Robin Lynn Smith
Recipient of 2009 Volunteer of the Year Award by Washington Correctional Center
for Women

Lynne Newark, Recreation Director at WCCW, who nominated Robin gives voice in her nominating letter to what many who have worked with Robin have said that "Part of Robin's professional objective is to work and encourage them to transform what exists and forge the next wave of that into theatre.  It is an empowering experience and we are so fortunate to have Robin show and teach them that the power is within themselves, it just needs some nurturing and encouragement to come forth."

"Greetings from the Booth Theatre in New York ...

where NEXT TO NORMAL is in the middle of our third week of performances (sixth week, if you count previews). It's been quite a trip, arriving on Broadway (well, technically on West 45th Street, but Angela Lansbury is in the next theater...). In some ways, it's like doing a show anywhere else, only with more people taking pictures, more people writing about it, and much higher ticket prices. On the other hand, there's something kind of magical about being here. The show's going great, and the audiences have been much more enthusiastic than you have any right to expect at a musical about mental illness. If you're in NYC, come see us -- and speaking of those ticket prices, you can get a "friends-and-family" discount: just go to http://www.nexttonormal.com/friendsandfamily/."

--Brian Yorkey

JUST IN,

NEXT TO NORMAL received 11 Tony Nominations including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical (Brian Yorkey), and Best Original Score (Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey) 

Congratulations Brian!

-From your Freehold community

To read a recent New York Times review of NEXT TO NORMAL, go to:

http://theater2.nytimes.com/

LAB

Neil Ferron will be moving from Seattle to Dublin, Ireland, this summer to pursue an M Phil at Trinity College as a Mitchell Scholar.  In 2007, he wrote and produced his first play, "Sweet the Breath of Children," which received a 4Culture grant and a Seattle Times Critics Pick.  He would like to thank the other Freehold members for their wisdom, dedication, and patience: Robin, Elizabeth, Bev, Joy, Xan, and Jess.  The show is on the road.

Prison is weird.  I realize this statement lacks a certain gravity, but when you walk around Purdy, you are more likely to see a guard picking his nose with a pencil than a Skinhead vs. Black Panther gang fight.  Every now and again, one of these absurd moments will lead to a bit of truth, and so it was with the Volunteer Training.

The training is held every month for long-term volunteers, and in the moderately dingy training room, you find an odd mix of people-hip and underpaid social workers, Christian ministers with soothing voices, a few suburban housewives.  

Cherie DeKeyser and Jesse Putnam will be performing in a reader theater production of Ayn Rand's The Night of January 16th at the North Shore Senior Center in Bothell, opening on May 15th. (warning: audience members may be asked to serve on the jury!)  Cherie is supporting Christopher Oliver on a short film call "Grazer" which will be filming in Lynnwood at the end of May 2009.

Jenness Klein will be performing in Guys & Dolls with Seattle Musical Theatre running May 8 through May 24th.  For more information, http://seattlemusicaltheatre.org/

Rosalyn Le is going to be in Sound Theatre Company's upcoming production of Caryl Churchill's Top Girls, which runs April 30th - May 17th at Stone Soup Theatre, Thursdays-Sundays. For more information: http://www.soundtheatre.company.org.

Tim Parr will be performing in Auntie Mame with the Driftwood Players, April 17th - May 20th.  For more information, go to:  http://www.driftwoodplayers.com/

Jesse Putnam performing in Four Strange Loves an original play produced by The Seattle Playwrights' Collective. Shows are at Do North Theatre (17517-C 15th Ave NE, Shoreline). Performances June 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14. http://seattleplaywrightscollective.org/

Jenny Schmidt will be performming Puppet TV at the Historic University Theatre.  Sunday nights at 7pm.  April 26, May 3, & May 10.

Melissa Stenoien can be heard as Imogene Watkins, assistant to Professor Nigel Hammer, in the serial audio-drama called, "The Unspeakable and the Inhuman, episode 7:  Lessons and Secrets".  It's a serial audio-drama/ soap opera inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft.  For more information:  http://www.neohoodoostudio.com/ or http://www.myspace.com/theunspeakableandtheinhuman

When asked what has driven her to create this program Robin said, "The program is called Ordinary Heroes, because when we first started working with the women, we were knocked out by the heroic individuals that they are. They are brave enough to face the truth of their lives and strive to change, and they are extraordinarily generous with each other as an ensemble - something that I learn from every time.  They find a way to appreciate the value of their lives - even in the limits of prison - to love their life as it truly is each day - that blows me away."

