Generally speaking, most people would hope to avoid jail at all costs. However, if you love the theatre and love trying new things, then conquering that fear and going to jail for an evening could end up being a pretty unique experience. It’s an experience put on by William Head on Stage (WHOS), which is presenting The Emerald City Project at William Head Institution until November 2.
The Emerald City Project co-director and choreographer Ingrid Hansen has been involved in WHOS for almost two decades but is particularly excited about this production.
“The prisoners at William Head have been working with SNAFU dance company artists for the last couple of months,” says Hansen. “They wanted to write and create an original play inspired by the characters from The Wizard of Oz. They used the book as a jumping-off point and also used the characters as a way to reflect their own lives and experiences. They’ve written an entirely new story inspired by those characters.”
This is WHOS’ 59th production in 38 years; the organization has come a long way since it was started in 1981 by a group of prisoners taking drama classes at the University of Victoria.
“It’s run and managed by the prisoners, and they make a lot of the management decisions for the company,” says Hansen. “So it’s a really great challenge for teamwork and autonomy, having power over their own decisions, because they’re also in charge of the company failing or succeeding. Every year, there are people who are getting out and getting released into the community, and they have to pass the baton to the next team of leaders on the inside.”
Hansen is continually impressed with the inmates’ intense work ethic.
“There is prison theatre all over the world,” she says. “The creative impact is huge; you can really sense that creativity means so much to this particular team. They put in so many hours of extra work outside of just rehearsal.”
Hansen has noticed that the theatre brings the cast together in a few different ways.
“One of my favourite things to see is the way the guys step up and help each other,” she says. “They coach each other through their anxieties, as well as their fears about performing and about being vulnerable, or potentially looking silly,” she says. “You see a real kindness, a real generosity. You also see people from different social circles, different groups around the prison, interacting and helping each other out in a way that you don’t often see.”
Hansen says that the set of The Emerald City Project was built in-house by some very skilled inmates.
“They have a team of incredibly experienced builders,” she says, “who said to me, ‘What do you want for a set? Whatever you want, we can build it!’”
Hansen is especially enthusiastic about The Emerald City Project’s music.
“The music this year is incredible,” Hansen says. “There are some hip-hop artists on the team who have written their own songs for the show, and we have some live music put together by The Yellow Brick Blues Band, which have fused together hip hop, Cree, Salish, and Anishinaabe singing and drumming with old time rock and roll.”
Hansen wants the public to know that involvement in WHOS is voluntary.
“William Head on Stage is not a mandatory program,” she says. “The men freely choose to be involved in the process, which gives them a real sense of ownership of the outcome. They are choosing to be a part of this team.”
The Emerald City Project
Various times, until Saturday, November 2
$25, William Head Institution
whonstage.weebly.com