Theater as a Lens for Justice

Support for foster and systems-impacted youth

West LA County of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a countywide benefit) City of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a citywide benefit)

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

For many Californians the concept of justice feels deeply out of reach. According to Prison Policy Initiative, nearly 200,000 individuals are incarcerated at any given time in California, with about 35,000 incarcerated people released each year. Those numbers are sobering. They are made worse when we remember that the families connected to those individuals are not counted in those statistics. But their lives too are affected by incarceration. We seek to build connection and engage with this community and offer them space not only to attend live theater performances, but to engage with the work through talkbacks, workshops, special classes, and the performance of their own work. We believe this type of support and engagement is vital to the successful reintegration of incarcerated people upon their release, as well as the prevention of recidivism. Put simply, incarcerated youth and their families are members of our society and deserve support and not stigmatization.

The Theater as a Lens for Justice initiative has three components: bringing currently and formerly incarcerated youth to performances; bringing our productions into prisons; and allowing systems-impacted young people a space to create and perform.

In our pilot year over 450 participants attended performances, and we brought an abridged version of “Waiting for Godot” to the Victorville prison for 80 incarcerated audience members. During the 2025-26 season participants will attend three productions; and will learn about each play in a pre-show session. After performances, students will have a talkback with the artists. We also are in conversation to return to Victorville with our production of “Master Harold”…and the Boys.

In our second year, we aim to build consistency and sustainability in the program. We will once again partner with UCLA’s Center for Justice, The Last Prisoner Project, and ManifestWorks. It is important to us that our work is guided by our partners’ expertise, their deep and impactful community ties, and their long experience working with individuals and families impacted by incarceration. Centering their voices means that our programmatic goals must remain fluid. That said, based on last year’s events, we anticipate offering talkbacks, arts workshops, opportunities to learn about employment in theater, and a performance of the students’ work in our Audrey Skirball Kenis blackbox theater.

This past season, our production of Furlough’s Paradise invited audiences to imagine their Utopia. We have few opportunities to dream of world without prisons, or a world where those once imprisoned find a true path towards freedom. It is on this premise, that theater can be a crucial part of conversations about justice, that we are developing Theater as a Lens for Justice.

More expansively, this program offers an opportunity to be part of the support network for incarcerated youth and their families. We acknowledge that the families of incarcerated youth are deeply affected and believe that engaging young people while in prison and supporting their successful reintegration, we provide a path to healing and stability for the community at large.

In the longer term, we hope to sow the seeds for providing employment pathways into the theater industry for formerly incarcerated young people through meaningful education opportunities, allowing them to give back to their communities.