From the Meanest Creature: Theatre as a Vehicle for Change
Class | Registration opens 3/4/2026 12:00 PM EST
This four-week class examines three programs where theatre has been used as a vehicle for self-exploration, expression, learning and growth in the U.S. prisons Luther Luckett in Kentucky, Sing Sing in New York and the New Hampshire State Prison for Men.
We will view and discuss the films Sing Sing with Colman Domingo, an artistic exploration of the program Rehabilitation in the Arts at the facility of the same name as well as Shakespeare Behind Bars, a documentary which premiered at Sundance in 2005 that follows the nine-month process of bringing Shakespeare’s The Tempest to life.
We will also read and discuss two chapters from the book Performing New Lives: Prison Theatre which gives further insight into The Rehabilitation in the Arts program at Sing Sing and the program Sharon led at the NH State Prison for Men.
Sharon Rae Paquette
Sharon is a theatre artist, writer and photographer. She was a professor of theatre at both New England College and Plymouth State University, where she directed such shows as How I Learned to Drive, The Laramie Project, Lysistrata, Les Miserables, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot and Romeo and Juliet.
For 10 years, Sharon taught at and ran a theatre company at the New Hampshire State Prison for Men, where she directed such shows as Waiting for Godot, The Real Inspector Hound and Macbeth. She authored a chapter in the book Performing New Lives – Prison Theatre titled “From the Meanest Creature – Theatre as a Vehicle for Change,” which chronicles a portion of her time spent as a theatre facilitator at the prison.