Our Doubts Are Traitors
This line, from Shakespeare’s Measure For Measure, has been at the forefront of my thoughts – as it is on of the key ideas that The Public Theater’s Mobile Teaching Unit is discussing in our workshops this month. We traveled to a Women’s Shelter and a Men’s Prison last week. Next week, we’ll visit a Women’s Prison and an Elder Community Center – and after the holiday, hit the road again to shelters and community centers.
It was an incredibly invigorating and challenging experience, visiting the same prisoners that I had visited in August. There they were, still dressed in forest green, and even more eager to dive in to Shakespeare’s world. The themes of Measure for Measure are inextricably entwined with the issues they think about every day – Justice, Dignity, Values, Power.
It’s inspiring to be able to believe that there is the possibility of rehabilitation, productivity, growth and revitalization for these men.
The Public Theater/Ten Thousand and One Things production of Measure for Measure will be touring the same venues, a week behind the Teaching Artists. You can see it too! For six performances only, at Judson Church. The cast is incredible, and I’m so excited to see Michelle Hensley‘s take on this classic Problem Play – one that I tackled myself back in 2007.