26 Jul Shakespeare on the Range – The Inspiration
Shakespeare on the Range
The inspiration for Shakespeare on the Range hit me in the form of a Facebook video. One typical morning, while I ate my breakfast and looked at the daily newsfeed for Facebook, I saw a short documentary about a group of prisoners putting on a Shakespearean play. I sat there, instantly mesmerized. Here was a group of people who I normally would consider “out of mind out of sight” members of society and they were right in front of me being completely free, open, and authentic. Despite some less than stellar acting performances, the joy on the inmates’ faces in their makeshift costumes covering their prison jumpsuits, was so powerful to me.
Laura Bates in her Shakespeare on the Range class. Photo courtesy of: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/innovators/2014/04/140428-innovator-laura-bates-prisons-solitary-confinement-shakespeare/
It got me thinking, how many people in this world do we ignore simply because of the title society has branded them. Yes, clearly all these inmates were in prison for violating the law, but were they intrinsically bad people? I started to do a lot of research and came upon several similar programs around the world that help to rehabilitate prisoners through Shakespeare. Apparently, Shakespeare and the universal messages of love, guilt, crime, hate, power, and more spoke deeply to prisoners and their own personal experiences. Who knew?
Character Development
One inmate, Lawrence Newton, stuck out to me. Lawrence aspires to become the first inmate to receive his PH. D while in prison. This is a guy who never graduated from high school, had been in solitary confinement for over 10 years, deemed an all-around trouble maker in and out of prison, and somehow being a part of the Shakespeare program helped him reach an important epiphany. In a book by his professor, Laura Bates, he mentions that Shakespeare taught him the power of internal freedom. I wanted to capture this realization and write about what that may look like so I started writing Shakespeare on the Range.
It is funny, I look back at the work I have done so far and I have realized that I have a penchant for characters who struggle to find their place in life and society. In Shakespeare on the Range, Newton struggles to find his purpose within the confines of prison that society has bestowed on him for his past. I think I am drawn to stories such as these because I too often find myself an outsider. I have struggled most of my life feeling like I do not fit in anywhere. Whether it is not being able to fit in because I am not Asian enough or too American or I have too much of a business/logical mindset amongst my creative friends or not like my business school friends, I always feel like I exist in the gray zone. Filmmaking has been my way of sharing my voice and feeling like I have something to contribute to the world just like learning and teaching Shakespeare is to Newton in Shakespeare on the Range.
Lead character, Newton, played by Garrett Kruithof in Shakespeare on the Range
This is how Shakespeare on the Range came to be as a script. It took another 3 months and many rewrites later to reach the final script that is now a short film. I look forward to sharing the rest of the journey and the trailer with you soon. Stay tuned for the next blog about the pre-production process of Shakespeare on the Range. In the meantime, check out the Electronic Press Kit about the film.
Behind the scenes of Shakespeare on the Range. Photo courtesy of: @_adamduncan
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