Being There…in Prison

Abstract

This paper takes a common performance training activity, “Being There,” as a case study and reflects on its efficacy and implications in a prison-based theatre workshop. A key element in this exercise is how performers are observed by other participants and this writing explores how the prison setting influences the experience of observing and being observed in ways differing from how this may be experienced in other settings, such as the undergraduate college acting class. “Being There” is considered as an example of a performance training practice that, when facilitated in a prison, takes on the potential for countering the totalizing effect of the prison on participants’ lives and provides momentary legibility to the bodies and lives of prisoners.