The DU Prison Arts Initiative: Creative Work
If Light Closed Its Eyes: A Site-Specific Verbatim Documentary Play at Sterling Correctional Facility
Executive Producer, Director, Lead Interviewer and Actor (December 2019-July 2022)
IF LIGHT CLOSED ITS EYES is a verbatim documentary play, created from 100 interviews, exploring the criminal justice system and shared humanity. This production was performed, designed and produced by over 60 incarcerated artists, under my guidance, in Sterling Correctional Facility and is the culmination of over two and a half years of work by the creative team.
Over the course of two and half years — and through the Covid19 pandemic — the IF LIGHT CLOSED ITS EYES creative team conducted over 100 interviews with incarcerated people, CDOC staff, victims/survivors of harm, family members of incarcerated people and victims, district attorneys, lawyers, senators, politicians, educators, spiritual leaders and more to understand their experiences within the criminal justice system. The creative team spent countless more hours crafting, designing and producing this unprecedented verbatim play from those interviews. Along the way the team discovered the power of collecting and holding other people’s stories and how they connect us to our shared humanity and complex histories. IF LIGHT CLOSED ITS EYES is an exploration of the American criminal justice system in this moment in time as well as a vision of possibility for corrections in the future.After the creation process IF LIGHT CLOSED ITS EYES culminated as a historic, site-specific performances in a cell-house (a prison living unit) at Sterling Correctional Facility in July of 2022 for audiences of incarcerated residents, CDOC staff, public, victims and survivors of harm, family members of the incarcerated artists and more. The production was also filmed as a movie and was released in 2023.
The IF LIGHT CLOSED ITS EYES film trailer can be seen below.
If Light Closed Its Eyes Play Trailer
If Light Closed Its Eyes Film Trailer
If Light Closed Its Eyes (Link to Purchase Script)
One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest: A Theatre Production at Sterling Correctional Facility
and the Prison Theatre Tour
Director, Executive Producer and Actor (March 2019-September 2019)
One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest was produced in collaboration with over 40 incarcerated artists, at Sterling Correctional Facility in 2019. It was produced as a full-theatre production for audiences of incarcerated residents, CDOC staff, state public officials and family members of the artists and the public. The production also went on a historic tour to other Colorado prisons for more performances.
A Christmas Carol: A Theatre Production at Denver Women’s Correctional Facility
and Tour to the University of Denver
Executive Producer (June 2019-December 2019)
A Christmas Carol was fully produced by the Denver Prison Arts Initiative (DU PAI ) at Denver Women’s Correctional Facility with over thirty incarcerated women in 2019 for audiences of incarcerated residents, CDOC staff, state public officials, family members of the artists and the public. Then, the production went on a historic tour to the public at The University of Denver's Newman Center for the Performing Arts where over 1,300 members of the public witnessed the production.
Short Documentary of A Christmas Carol Prison Theatre Tour to The University of Denver
A/Live Inside: A Virtual Showcase of Artists from Across Colorado’s Prisons
Executive Producer and Host of Virtual Event (August 2020-November 2020)
A/Live Inside was a historic, live virtual event weaving together performances, song, music, dance, visual art and panoramic true-life stories of incarcerated artists from multiple prisons facilities across Colorado. The showcase was followed by a live roundtable discussion from incarcerated participants, DU Prison Arts Initiative (DU PAI) and the Colorado Department of Corrections. A/Live Inside was a direct response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
A/Live Inside: A Virtual Showcase of Artists and their Stories from Colorado’s Prisons — A recording in full
With(in): A Podcast Shifting the Conversation on Who is in Prison
Executive Co-Producer and Segment Host (March 2019-Present)
With(in) is an award winning podcast committed to shifting the conversation on who is in prison, specifically within the Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC). Through meaningful, complex and enlightening conversations with incarcerated people and others in and around the criminal justice system we are committed to revealing our shared humanity across the system. With(in) is a collaboration between the DU Prison Arts Initiative and the CDOC and is recorded across three correctional facilities in Colorado: Sterling Correctional Facility, Denver Reception and Diagnostic Center and Denver Women’s Correctional Facility. With(in) Season 1 was released in September of 2019 and Season 2 was crafted virtually during the Covid-19 pandemic and was released in September of 2021.
