History of Prison Performing Arts

1986- The New Theatre (TNT) established. Produces new, American plays at venues throughout the St. Louis City and County

1989- The Women's Self Help Center of St. Louis asks The New Theatre to co-produce Getting Out, a play about a woman getting out of prison, for a conference on incarcerated women. The conference never happens, but grants fund a mainstage run and performances at the City Workhouse. The inmates discovered that theatre could put their lives onstage; the performers discovered that people in jail looked and sounded like them. Prison Arts is established as a program of TNT, taking TNT's mainstage productions into City Workhouse, County Jail at Gumbo and Missouri Eastern Correctional Center at Pacific.

1993-95- Funding from Missouri Humanities Council allows one TNT show per year to tour to five Central Missouri prisons.

Spring 1995- Inmates at Missouri Eastern Correctional Center convince Agnes Wilcox, Artistic Director, that they need to write and produce a show of their own. Throughout the summer, Mary Ann McGivern teaches playwriting and Agnes teaches acting on a volunteer basis. In November 1996, the men at Missouri Eastern Correctional Center produce Barbers, Robbers and Nuts, a play written and acted by inmates.

Spring 1999- TNT board votes to close the company. Agnes asks for the not-for-profit corporation and the Prison Arts program; the board assigns it to her.

December 1999- July 2002 The Hamlet Project begins at Missouri Eastern Correctional Center at Pacific.

March 2000- I'm an Actor begins acting classes at St. Louis City Juvenile Detention Center. Arts Alive! continues.

August 2002- NPR's This American Life broadcasts a one-hour documentary on The Hamlet Project entitled "Act V," providing Prison Arts with national attention.

September 2002- The Oedipus Project begins at Missouri Eastern Correctional Center at Pacific (through 7/03).

October 2003 - The Oedipus Project begins at NECC at Bowling Green.
The Vandalia Women's Theatre begins at WERDCC at Vandalia.

Prison Performing Arts receives funding from:

Arts and Education Council
Fox Performing Arts Charitable Foundation
Kalliopeia Foundation
Missouri Arts Council
Regional Arts Council
Trio Foundation of St. Louis
The Whitaker Foundation