Describing one’s practice
We spoke with Rachel last week about how we were a tad confused as to what our role was within this project/module. Are we representatives of TiPP, the Academy, our programme or our work?
When discussing this with Rachel the waters got a little murky when Rachel was talking about actors, scenes, dialogue and forms of theatre in which we would use a memory and act it out. We attempted, pretty poorly, to explain what it is that we do at the Academy, and we still couldn’t get it across for Rachel to understand the type of work we make. Sarah and I spoke about Palimpsest*, the work that we made for Into The New, and this didn’t come across well. So, the question that is posed is, how do we describe our practice to people who are not from our background/training/devising nature?
I describe myself as a Creative and Educational Artist. What does this mean? It means that I am an artist working within performance and educational contexts, I believe my practice to be rooted within applied and social contexts, challenging the quality of making work with non-performers with a professionally considered approach. How do I describe this to someone who may not be used to these terms, or someone who has different ideas to what performance and theatre is? I simply place it down to this; my passion is to work with people to make performance. I am engaged and excited by the challenges of working in non conventional ways with groups other than trained performers to develop work that connects with people, and is from a real and grounded place. Why did I decide to to Tipp? To work with a different group of people in a different and challenging context in order to develop my performance making and facilitation skills, whilst also informing my practice more to the realities and challenges of working in a context which is rarely considered or overlooked.
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I have only just realised that I have neglected my blog for a wee while. I was wanting to be writing on it last week, but I felt completely lost and had that I had nothing of any value to say at all.
I felt lost, now what would be considered in a positive way, but last week was pretty difficult for me. I was getting stuck between the work and process of TiPP and its practitioners, and my practice. I lost/forgot what my practice was, and emerging from that through all the intensity of working with different practitioners was tough. ‘There is this way to do it, or this, or this or this or this.’ We have been shown so many different ways to facilitate, which have been exciting, but they all showed results that I didn’t want to make. This is not a reflection on the work of TiPP. I think what they do is incredible, but I got lost because I did not know what my role or purpose was when going into prisons.
From working with Alun and Rachel, they seem to have very specific practices, or they delivered very specific training for us. Alun going through his psychodrama showed us how you could use drama to investigate individuals’ past and trace offending behaviour through relationships and situations (obviously I have over-simplified this here). Rachel took us through Blagg! showing us this concept of an interactive board game, which I find exciting in the context that it is not a parachute project, it can be left in an institution and be used by non-drama practitioners as a tool for development. What I couldn’t find is how my practice related to this in terms of what I am wanting to make.
Are we going in to challenge offending behaviour? Are we going in to make a piece of work? Are we going in to transform the people we are working with? I struggle with the term ‘Tranform’ as I feel it has a sense of ego that comes with it. I am attempting to work out why we are going in; I am not sure if we are going in to directly challenge offending behaviour as we are not really looking at the direct issues of offending behaviour, we are not doing a psychodrama and investigating why and how their pasts have informed who they are, this would be potentially dangerous and put the group at risk doing something like this is a short amount of time.
We are going in to deliver workshops that build towards a short performance. I believe that the work that we will do may not directly challenge offending behaviour in the sense of ‘Why do we commit crimes?’, ‘How can you change?’ or ‘Why did you do it?’, but through the medium of performance, we will be opening dialogues within the room, and within each other which could address moral stances, opinions and shifts in values, with this allowing the group to take responsibility for themselves as individuals, considering their make-up and opinions, and who and where they want to be.
I am still a tad lost. I feel at the moment that I know I can deliver a residency, but the questions around that residency, and the values of the working are being constantly asked, and my opinion is constantly shift. All’s i know is that I want to deliver the best residency I can, whilst being responsible and responsive to the system and the participants we are working with.
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This doesn’t feel like it is going to be a long blog post, but I feel that it is important to post something on this, maybe even so I can come back to it at some other point…
This only being week three of the term, and having experienced three different practitioners, all working in this field, and all clearly working in different ways with different approaches, it brings forward a lot of questions, confusions and things to simple be worked out by myself.
