Methuen Drama Applied Theatre: Women and the Criminal Justice System

The book provides the first sustained critical enquiry into applied theatre practice with women affected by the criminal justice system. It offers a clear methodological and critical framework to examine a range of international practices, the material conditions of their production and what these reveal of the representation, experience and 'value' of women affected by the criminal justice system. Drawing on a range of international case studies, interviews with practitioners and participants and original documentation from applied theatre projects, the book articulates new understandings about the cultural representations of women who offend, how government policy inscribes social, economic and political values upon these bodies and how applied theatre practice negotiates ideas of identity, agency, authority and representation. Part I offers a critical introduction to the field, contextualizing applied theatre, women and the criminal justice system. It introduces the key critical concerns of the book and the methodological and theoretical frameworks used to examine the diverse range of international theatre practices within it, including issues of space and place; voice and representation; witnessing and testimony in performance, and audience. Part II curates international case studies, interviews, extracts from play texts, government reports and documentation of projects from contributors including scholars, artists, campaigners, project participants and staff working in the criminal justice system. Case studies include Daughters of the Floating Brothel, a prison theatre project undertaken by artists in collaboration with women imprisoned in Queensland Australia; theatre programmes with women in prison in Westville Female Correctional Centre, Durban, South Africa; a theatre company of incarcerated women at Logan Correctional Facility for Women in Lincoln, Illinois, USA; and the performance of justice, law enforcement and prisoner rehabilitation in theatre and dance programs for incarcerated women confined in the US and South Africa.