With(in) is co-hosted by Andrew Draper (incarcerated in Sterling Correctional Facility) and Denise Presson (incarcerated in Denver Women’s Correctional Facility). With(in) Season 2 is fully imagined, edited and produced by the With(in) team. All of our recording, editing, sound engineering, music production, art production and poetry comes from inside the Colorado Department of Corrections.
Mini-Documentary on the With(in) Podcast
The With(in) Podcast Website (Link):
Includes all 22 episodes of With(in) Season 1 and Season 2, as well as art, music and poetry from With(in)
Sample episode from With(in) Season 2: The Stone Catcher, a Conversation with Bryan Stevenson
Inside Wire: Colorado Prison Radio
Executive Manager (December 2020-Present)
Inside Wire: Colorado Prison Radio beams music, stories, information, and entertainment into prisons across Colorado… and broadcasts its sounds to listeners outside facilities as well, across the U.S. and beyond. Our programs are created by incarcerated media producers for incarcerated listeners. Inside Wire is a program of the University of Denver Prison Arts Initiative, in collaboration with the Colorado Department of Corrections. It's the first statewide prison radio station in U.S. history.
Inside Wire offers companionship, hope, play, and the potential for positive change, for creators and audiences alike inside prison. We reach incarcerated listeners in their cells and units by sending our broadcast signal on the CDOC’s closed-circuit television network. At the same time, Inside Wire invites listeners outside facilities to shift their understanding of prison in the U.S. by tuning in. One producer and one listener at a time, Inside Wire fosters connection and community, cultivates joy and reflection, and empowers possibility and the restoration of justice.
Mini-Documentary on Inside Wire: Colorado Prison Radio
Unchained Voices Fine Art Show
Executive Manager (June 2020-Present)
Chained Voices is an advocacy & empowerment fine art show. The show is a collaborative effort created on behalf of incarcerated artists in Colorado. The Unchained Voices committee is comprised of community members, the DU Prison Arts Initiative (DU PAI), forensic social workers, public and private defense attorneys, community organizers, and family members of incarcerated people. The Unchained Voices’ events feature art and other works created by persons currently incarcerated at a jail or Colorado Department of Corrections facility. The proceeds from art sales are provided directly to the artist—to fulfill a need identified by the individual.
DU PAI has partnered with Unchained Voices since 2020 — for four annual shows — and in collaboration has produced multiple in-person gallery art shows and on-line gallery art shows, sharing and selling thousands of pieces of art for artists in every prison in the state of Colorado.
LuxLit Press
Executive Manager (July 2019-Present)
LuxLit Press is the publication wing for The DU Prison Arts Initiative (DU PAI). Through the publication of original materials created by people who are incarcerated, LuxLit Press seeks to spark new understandings for people. We are an intentional collaboration inside and out of prisons in the state of Colorado. By seeing, supporting and strengthening the luminescence of every author we come into contact with, we strive to celebrate the work, craft and joy of publication. LuxLit Press is the publication press for The Inside Report, the only state-wide prison newspaper in the country, Reverberations, The Magazine, it companion literary arts magazine, and other anthologies (Imagining Worlds and Tell it Slant) and our arts-based journal (Sojourn) created by incarcerated artists throughout Colorado.
These Walls: A Short Film
Executive Producer (May 2021 - May 2022)
THESE WALLS is an original, short-film retrospective of Colorado's oldest prison, Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility. The film was devised, written, and performed by artists who were incarcerated there during the facility's 150th year. The film draws from historical accounts and contemporary personal narratives in order to investigate one man's search for humanity through an unexpected correspondence within the walls of a prison hewn from the canyon that became Cañon City. THESE WALLS asks audiences to consider the ways care and accountability can create healing and hope in our criminal justice system. THESE WALLS is produced and created by the DU Prison Arts Initiative in partnership with the Colorado Department of Corrections.
The film was shared at film showings at Territorial Correctional Facility for incarcerated residents, CDOC staff and family members of the artists. Additionally, the film debuted to the public with a a sold-out sharing at the SieTheatre in Denver, Colorado — followed by a live and virtual talk back with the incarcerated artists from the film, DU PAI staff and CDOC staff.
THESE WALLS: The short film in full
