About the Project
QSE's Prison Project - founded in 2006 as the Arts in Community Enhancement project (ACE) - was the first Australian Shakespeare-in-prison initiative, and is still the only one to date. The program is also a trailblazer in its fusing of Shakespeare with Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed methodology.
The heart of the ACE philosophy is that violent behaviour often comes out of an inability to express negative thoughts and emotions in words. It uses theatre as a medium, since one of theatre's main tools is embodied language.
ACE's main objective is different to many of its therapeutic counterparts, which have rehabilitation as a direct goal. The most basic aim of ACE is to put on a play. As anyone who has ever attempted staging a play from beginning to end can attest, this is not a simple task. In rehearsing a play for performance the rehabilitative side-effects become manifest: ACE develops emotional bravery and self-awareness, social skills and self-confidence, individual dedication as well as the commitment to work as a member of a team.
The beginning stage of each ACE program includes Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) games and exercises. These are designed to create an atmosphere of trust and emotional safety for the participants, to invite them to connect their personal experiences to their acting, and to tease out themes that the prisoners want to explore. A Shakespeare play is then chosen to rehearse and perform based on these themes.
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