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Shakespeare in Prison, Detroit Public Theatre’s signature community program, has been going gangbusters at Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility for six years! Our ensembles use Shakespeare to empower themselves, develop crucial skills, and smash society’s expectations. As one woman said, “Things I didn’t think were in me, I could see within myself and in the characters. Seeing things in different ways has helped me become a better woman. When I came here, I was really angry and didn’t care about anything but myself. Now I see things differently.”

When Jessica Hoolsema was sentenced to prison on drug-related charges, she said it felt like people looked at her as if she were a lost cause. 

That was  until she discovered the Bard. She immersed herself in the Shakespeare in Prison Program at the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Ypsilanti, where she served five years.

Shakespeare in Prison, a program currently operating at Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Ypsilanti, will hold a 12-week seminar for youth at the Washtenaw County Youth Center, thanks to funding from new grants

On a recent Tuesday night, 16 women gathered backstage and changed into costumes to play their roles in a production of Shakespeare’s “Othello.”

The space hummed with the giddy electricity of actors preparing to perform in front of an audience. The actress playing Iago, wearing brown slacks, a white shirt and a dark-red sash (which also holstered a foam sword), huddled up with Othello to do some last-minute line cramming.

Frannie Shepherd-Bates graduated from college with a passion for theater and the desire to use her art in ways that made a difference beyond the stage. But it wasn’t until she watched the award-winning documentary “Shakespeare Behind Bars” that she discovered the unexpected place she could take acting — and the unexpected good it could do.