I gave been thinking about what is the value of the role we are taking when entering into this setting, how do I sit within this setting, what do I view myself as, and what am I viewed as by the prison and by the participants that we are to work with. I had difficulty reading Leslie Neal’s article The Sacred Circle in which she concludes her choice to work in prison as:
‘A calling? Yes. Teaching arts in prisons has given me the chance to create a space for a divine healing to come forward from within, and my life has been transformed from an ordinary life into an extraordinary life’
I spoke to Kate about this today and she filled me in on the context of the American Prison systems a bit more, and how they are much more severe, with sometimes really poor conditions. Places where a Life Sentence means LIFE, where the death penalty is still in place. So maybe I can understand how someone can become so involved and allow it to have such a changing influence on their life, it makes me question why I am doing this though.
I am not a healer, I am not coming to save somebody, I am not trying to transform an individual or a system. Although the last one would be great. I am interested in working in this context to broaden my facilitation skills, to work in a context that is challenging and exciting, to work with individuals who may not have much access to theatre and performance and to also work with a different group of people. I consider my practice to be, at this point as an emerging artist, to be predominantly focussed within applied theatre, and working as a director/facilitator in this and broader contexts.
Palimpsest*
What I am trying to get my head around is who am I within the prison? From seeing some of the DVDs, reading the set material and having conversations with the practitioners, I have been considering what is the best way for us to devise and deliver the residency; where do we work in terms of the spectrum we looked at with Simon in Week one? Are we going to be making scenes and still images like we did with Alan, are we going to be challenging them with new forms, are we going to be working with text or not etc… What I didn’t consider was where I sit in relation to all of this, what do I want to do?
It was only after speaking to Kate when finishing up earlier when she was talking about us bringing ideas as to what we wanted to do, and she suggested considering what type of thins we want to work with, how we want to work, do we want to bring pieces of music or text in, do we have any stimuli we want to use etc, that I realised, rather stupidly, that this is like any other process I would lead. It is like the process Sarah and I led when making a show, we would bring stimuli in, we would set tasks, use music, use text, use questions. This process is almost the same, we were working with non-performers in that project, and will be in this project. I just need to make sure I am adapting to the group once again, being sensitive to the specifics of their needs, but also not wrapping the situation in cotton wool. It feels exciting once again. To now see my practice in relation to our learning, and in relation to what I have done previously. Phil in prisons, is the same Phil that directed a show…
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Glasgow High Court
On Monday of this week we all, under the instruction of Simon, went to witness a trial and the judicial system in action. Although Simon only told us to go to The Sheriff court, we also popped into the High Court to try and see what there differences were.
The Sheriff’s court was really busy, a huge line outside of people who were all at the court for some reason or other. We were inside and unsure of where to go and what was going on, we asked for the criminal cases rather than the civil cases and were directed accordingly.
The Sheriff’s court scars the banks of the Clyde with its imposing stone and concrete facade and with an interior that resembles something from Beverly Hills cop. It is reportedly the busiest Sheriff’s court in Europe, with over 200 cased being listed to happen on the day which we were there. It deals with Criminal and Civil cases; the criminal cases being only upto a certain level, and then they are considered by the High Court.
We rather nervously entered a court, to be told it was closed to the public. We then after a while tried to go into another court, which turned out to be Civil cases. We watched cases from banks and finance organisations claiming funds and trying to seize goods. It was pretty sad to see someone try and defend themselves against Clydesdale Bank, trying to keep their car. It was tough to see a human being put in that position. Had they done anything wrong or had they simply been carried away by the free credit, store-cards, easy-access-loans, and bags-for-gold society? Yes, it may be their fault, and yes it was truly sad, but I realised that this happens on a daily basis. These cases, which sometimes were talked over for less than two minutes, possibly made up the bulk of the cases on that list of 200+.
Outside another one of the courts, a lawyer kindly explained what we should go and see at what time, and that we could go into any court. We went into the court that he was working in, he was defending a guy who was being prosecuted for physically attacking his partner in the street. He was let of with a fine for £180 pounds as he had got back with his partner. Will he be seen in front of a judge again for something similar, or was it indeed a one-off?
We made the rather short journey back across the river to go to the High Court, as pictured above. This building was much more ornate, resembling a Hilton hotel with the vast marble foyer, multiple skylights, and slinky reception desk. This did not feel like a place of punishment or sentencing, it felt rather too relaxed in comparison to the other court. We were directed to court four, a murder case.
