Liminal Showers: A Ritual Performance in Prisoner Advocacy

Abstract

This thesis examines the role of prison theatre practitioners, both within the prison and in their free-communities. Through ethnographic, theoretical, and performance based research I aim towards offering readers an embodied learning experience as they engage with the text. Confronting one of prison educators’ biggest critiques—that we reinforce the prison system by working with prison officials in order to gain access to inmates—I illuminate prison theatre practitioners as being caught within a paradox through being situated as tools for both liberating and policing bodies.

Through engaging performative writing, I analyze my ethnographic data with a focus on access, application, and affect using Victor Turner’s theory on ritual and communitas. Furthermore, I interpret recorded interviews with prison arts practitioner Cory Arcak using Kristen Langellier’s theories on storytelling and personal narrative performance, positioning inmates, as well as the greater community within a family context. I argue, prison theatre practitioners transgress their paradoxical roles by bridging the gap between inmates and the free world as they share their personal experiences working behind prison walls.