On Oct. 19 and 20, the Judy Dworin Performance Ensemble presented “Time In,” a performance piece based on the group’s residency at the York Women’s Prison in Niantic, Conn. While there, the eleven-woman ensemble worked with members of the prison to construct the piece. The ensemble, made up of ten speaking performers and one translating the spoken aspects of the performance into sign language, used movement, monologue, and a capella to illuminate the lives of incarcerated women before and during their time at York.
The Ensemble focused largely on the back-story of the prison and its evolution from a 1920s farm compound for “wayward women” that was designed to “eradicate the habits of vile indulgence” and instill in them “basic compassionate attitude,” to a modern prison holding 1,200 women.
The performance explored the intrapersonal and collective work that the women have done to maintain a sense of self-esteem in the wake of the prison routine, portraying the effects that the prison atmosphere has on women living there. As one performer put it: “I’m more like a discarded toy than a woman.”
The ensemble also examined the methods that women in prison use to maintain a sense of self-respect, stating that they are collectively “trying to not let our time do us.”
The performance went on to follow the lives of the women before being incarcerated. The ensemble analyzed how time affects the women in their roles as working mothers and the stresses involved in holding a job and raising a family, using exaggerated movement to simulate the tension and commotion of daily life. The entire cast flew, jumped and spun around the stage, illustrating the plight of “good women, making bad choices,” and the intermediary steps between freedom and imprisonment: working with a lawyer, going to court.
In the talk-back session after the performance, the ensemble was joined by several women previously incarcerated at York, who spoke about the process of incarceration as an enormous societal divider and an under-explored issue in American culture. One woman stated that the difference between people in prison and those who have never been incarcerated is that those in prison were caught for engaging in activity that is common to a much greater number of people.
The ensemble emphasized themes of self-improvement and self-respect throughout the performance, as they attempted to share the stories of an inadequately represented population. Encapsulating these themes at the end of the performance, the ensemble concluded that “without the belief that people can change, there can be no hope,” a concept at the core of both Dworin’s personal work with the York community as well as the work of the whole ensemble.
The Judy Dworin Performance Ensemble will return to York in the coming months to spend time working on a new performance piece.
Leave a Reply