We walked in as the defence were interrogating a witness in the box. There were around eight young men all sat in the box, watching on as their defence lawyer tore through the witness. The woman wasn’t understanding the questions she was asked, I wasn’t understanding the terms that were being used, the speed that things were passing by, and the ways in which the witness was clearly being left behind. The defence were trying to disprove her statement of seeing a gang of youths gathered at the end of the street before a vicious attack took place in which two people were beaten within an inch of their lives, one later dying.
The witness was lost amongst all the questions. The defence were trying to take apart her past, asking her relationships with potential other witnesses, asking why she didn’t leave her house, and repeatedly asking whether she was correct, confused, or simply making assumptions as to what she saw. The defence completely destroyed the witness in the box.
From watching this I came to thinking about what I would have done in her situation; would I want to be a witness who is put in that position, interrogated in front a group of potentially violent young men with their families watching on?
I was intimidated by this alien environment, and I am hoping that I will not be intimidated by the environment of the prisons. Having been in to Perth, I feel that this has given me a much-needed idea of what to expect, how to conduct myself, and simply how to engage in conversation with the guys inside. The past two weeks are supporting me in other ways, giving me the knowledge to understand this sector, and also giving me me the toolbox that I need to deliver the workshops and create a piece of work in such a challenging but stimulating environment.
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This is an area that I have always been intrigued by, but never took the time to investigate. I was much too happy writing it off as ‘arty-farty’ and thinking that it sounded like a practice that was probably full of ‘quacks’.
I now can admit that I am wrong.
Starting to read ‘Psychodrama with Hardcore Offenders’, I brought these judgements with me, reading the first few paragraphs being a complete non-believer. It was only after me giving it time, reading on and seeing some of the examples that it started to make sense to me.
Why are we putting people in prisons to be punished, and not trying to see if we can help them?* People speak all of the time about the ‘values of society’, of prisoners ‘giving back to society’, but surely we need to support them through this process. We need to support in giving the individuals resiliences for when they leave the criminal justice system, or even to simply navigate the system.
*I find this notion of ‘help’ a problematic term/idea in terms of being an artist in this setting. This may be because I help implies a form of therapy in my eyes and the work that I practice, and I am going to practice within the residency, will not, in my opinion or understandings, be classed a drama therapy, or this term Psychodrama.
Psychodrama is something which has a very specific place and role within the system, and is not something that can be delivered by an amateur, there are ethical implications and responsibilities attached to this form.
Psychodrama utilises the there-and-then in order to relate to the here-and-now for the participants. From looking at examples from cases at HMP Grendon I can imagine that this is a hugely emotionally charges process, with many challenging issues being brought up.
- HMP Grendon
HMP Grendon is a prison that deals with personality and behavioural difficulties and disorders. The prisoners/participants in this scheme sign a contract of commitment for the therapeutic process they are to enter. The prison is set up with an active sense of community, the officers are engaged in the individual and group therapy sessions; something which I think is a good model of practice as then it feels a much more holistic process which is not existing in a workshop or therapy session, but carried through to the daily running of the wing/system.
The process takes time and commitment; the emotional and intellectual catharsis from the work is an intense experience that needs consideration as to how it is delivered and processed. To act out and repeat or investigate behaviours from one’s past needs to happen in a safe environment. One of the things that I find most interesting about this field of work is how the investigation or therapy for the individual, also acts as therapy for the group through them relating to some of the roles/characters in the protagonist’s life.
A major risk, or failing of this work is what happens afterwards? If after several years of drama therapy/psychodrama a prisoner goes back into the mainstream prison system, are they supported? Is there a chance of regression, of undoing all of the good work, or, as Alan implied, do they simply publicly wear their old mask, the mask of a general inmate? Is it more difficult for one of the so-called ‘beasts’ to go back as they have been in an environment in which they have had to deal with their crime, have been supported in some ways by other prisoners, and then have to go back into a system in which other prisoners will always refer to them as the ‘beasts’?
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UPDATED
After reading Jenny Hughes’ ’Resistance and Expression’ article in Prison Theatre: Perspectives and Practices, I have been interested in how the running and operation of a women’s prison, and how women are treated in the Criminal Justice System.
According to one of the officers at HMP Styal:
‘The prison service does not cater for women’s experience, it does not even acknowledge women’s offending. There’s no infrastructure within the system to support initiatives that take women’s experience seriously. There is a desperate need for a co-ordinated and fully resourced approach’
Rose Dickinson, HMP Styal
The majority of women in prison are young working-class women, either unemployed, in part time jobs or in reduced pay jobs. The number of women has increased by a whole 100% since 1970, yet, from my research, I am seeing or able to note much development in the system from this time. Women are mainly imprisoned for minor thefts such as theft, handling of drugs, and forgery; all relating to basic subsistence for themselves or sometimes their children.
