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Friday, March 4, 1988 / University Daily Kansan
Getting a view from 'inside' Cast members of KU play go behind bars to research roles
By Kevin Dilmore
Kansan staff writer
Before they went in front of an audience, they went behind bars.
To research their roles, some cast members of the University Theatre production "Getting Out" toured prisons, interviewed prison guards and even spent time with inmates in locked cells.
The free play, which runs at 8 p.m. today and tomorrow in Murphy Hall's Craft-Preyron Theatre, recounts the first day of freedom for Arlene, a young woman who has spent the last eight years in prison for murder.
Scenes of Arlene's past and present life are depicted simultaneously on the stage, with two actresses playing Arlene at different ages.
Jill Towsley, a Topeka senior who plays the young Arlene, she talked to inmates for about an hour in the Shawnee County Jail in Topeka.
"I didn't expect a chance to ask them questions. I didn't even prepare," she said. "But the guard was so helpful. She helped me get them talking."
She said she was more nervous before she went into prison than while she was locked in with the prisoners. She didn't fear physical harm; she feared the impression she would make.
"What they have been through is highly personal, and I didn't want to trivialize their experiences," she said. "I didn't want them to think I was just this stupid girl in a dumb play."
Eric Anderson, Overland Park junior, said he went to the Johnson and Douglas County jails and interviewed guards to prepare for his role.
"A lot of people don't realize that a prison guard does not get to go home for lunch," he said. "A guard is locked in jail 40 hours a week."
Louisa Bradshaw, Topeka junior, visited a jail in Louisville, Ky., where the play is set. She said she learned from the visit something about Arlene, her character, and about herself.
character, and about how to do it.
"I saw the fine line between living outside and doing something that could put you in prison and how capable everyone is of crossing that line," she said.
The cast will perform in front of what could be its toughest critics today when 15 inmates of the Kansas Correctional Institution at Lansing attend the show.
Charla Jenkins, director of public relations for University Theatre, said the inmates would meet with the cast after the show.
"We felt we had a responsibility as a state university to increase the awareness of issues in this show," she said.
John Callison, deputy director of the correctional institution, said the 15 inmates were all honor inmates held in minimum security. Two or three staff members will be sent to watch the inmates, he said.
will be sent to watch
"This is sort of like taking a group of high school students on a field trip," he said. "It's a very relaxed sort of thing."
Callison said that trips such as this one helped prepare inmates to re-enter society and that he appreciated the chance for the inmates to see "Getting Out."
"It's nice that someone took an interest in us," he said. Towsley said she had no idea how inmates would react to the play.
"I hope they do not see the characters as stereotypical," she said, "but the stereotypes exist for a reason.
"I hope the play speaks for the inadequacies in the prison system and points out the need for more psychological support. Some prisoners become so dependent they can forget how to choose what to wear in the morning."
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