Pulitzerfront
"We're all performers," Agnes Wilcox told staff writer Jeannette Cooperman last year, when Jeannette interviewed her for our August issue. "We all seek recognition; we all want to experiment with parts of ourselves that we don't show other people. Big, rough, scary guys turn out to love playing scholars. I also think that if people have an opportunity to express themselves, to see themselves as noble or positive characters and to develop a sense of self, they are better able to deal with the problems of everyday life."
Wilcox knows what she's talking about. Nearly 20 years ago, she started Prison Performing Arts, a nonprofit that uses the performing arts to change the lives of people inside the criminal justice system. Acting, memorizing lines and internalizing the stories of Shakespeare, she believes, helps prisoners to process emotions and get ready for life after incarceration; and the recidivism rate of PPA performers backs this up.
This month, PPA and The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts are collaborating for a series of performances titled Staging Old Masters. The actors, who are former inmates and graduates of Employment Connection, spent six weeks working with Wilcox as well as faculty and students from Wash. U.'s performing arts, English and visual art departments, using the current Old Masters exhibit as source material for a series of short theatrical works. You can see these performances for free every weekend through May 2, at 6:30 and 7:30 p.m. on Saturday and 1:30 and 2:30 p.m. on Sunday. And if you can't make it down to the Pulitzer, be sure to go to stagingoldmasters.pulitzerarts.org, where you can see videos and photographs from the performances, as well as interviews with the actors. --Stefene Russell
