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Hank Rogerson and Jilann Spitzmiller’s SHAKESPEARE BEHIND BARS premiered in documentary competition at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.

Synopsis

SHAKESPEARE BEHIND BARS follows an all-male Shakespeare company working behind bars at Kentucky’s Luther Luckett Correctional Complex. For one year a cast comprised of convicted felons rehearse and perform a full production of Shakespeare’s last play, The Tempest, a play fittingly about forgiveness.

A group of actors perform The Tempest in prison, one dressed in a grass skirt over prison khakis.

A member of the Shakespeare Behind Bars theater troupe stands in front of four security guards wearing a cape.

Two men stand next to each other, one wearing a head wrap.

Photo credits:
Top: Andy Nelson /
Christian Science Monitor
Others: Hank Rogerson

Marking their seventh year as an acting ensemble in the film, the inmates cast themselves according to their lives and in relation to the crimes for which they are serving a prison sentence. Just as in Shakespeare’s day, men play all the female roles. They swear that the roles “pick them”, and this proves to be an uncanny truth, as many of the men experience powerful epiphanies while exploring their characters. Twice a week, the inmates work with volunteer director Curt Tofteland, who pushes them to find their own truth within each part.

By following these men through this creative process, the film explores the universal themes of redemption, transformation and forgiveness. It raises questions for the audience such as: Should we rehabilitate criminals? How does art transform the human conscience? Who deserves forgiveness? Because of the unlikely setting of prison, these themes and issues are given a fresh, new angle.

SHAKESPEARE BEHIND BARS is written and directed by Hank Rogerson and produced by Jilann Spitzmiller. Rogerson and Spitzmiller are a husband and wife team that has collaborated on projects for 15 years.

SHAKESPEARE BEHIND BARS is produced by Philomath Films in association with the Independent Television Service (ITVS) and the BBC, with major funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The film has received other major support from the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund, and was selected for the first-ever Sundance Institute Documentary Story and Edit Lab, as well as the Sundance Documentary Composer’s Lab in 2004.

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About the Film

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	Film Credits SHAKESPEARE BEHIND BARS A Philomath Films Production A film by Hank Rogerson and Jilann Spitzmiller Directed and Written by: Hank Rogerson Produced by: Jilann Spitzmiller Director of Photography: Shana Hagan Edited by: Victor Livingston Music by: James Wesley Stemple

Director’s Statement Excerpt

The men in the Shakespeare program are criminals who have performed the most heinous of crimes, but some of them are also men with shame, remorse and redemption in their hearts. Personally this was a very challenging film to make, since it dealt with such deep issues as murder, truth and forgiveness, both in the text of The Tempest, as well as in the lives of the prisoners. I was constantly struggling with questions such as: Should we rehabilitate criminals? How does art transform the human conscience? Do these men deserve any chance at recovery? What does it mean to forgive and why do we do it? I look forward to audience participation in the dialogue.
—Hank Rogerson

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