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For the third time in a year, Dartmouth students participated in the Telling
My Story program at the Southeast State
Correctional Facility, a minimum security prison for women in Windsor,
Vt.
From left: Daniella Sloane '10, Phyllis Katz, and Christina Stoltz '06
participated in the October Telling My Story performances at the Southeast
State Correctional Facility in Windsor, Vt. (Photo by Joseph Mehling '69)
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Daniella Sloane '10 and Christina Stoltz '06, currently a graduate student
in comparative literature, worked during the fall term on this project that
culminated in a theater performance last month.
"Students and inmates write and perform in the show together, and they
all offer a personal testimony about the experience after the show," says
Phyllis
Katz, senior lecturer in women's and gender studies and
the Dartmouth facilitator of the program this term. "Their collaboration
supports and encourages the inmates and forces the students to set aside
preconceptions."
This fall's performance centered on two fictitious inmates, Hope and Faith,
who meet in corrections and become good friends. One is in corrections for a
long time; the other is a "revolving door" inmate, and this situation
impacts their enduring friendship. Hope and Faith is a production of The Usual
Suspect Company, which is part of the Telling My Story program at the Windsor
facility.
"I think that, for both students and inmates, the prospect of a live
performance is attractive but frightening, and this pulls the group together
and keeps them focused," says Pati Hern‡ndez, director of the Windsor
Women's Prison Performance Project. "Together students and inmates achieve
the goal of putting on the play, garnering well-deserved praise for their
courage and effort from staff, family, professors, and fellow
inmates."
Dartmouth's participation in Telling My Story is supported by the Office of Institutional Diversity and
Equity, the Dartmouth Center for
the Advancement of Learning, and the Women's and Gender Studies
Program.
By SUSAN KNAPP
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