Sunday Showcase of New Plays: Prison Is Where I Learned to Fly

“Prison Is Where I Learned to Fly” is a story about a brother and sister who correspond over several years during his incarceration. The sister reached out to him while working on her graduate studies in mythology. They were part of a family of seventeen siblings and she was attempting to collect each siblings’ story. Their correspondence and her research escalate into uncovering hidden family secrets and prison riots. Two different worlds fuse while exposing sibling memories, family chaos, play and abuse. Dreams are activated so love and compassion can surface, again.

A Note From the Playwright:
This play came out of my dissertation “Shelley’s Sibliography: Releasing the Incarcerated Voice through Memory, Imagination, and Dialogue.” At that time I had returned to grad school during my 50’s. This journey led me on a quest to find my own voice separate from my siblings. I was born into a tribe of 17 children. Thinking if I write their story, I would find a place for my own without leaving them out.

I was the only one to graduate from college. My quest complicated, as many journeys do, into a magnificent correspondence with my incarcerated brother who had dropped out of school into an addictive life many years ago. With the completion of my dissertation, I was asked to share my work with graduate students.

Gradually, each presentation chiselled away the theoretical portions leaving just the heart of my sibling voices. The classroom performances transformed into “Prison Is Where I Learned to Fly”.