PRODUCTIONS
Beyond Prison Walls
Beyond Prison Walls brings plays written in prison to college campuses
This unique collaboration is a co-production between Playwrights Project and San Diego State University School of Theatre, Film and Television, featuring scripts written by participants in Playwrights Project’s community programs that are performed and directed by SDSU students in partnership with related departments on campus and lived experience advisors from Playwrights Project’s programs.
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
Each year, SDSU theatre students direct and perform six short plays written by playwrights in Playwrights Project’s Out of the Yard program inside Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility and Centinela State Prison.
The production is presented as a staged reading in SDSU’s Conrad Prebys Theatre. Playwright Project’s alumni guide the play selection process, advise on the production process, and serve as panelists on post-performance talk backs with the audience. SDSU’s Project Rebound students also act as rehearsal advisors and panelists.
The program celebrates the work of writers from underserved communities by spotlighting their creations for public audiences, giving writers an opportunity to share their insights and impact audiences beyond their prison walls.
The program also immerses SDSU theatre students in meaningful opportunities to work on new plays, recognize our shared humanity, and learn about community members whose backgrounds are different from their own. SDSU students attend the performances, along with the families, communities and support networks of the writers.
Panel discussions follow each performance, involving the writers (when possible), the production team, lived experience advisors, and professionals involved with the community served (such as correctional and mental health staff).
The production and talkbacks humanize the carceral experience, provide opportunities for writers to recognized for their strengths and growth, and educates those unfamiliar with the writers experiences drawing connections to our shared humanity.
SELECTION PROCESS
Playwrights Project currently conducts two cycles of playwriting programs on two yards at Centinela and four yards at Donovan. One play from each yard is selected for production each year. Content of the plays varies based on the interests of the writers. Lived experience advisors selecting plays, based on the common themes arising in the writing and looking for a balanced variety of content. Plays may address the experience of incarceration and sometimes themes emerge, but more frequently the plays touch on broader social issues, relationships, aspirations, and universal topics such as forgiveness, purpose, and understanding. Some plays simply provide an opportunity to laugh together, an important and often undervalued need.
COMPONENTS
- The production runs for one week, presented in SDSU’s Prebys Theatre
- Each performance includes all 5-6 10-minute plays or group plays some years
- Performance runs approximately 1-hour
- A talkback follows each performance, involving a pane of writers (when possible), lived experience experts, production team members and experts in the field
HISTORY
Beyond Prison Walls 2025 marks the 13th year of this collaboration and the 10th year of presenting plays from prisons. The first three years featured writing by former foster youth in Telling Stories. Playwrights Project’s Executive Director Cecelia Kouma and SDSU Theatre Professor Peter Cirino have co-produced the program since in 2012, when they founded it with Randy Reinholz (SDSU Professor) and Olivia Espinosa (Playwrights Project artist and SDSU alumna). The original concept for the program was initiated at Cal State San Marcos with Cecelia and Playwrights Project artist Kaja Dunn, working with CSUSM theatre teacher Judy Bauerlein and Jim Mickelson, Director of Ace Scholars, a program supporting CSUSM students who had been impacted by the foster care system.
An audience member at Beyond Prison Walls