tedious.

2) Piper's naivite to contrast with women in prison who are "rough cons" is a little too much

3) Sex in the shower scenes — come on. please. big deal.

4) The female brute guard is exaggerated even beyond the other exaggerations

I have to agree with The New York Times here and this is a GOOD thing:  "It’s a showcase for a large group of black and Latino actresses who for the most part have not had regular roles in series before this, including Dascha Polanco, as a quiet inmate who is drawn to a guard, and Uzo Aduba, who is scary and hilarious as Crazy Eyes."

Overall, however, I will watch all 13 episodes of the Netflix series just to see what someone does with a series about women behind bars. Here's the cast with fictional names in parentheses:
Taylor Schilling (Piper Chapman),
Jason Biggs (Larry Bloom)
Laura Prepon (Alex Vause)
Kate Mulgrew (Galina Reznikov)
Danielle Brooks (Tasha Jefferson)
Pablo Schreiber (Pornstache Mendez)
Natasha Lyonne (Nicky Nichols)
Uzo Aduba (Crazy Eyes)
Taryn Manning (Pennsatucky)
Laverne Cox (Sophia Burset)
Yael Stone (Lorna Morello)
Samira Wiley (Poussey)
Dascha Polanco (Dayanara Diaz)
Matt McGorry (John Bennett)
Elizabeth Rodriguez (Aleida Diaz)
Lea DeLaria (Big Boo)
Selenis Leyva (Gloria Mendoza).