Northwestern University’s
Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts
proudly presents
FELON: AN AMERICAN WASHI TALE
By Reginald Dwayne Betts
We are on sacred ground. Northwestern University is on the traditional homelands of the people of the Council of Three Fires—the Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Odawa—as well as the Menominee, Miami, and Ho-Chunk nations. Before it was stolen from them through colonization and forced removal, this land was a site of trade, travel, gathering, and healing for more than a dozen other native tribes. The state of Illinois is still home to more than 100,000 tribal members. In the spirit of healing and making amends for the harm that was done, we acknowledge the native and indigenous peoples who called this land home. We pledge ourselves as members of the Northwestern School of Communication to turn our statements into action and build better relationships with native and indigenous communities in Evanston, in Chicago, and throughout the region.
Washi (Japanese handmade paper) connects people in mysterious ways. It led me to Japan to work with paper artist Kyoko Ibe, and over a decade later it precipitated my work with Dwayne Betts on his solo show springing from his extraordinary book of poems, Felon. Washi is made of natural elements, tree bark and water, guided by human hands, water allows the fibers to connect and form beautiful sheets of paper, strong, but soft to the touch. Theater brings out the richness of the washi, glowing with the possibility of light, and washi brings out the unique quality of theater: a moment of presence with strangers, forming connections across vast differences of culture and languages, to listen to each others’ stories.
Paper, perhaps surprisingly, is a key part of the prison experience. Paper gets you in and sometimes gets you free. Chasing paper on the front is the catalyst to cuffs for many; making papers—that is, parole—is the hope of freedom for others. Inside, letters from family are lifelines, earning the slang moniker “kite” and there is an edge of exhilaration when a kite is slipped into a cell by a guard during mail call or under a cell door by another prisoner. For years after my release, I carried around a slip of paper in my wallet. A receipt for twenty-five dollars and seventy-one cent, the last of the money I’d earned working for 45 cent an hour in a Virginia prison. The experience is marked by paper. Transforming the paper into art complexifies the experience, makes it more than loss, more than the account for crimes and prison time that seem to stalk.
Micah & Miles Betts, Candace Moye, Oz Enders, Sam Bailen, Darlene Neals, The Washi Family, The Freedom Reads Team
Reginald Dwayne Betts
Director, Developer, and Dramaturg: Elise Thoron
Lighting Designer: Jane Cox
Set Designer: Kyoko Ibe
Sound Designer: Palmer Hefferan
Animation: Louisa Bertman
Production Stage Manager & Technical Director: Tyler Sperrazza
Prison Papermaker: Ruth Lingen
Freedom Reads Bookshelves: MASS Design Group; Shannon Velázquez & Dan Velázquez
Projection Consultant: David Bengali
Movement Consultant: Chesney Snow
Freedom Reads is a first of its kind organization that inspires and confronts what prison does to the spirit. We bring beautiful, handcrafted bookcases into prisons, transforming cellblocks into Freedom Libraries. The library is a physical intervention into the landscape of plastic and steel and loneliness that characterizes incarceration. In an environment where the freedom to think, to contribute to a community, and even to dream about what is possible is too often curtailed, Freedom Reads reminds those Inside that they have not been forgotten.
Freedom Reads aims to place millions of books into prisons, one 500-book Freedom Library at a time, opened in every prison cellblock in the United States. Placed in the centers of a cellblock a Freedom Library becomes a locus of conversation and community. The Freedom Libraries are objects of beauty, handcrafted by teams that include people who have served time in prison. The name Freedom Library is a reminder of how freedom has often followed education. The curved shelves of the bookcases remind all that the universe bends toward justice — and through conversation and engagement, fellow readers share in the joy, belonging, and possibilities that such stories provide.
The Freedom Library and other literary initiatives support the efforts of people in prison to imagine new possibilities for their lives.
We thank our donors who make it possible to develop and sustain the quality of productions at Northwestern University. The following individuals and institutions have made gifts to one or more of the following areas: the Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts, American Music Theatre Project and the Music Theatre Funds. All gifts were made between September 1, 2022 and August 31, 2023.
