Teaching Shakespeare to Prisoners – Suraya Keating

In this episode of The Important Podcast, you will meet Suraya Keating who teaches classical Shakespeare acting to prison inmates in the United States. For over fifteen years, Suraya has combined her knowledge of psychology, counseling, mindfulness, theatre and acting to facilitate Drama Therapy workshops to serve marginalized populations, including at-risk youth, children with special…

Jared Updated May 27, 2022 2 minutes read

Teaching Shakespeare to Prisoners – Suraya Keating

In this episode of The Important Podcast, you will meet Suraya Keating who teaches classical Shakespeare acting to prison inmates in the United States.

For over fifteen years, Suraya has combined her knowledge of psychology, counseling, mindfulness, theatre and acting to facilitate Drama Therapy workshops to serve marginalized populations, including at-risk youth, children with special needs, adults with developmental disabilities, prison inmates and others. This is her story.

Listen on iTunes and Spotify.

In this Episode, You Will Learn

We’re all born with the ability to use our imaginations and play
About the healing power of play
How theatre and Shakespeare training can help people develop empathy and be emotionally present
Some intense moments and lessons learned from teaching Shakespeare in San Quentin State Prison
How prisoners write and perform their own theater pieces based on their lives and themes from Shakespeare
How deep play brings people from all different racial, religious and economic class backgrounds together
Reframing our view of mistakes and our relationship to failure
How prisoners grapple with the challenging language of ‘Old English’ and apply the narrative themes of Shakspeare to their lives
(Thanks to podcast listener Geniya Avilov for submitting this question)
Suraya’s journey from growing up in an achievement-oriented Jewish family in New York City to helping others through drama therapy and joyful deep play
How Suraya is most present when she’s serving others in the way she wants to be serving others
A lesson from Rick on emotions: Thank You
How when we’re highly triggered, it’s often not the best time for dialogue
“A sailor doesn’t learn how to sail on a calm sea”
What scares Suraya
Suraya’s goals

Links and Resources

Shakespeare for Social Justice and Training in Theatre For Social Justice by Marin Shakespeare
About Suraya Keating
TedX San Quentin: Parallel Plays – “Ever wonder how prisoners greet each other or what they think about love? Based on themes from Shakespeare, watch two original theater pieces written by incarcerated men drawn from their real-life experience.”
Video – Prison Bridges, theme: healing
Returned Citizens Theatre Troupe
The Actor’s Gang Prison Project | Tim Robbins | The Shawshank Redemption
Serenity Prayer
Pema Chodron
Hope from adversity | Shakespeare at San Quentin | TEDxSanQuentin
Shakespeare Behind Bars documentary
Andy Strong Photography
The Joy of Improv

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About the Author

Jared Polivka’s mission is to serve others while living a light-hearted, present, empathetic, and responsible life. Jared serves nonprofits at Donorbox.org, teaches at The Joy of Improv, and advises various technology startups and organizations. Stay in touch with Jared on Instagram and Twitter.

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