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Hidden faces of courage production comes to Cambridge Y

J. Cottle

If You Go

What: Hidden Faces of Courage, with a staged reading of A Lot On Our Minds, directed by Tasia A. Jones. Estimated running time: 80 minutes. For ages 14 and up.

Where: Cambridge YMCA Theatre, 820 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA.

When: Thursday March 26th at 7:30pm, Friday March 27th at 7:30, Saturday March 28th at 4pm and 8pm.

Tickets: Tickets $25, $15 Students/Seniors. For advance tickets call 800-838-3006 or buy online.

On With Living and Learning (OWLL) is premiering their remixed and re-imagined production of Hidden Faces of Courage. OWLL is a local organization that seeks to “bring together female ex-offenders, artists, human service professionals and the public to inspire public dialogue about the incarceration of women.”

Hidden Faces of Courage was written in collaboration with On With Living and Learning founder and co-artistic director of Fort Point Theatre Channel Mary Driscoll who credits a large portion of the inspiration for the show to a promise she made to a late friend.

“I was inspired by a friend of mine who had come to OWLL right out of prison,” Driscoll said. “Ultimately she became my best friend over 12 years. When she was dying she asked me to write a play to inspire other women who were retuning citizens from prison. She went from being a returning citizen to becoming a social activist.”

The show delves into the lives and realities of women re-entering society after serving prison time for non-violent crimes. They represent a demographic not often acknowledged, with stories and histories not often explored. The women are unseen and hidden, left only with a profound sense of isolation, a theme explored in a show these women helped to create.

“There are three levels to the work,” said Driscoll. “The workshops where the stories are told and the scripts are created, the presentation of the scripts to the local community by the women themselves, then lastly the professional actors who spread the message out into the larger community.”

For many years, Driscoll, who has a Ph.D., made her living as an occupational therapist, before she had an experience that changed her life.

“I had no interest in theater; I had never been on stage until I was 50. I was working in Jamaica and I took an acting class, and I realized I could make more change through theater than all the policy papers I was writing. I saw what theater could do in that country, so I quit my job, came home and decided I would become an actor and write a play about women who had H.I.V.

“From that we gathered a group of courageous women and started to do this work and form this company. I never considered I was doing playwriting, just thought I was doing workshops and were telling our stories. I knew that with theater I could do more with social change.”

While the show first premiered a few years ago, Driscoll believes that this was a perfect time to bring the piece back.

“It’s especially important right now since we are facing a complex and crucial time in our country about racism and injustice. Clearly it’s critical the things we are facing now in terms of trying to change the system of racial injustice that has led to over-incarceration. It intersects with the same issue of identity in our society. And we’re dealing this across the country.”

Overall, Driscoll hopes that this show will invoke understanding and compassion to this marginalized community of women.

“We hope that the audience will laugh, and cry and learn something new. This is for the people who care, but don’t understand why women end up in prison, and if they come they can go back and contribute however they can.”

On With Living and Learning in collaboration with Fort Point Theatre Channel presents a remixed and re-imagined “Hidden Faces of Courage” by Mary Driscoll with members of On With Living and Learning. Directed by Tasia A. Jones, Music by Allyssa Jones.