University of Queensland, Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies
Public Lecture – QLD Shakespeare Ensemble’s Prison Project: Dr Rob Pensalfini
Website

8th March @ 5:30pm-6:30pm
University of Queensland Art Museum, St Lucia Campus, Building 11(Campus Map)

Light refreshments will be served after the lecture.

Inside Shakespeare Inside – the Queensland Shakespeare Ensemble’s Prison Project

Dr Rob Pensalfini is a Senior Lecturer in Linguistics (School of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies) and Drama (School of English, Media Studies and Art History) at the University of Queensland, and is Artistic Director of the Queensland Shakespeare Ensemble, which he founded in 2001.

Since 2006, Rob Pensalfini has been leading Australia’s only prison Shakespeare program, indeed Australia’s only ongoing prison theatre program of any sort, the Queensland Shakespeare Ensemble’s Prison Project. Each year, about twenty high security inmates of Borallon Correctional Centre have embarked on a three month journey exploring dramatic form, Shakespeare’s text, and personal story-telling through acting, a project which culminates in the performance of a Shakespeare play to an invited audience.

In this lecture Rob will discuss the history of the project and what inspired its creation, the project’s philosophy, and its impact on everyone involved in it: the prisoners who participate, the facilitators that lead, the prison in which it takes place, and the members of the public who see the performance. He will also locate the Queensland project in the context of other prison Shakespeare programs, and talk about collaborations with international artist/practitioners.

For further information, please contact Rebecca Ralph: (ph. 3346 7407) or (admin.cccs@uq.edu.au)