Shakespeare Inside by Scott-Douglass Amy;

Author:Scott-Douglass, Amy;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2011-11-02T16:00:00+00:00

Mark Antony (DeMond Bush) cradles the body of Julius Caesar (Floyd Vaughn) in his arms as Brutus (Sammie Byron) ascends the pulpit.

Photo by Amy Scott-Douglass

After the Julius Caesar performance at the Kentucky Correctional Institute for Women, a prison guard chains DeMond Bush and Anthony Silver in preparation for their transport back to Luther Luckett Correctional Complex.

Photo by Curt Tofteland

Act 4

‘Romans, Countrymen, Lovers!’: The SBB Tour at the Kentucky Correctional Institute for Women

Being a guest at a women’s prison when a visiting men’s theatre company is in residence for the afternoon is like being a chaperone at a junior high dance. On 3 September 2004, a hundred women – those who earned the highest marks in their college courses at Kentucky Correctional Institute for Women – are invited to the prison cafeteria for the Shakespeare Behind Bars’s touring performance of Julius Caesar. And let me tell you, the KCIW women don’t come for the Shakespeare; they come for the men. As the women filter into the room, their eyes search out the boys. I hear one woman say, ‘Oooh, there’s a nice one,’ like she’s picking out a lobster at a restaurant.

I take a seat in the front row, but a guard quickly approaches me. ‘You can’t sit there, ma’am,’ he says. ‘We need to seat you somewhere safe. You can’t sit next to the inmates.’ I stand up, obedient but disappointed. The whole point of me coming to this performance was to get to know the women. But I’ve been in prisons long enough to have learned that there’s only one person who has the final say, and that’s the warden. I walk up to the warden, introduce myself, thank her for allowing me to visit her prison, and ask if I may please sit with the inmates. ‘Yes, of course!’ she happily replies. I return to the prison guard and announce that I have the warden’s permission to sit with the inmates. ‘Oh then, by all means, ma’am,’ he says politely, and he sits me in between a brunette, a blonde, and a redhead. Their names, they tell me, are Amanda, Towanda, and Zola Zee. They are beautiful, stunningly beautiful. And they’re on the prowl.

The brunette, Amanda, recognizes Big G from the 2003 Tempest tour. ‘He was in it last year,’ she whispers to me. ‘He’s funny’ Redheaded Zola Zee takes a shine to Leonard, who, as Lucius, plays a sort of Renaissance-style version of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Stairway to Heaven’ on his guitar. ‘That was my high-school class song,’ Zola Zee swoons. But Towanda, the blonde, is the most dedicated shopper of the three. Once she realizes that I actually know the men, she puts me to work. ‘Who’s the light-skinned one?’ she asks, pointing at Shane. And then her attention shifts to Ron. ‘Oh my goodness,’ she exclaims, ‘Who is that? He’s beautiful!’ The scene between Cassius, Brutus, and Casca sends Towanda into absolute bliss. She literally moans throughout it.

But she snaps out of it, at least temporarily, during the assassination scene.

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