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- Thousand Kites | Asheville Time 2008-05-29 18:42
- The national dialog project on the U.S. criminal justice system is gearing up in Asheville, NC.When Dr. Scott Walters took his UNC-Asheville Theater of the Oppressed class to visit the Appalachian media arts organization Appalshop, he started a snowball effect. It was there, in the coal-mining town of Whitesburg, Kentucky, he would meet Amelia Kirby and Nick Szuberla, two filmmakers making an exposé (Up the Ridge) about nearby supermax prison Wallens Ridge. A year later he would serendipitously run into Kirby at an AlternateROOTS conference, where the cheerful, brown-haired activist handed him a script, a play that was part of an expansive project she, Szuberla, and a group called Roadside Theater were working on. They called it Thousand Kites, after a prison slang term. The script for Thousand Kites was partly based on the rants, prayers, shout-outs, complaints, poems, and monologues Szuberla and Kirby received, when, inspired by the stories they were unearthing for Up the Ridge--the two began a prisoner radio show. The broadcast reached both Wallens Ridge and another area supermax, Red Onion. Letters from inmates began pouring in, and Roadside Theater's Donna Porterfield eventually synthesized this material (along with some stories recounted by both prisoner family members, and correctional officers) into a protean stage drama, one that could be performed by active communities as well as intrigued universities, conservative churches as well as radical theater groups. These performances, beyond merely provoking that cathartic experience Aristotle mulls over in The Poetics, would be a jumping off point for explicit conversations about the American justice system.Walters wouldn't be able to resist:"...even though I was scheduled to do a different production in November, I immediately decided that the opportunity to participate in this project was too good to pass up," he scribes.Now, according to his blog, the 49-year-old author, teacher and actor, has a song stuck in his head. One of the play's narrative devices, "Heard Somebody Call My Name" with its bluegrass feel and gospel intonations, written and composed by traditional musician Ron Short--follows him around with its haunting declarations: I keep having this dream, And I awake with a shout. I get to the gate and I can't get out. Lipping the song's lyrics as he organizes a cast and crew of about 40, Walters finds himself pressed for the hours, days, weeks, it takes to deliver a good play. As with any production orchestrated in a school setting, time is short, participants busy.Thousand Kites dramatizes a polemic the Wisconsin born theater professor feels very passionate about. So passionate that he's spent time teaching drama at Foothills State Prison and Western Youth Prison, so passionate he asked UNCA students not just to put on Thousand Kites, but to delve into the various ideas its themes uncover. "They have researched the issues," lauds Walters in a recent email, "and can speak very articulately about them."The issues are many. The play's two main characters, an archetypal guard and prisoner respectively, bring up not only the human rights violations and exploitation so many of us associate with the modern prison industrial complex, but the economic and cultural ironies these institutions inspire as more and more urban, ethnic minorities are warehoused in rural prisons (financially eviscerated Appalachian towns make good targets for profiteers).November 17th, at the Diana Wortham Theatre, Walters and his cast will attempt to bring this dynamic to the forefront of their audience's minds. "My hope is that people will become aware and concerned about the effects of our prison system on everyone who is touched by it" Walter's says, "and that they will be motivated to express that concern through individual or group action." As opening night approaches, a few organizations have already called him up, wanting to know more about the play. Walters' hopes just may materialize.
- Tag: »appalshop »arts »asheville »community »kites »prison »roadside »theater »thousand »unca
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