Global Theatre Series: SHARED SENTENCES - Thursday, February 3 at 7:00 PM

some additional words by Barbara Allan, Kevin Barron, Zudaydah Rivera, and Tanasha Gordon

directed by Kimmarie Elle

developed with Houses on the Moon Theater Company

The project was originally conceived by Emily Joy Weiner in 2017. Following a series of interviews, the project was collaboratively explored during an eight-week creative workshop series in 2018 by a group of individuals who all have an incarcerated loved one. Weiner curated the material created during the workshop into a first-person storytelling performance, which was presented by the original group in 2019 in NYC at Westbeth Community Room, Ripley Grier Studios and at Bethany Arts Community (Ossining, NY). Inspired by this original project and a Long Island based organization called Prison Families Anonymous, Weiner has built upon the initial documentary form and has been writing a play, called SHARED SENTENCES.

Houses on the Moon Theater Company was founded in 2001 with a mission to dispel ignorance and isolation through the theatrical amplification of unheard voices. Through creative workshops, original performances, post-show conversations and accessible ticketing, Houses on the Moon helps communities come together by making meaningful connections through the public sharing of their untold stories. All Houses projects are created through an extensive research and developmental process in collaboration with community partners, which have included Amnesty International, the AFSC Immigrant Rights Program, Human Rights First and many others. At the core of our creative process are interviews with real people about their lives, and an investigative search for those human stories that yearn for a much wider audience.

Prison Families Anonymous is a self-help organization whose purpose is to help the families and friends who now have, once had, or are about to have a loved one involved in the criminal or juvenile justice system. PFA began in February of 1974 because three women were concerned about the impact on the family when a loved one becomes involved in the system. It was the hope and intent of the founders to provide a way to keep families from facing their fears and traumas alone.