The benefits of the program are significant both for the inmates and the prison officials.  Lynne Newark noted that all offenders that perform in the production must adhere to the special event behavior criteria.  They can't have any major infractions or they cannot participate.  Lynne notes that "With some offenders the only reason they are behaving is because they want to be in Freehold.  That is quite an accomplishment and it is due to Robin's diligence and passion to get them to want to do what is right."  One woman who participated in the theater residency program wrote Freehold and said: "... everyone opened up about some really deep issues and felt safe to do so.  It was a place I could count on to be myself ... it was like I wasn't here in prison - A piece of freedom through our minds and permission to use them to get there."

Robin went onto say that this award "belongs to all the passionate and generous volunteers, supporters and staff, and to the amazing women who have participated  in the program or attended the performances and workshops.  Elizabeth Heffron, Joy Easley, Beverly Thompson, Neil Ferron, Xan Scott, Jessica Robinson, Cathleen O'Malley, Nicole Pearson, George Lewis, Daemond Arrindell, have all been my teachers as well as each brave and truthful woman who has come forward with her story as a gift for the audience. I am honored to stand with them in this recognition."

A:  So what does your group do?

B:  We write and produce a play with the women.

A:  Well that's cute.  It must be fun.

B:  Yep.

(Silence.)

A:  My group preaches the word of God.

B:  Oh, that's cool too.

(A and B both smile in an attempt to mask their mutual amusement/judgment of the other.)

After enough of these interactions, I resigned to skimming the handbook when a woman stated her discomfort with the constant use of the term "offender" to label the women.

"Can't we call them something else?" she says.  "Something less judgmental?"

Almost immediately, a woman wearing a spotless white tracksuit stands and starts jabbing her finger towards the rest of the prison.  "Listen.  They made choices.  They broke the law.  They are offenders so we'll call them offenders."

Half the room nods.  The other half fidgets uneasily.

A social worker-type responds: "Maybe there's a better term."

A deceptively cute old lady: "I think there's a benefit to accuracy."

From across the room: "No need to beat around the bush ..."

As the discussion continued, I realized something important was occurring.  Each volunteer group brings a narrative into Purdy, and I was witnessing a well-mannered clash of these narratives.  "You are an addict, and 12 Steps will keep you sober."  Vs.  "You are beautiful, but society failed you."  Vs.  Freehold's "You are an artist, and you are going to produce a play."  (For the record, I mostly kept silent.)  These narratives often hinge on defining the identity of the incarcerated women, and as I saw it, Freehold's was the most empowering.  We had no hidden agenda.  We warm up, do some improv, then free write.  The women are free to share as they please.

For a time I was satisfied with this little epiphany, but as I became more involved in the process, I realized that the Freehold narrative is something much more complicated than simply labeling the women as "artists."  Every week, the women explored their many identities, positive and negative-spending time with each one, playing with them, twisting them into new forms.  Outside of prison, this process is demanding enough, but Purdy is a place where your identity is state-issued and defines your physical reality-the building you sleep in, the kind of clothes you can wear, when you eat-so the idea of playing with and owning many identities can be terrifying for some.  Compound that with the fact that the women live under constant scrutiny from cameras, guards, and the other inmates, and suddenly letting oneself be silly or weak is more than a personal risk, it threatens one's status in the community.

Under this pressure, the Freehold narrative becomes this: "You are a human being trying to make some theatre, and that requires you to approach the most beautiful and disgusting parts of yourself and to try to take strength from it."  An alchemy that seeks to turn shit into gold.

And in this, the women displayed profound courage.  If you poked your head into our rehearsal room any Sunday this winter, you would find our women-addicts, thieves, offenders, whatever label you want to give them-prancing around the room pretending to be unicorns, rowdy with laughter as they gallop and preen themselves.  Come back in thirty minutes and the room is quiet, sober.  The women sit beside each other, sharing their paralyzing fears, their failures, pain that sometimes feels inescapable.  Out of this work came "Circus of the Damned: Facing the Beast Within," a healthy mix of clowns, dancing puppies, fears, manipulations, and the possibility of forgiveness-a play born out of whimsy and vulnerability. 

It was an extreme honor to turn the women's words into a cohesive script.  If I might share one of my favorite moments from the play, an amalgam of several women's writings.  It comes toward the end of the play when a mother finally expresses her love for her runaway daughter: "Lila, I love your big ears, the way your nose wrinkles when you talk, and the way you pick at your fingers when you're nervous.  I love the way you're a little chunky.  And that time you broke the window-you disobeyed me and you hid in the closet-and I loved you.  Because of your strength I am still alive today.  Lila, you are mine and you are perfectly imperfect."

I believe that last phrase is the full fruition of Freehold's Ordinary Heroes narrative.  Our strength-as artists and human beings-is the result of our failures and our achievements.  One cannot be excised from the other.

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