Episode Topic: Shakespeare in Prisons

Join us as we launch Shakespeare and Possibility, a series of conversations exploring how Shakespeare at Notre Dame is redefining what it means to produce Shakespeare’s works onstage and in the community in the 21st century. Discover how our work, consonant with the mission of Our Lady’s University, strives to serve the common good in surprising ways for an ever-changing world.

Our first series offering “Shakespeare in Prisons” details the creation of the Shakespeare in Prisons Network founded at Notre Dame in 2013. This panel features the co-founders of the network; Peter Holland, McMeel Family Chair in Shakespeare Studies at Notre Dame, Curt Tofteland, Founding Director of Shakespeare Behind Bars, and Scott Jackson, Mary Irene Ryan Executive Artistic Director, Shakespeare at Notre Dame, who reflect on the early conversations that led to the first international Shakespeare in Prisons Conference in November 2013, where prison theater practitioners and scholars together discussed the impact of Shakespeare in prisons programs on systems-impacted individuals. From those humble beginnings the Shakespeare in Prisons Network has produced four conferences and created a network that today comprises more than 350 individuals and organizations from 17 nations on six continents. The growth of this movement is a testament to the power of Shakespeare’s works in carceral settings and beyond.

Featured Speakers:

• Jennifer Birkett ’23 PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow with Shakespeare, University of Notre Dame
• Scott Jackson, Mary Irene Ryan Family Executive Artistic Director of Shakespeare, University of Notre Dame
• Peter Holland, McMeel Family Chair in Shakespeare Studies, University of Notre Dame
•  Curt Tofteland, Founder of the Shakespeare Behind Bars (SBB) program

Read this episode's recap over on the University of Notre Dame's open online learning community platform, ThinkND: go.nd.edu/8a4495.

This podcast is a part of the ThinkND Series titled Shakespeare and Possibility.

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