From what I have been reading, it feels like the women’s prison system is not something which is fully understood or considered. The model which is in place for a men’s prison has been shoe-horned to fit the women’s prisons, when in fact there is a completely different group of people, with different levels of crime, and different considerations to be taken into account.
At present, the women’s prison system is not supporting the women that comes into the system. As you can see from my previous post, the figures are quite evident that the women that come into the system have problems that need support, and cannot be dealt with in the same way one would be dealt with in a men’s prison. It has been proven that since the public service cuts in the 80′s and 90′s, the rate of vulnerable women with mental health issues has majorly increased.
From research done in prisons in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, there has been research produced that states regimes in women’s prisons are twice as disciplinary towards offences against prison discipline. I wonder when reading this, possibly out of sheer naivety, whether this is due to a prison system finding it easier to control a female body and attempt to make it docile, make the woman adhere to the system, or attempt to punish them into becoming a part of the system, as opposing to struggle to gain control in a men’s prison.
From looking at the article, it feels, understandably so, that gender politics are a major issue in the women’s sector:
‘[T]heir own refusal to comply with culturally conditioned female gender stereotype requirements…these practices have resulted in it being denied that they are real women’
p47 O’Dyer et Al
‘The experience or person women present to the world can be far from what is really going on and effectively shuts away obvious discomfort and pain…As a result of the debilitating guilt and shame that women tend to feel about their offences, in turn caused by the higher standards of behaviour society as a whole expect of women’
Within the female prison sector there are higher rates of mental illness, self harming and suicide. Yet, according to some of the facts, women’s prisons are over-populated and have reduced facilities. There is less support for the women mentally, who are clearly struggling with being in prison, feeling more shunned from society as prison is something which every much goes against the gender stereotype for females. I think it is understandable for women to struggle with prison’s more-so in terms of how they become pushed to the fringes of society more so than men, as a society we tend to have knowledge of men’s prisons more so through depictions in the media, whereas we only tend to consider female prisons when it comes to high-profile crimes. Women’s prisons are not something in people’s frame of reference when prisons are under general consideration.
Women in prison are generally pretty young. They enter into prisons with the stresses and pressures of their crime, potentially with a form of addiction, and in many cases having to leave children or a family behind. Surely the system should acknowledge and support these things more?
From reading the literature it also is apparent that women are ‘more resistant, volatile and a less predictable group to work with’. This is already making me consider how we need to go about designing our workshops, and how potentially we need to work a way to hook them into our process with a lure/theme/topic that they can relate to and engage with.
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The basics.
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In 2006 the female prison population had reached a new record of 4416. In the last five years the number of women in prison has increased by 40%
-The majority of women who enter the prison system do so without having previously committed a serious offence
-Due to the prison system not truly addressing the factors as to why the women enter the system (poverty, addiction, mental illness, domestic violence, poor education and homelessness) 65% of the women go on to re-offend within twoyears [based on figures from 2002]
According to ‘Reducing re-offending by ex-prisoners’ by The Social Inclusion Unit (2002):
15% of women in prisons have previously been admitted to a psychiatric hospital
37% have previously attempted suicide
40% could be diagnosed as harmful or dependent users of drugs
50% have suffered domestic violence
33% have been victims of sexual abuse
39% of women in prisons have qualifications, compared to 82% of the population and 51% of male prisoners
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I have been far too intimidated to write on here, and that is so unlike me. I am sat here late at night thinking about how I should write on here to attempt to present some of my initial thoughts, ideas, and understandings of what we have started to investigate, collectively and alone.
Starting this module last week has been one of the most engaging, confusing and by far the most provocative things that I have come to in my years of study at RSAMD. To be entered into this other world, of working in such a unique context is something which is exciting, terrifying and truly exhilarating.
It is really refreshing to be in my final term of university and still have my thoughts and opinions completely shaken-up an challenged, and to be excited to put into practice my training and understandings of applied theatre, to be challenge in this new context.
I intend on using this blog as a place to reflect and distil my understandings, as well as a place to present my further research whilst creating a space for an open dialogue with my peers, artists and tutors.
-phil
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