Donate online at giving.northwestern.edu.
Thank you for supporting Northwestern University Theatre and Dance!
E. Patrick Johnson, Dean of the School of Communication and Annenberg University Professor
Lori Barcliff Baptista, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs and Advising
Roderick Hawkins, Associate Dean of External Affairs and Chief of Staff
Molly Losh, Associate Dean for Research
Bonnie Martin-Harris, Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs
Rick Morris, Associate Dean for Finance and Administration
Rayvon Fouche’, Associate Dean for Graduate Education
Tanya Palmer, Assistant Dean & Executive Artistic Director
Thomas Bradshaw, Radio/Television/Film
Leslie DeChurch, Communication Studies
Joshua Chambers-Letson, Performance Studies
Henry Godinez, Theatre
Bharath Chandrasekaran, Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders
Melissa Blanco Borelli, Head of Dance
Tracy Davis, Associate Chair of Theatre
James Schwoch, Associate Chair of Communication Studies
Jacob Smith, Associate Chair of Radio/Television/ Film
Jorge Silva – – – Managing Director
Michael Constantino – – – Associate Managing Director
Pete Brace – – -Marketing & Development Manager
Heather Basarab – – -Production Manager
Valerie Tu – – – Production Manager, Chicago
Gianna Carter – – -Production Coordinator
Aziza Macklin – – – Audience Experience Manager
Jamie L. Mayhew – – – Box Office Manager
Lynn Kelso – – – Imagine U Artistic Mentor
Ryan T. Nelson – – – Music Supervisor
Dylan Reyno – – – Technical Coordinator
Shannon Perry – – – Technical Supervisor
Emily Baker – – – Assistant Technical Supervisor
Dylan Jost – – – Scenic Carpenter
Micah Hoffert – – – Scenic Carpenter
James Weber – – – Scenic Artist
Eileen Rozycki – – – Assistant Scenic Artist
Chris Wych – – – Properties Supervisor
Kathy Beach Parsons – – – Properties Assistant
Eileen Clancy – – – Costume Shop Supervisor
Jessica Donaldson – – – Assistant Costume Shop Supervisor
Kristy White – – – Cutter/Draper
Pamela Brailey – – – Cutter/Draper
Renee Werth – – – Stitcher/Crafts Supervisor
Eli Hunstad – – – First Hand
Peter Anderson – – – Lighting & Sound Supervisor
Michael Trudeau – – – Associate Lighting & Sound Supervisor
Stephen J. Lewis – – – OGMC Arts and Media Producer
Stephanie Kulke – – – OGMC Fine Arts Editor
Alexander Gemignani– – – AMTP Artistic Director
Brannon Bowers – – – AMTP Producing Director
Denise McGillicuddy – – – AMTP Program Assistant
Arawen Alberg, Crom Amaya, Maya Avery, Sarah Bock, Alex Branka, Josaphina Brinkerhoff, Aydn Calhoun, Sydney Chan, Daniel Cho, Gemma Cohen, Ryan Cooke, Olivia Czyz, Ciara Farris, Nora Fox, Yui Ginther, Zoryah Gray, Jessica Cuo, Kiara Hill, Sebastian Holifield, Nicholas Hollenbeck, Katherine Horton, Miracle Idowu, Yelim Kim, Ghino Lee, Sarah Lewis, Morgan Marin, Owen Meehan-Egan, Sophia Mitton-Fry, Mario Montes, Alexander Myres, Ezra Osburn, Yooha Park, Michael Peterson, Seidy Pichardo, Elle Pierre, Haley Randall, Ayla Richardson, Henry Rohrback, Ava Romero, Jack Shadden, Anah Shaikh, Louise Sims, Poseybelle Stoeffler, Amelia Sullivan, Amanda Swickle, Millie Rose Taub, Walter Todd, Mariah Waters, Alex Yang, Gavin Yi, Yehuda Zilberstein