History of Prison Performing Arts

1986- The New Theatre (TNT) established. Produces new, American plays at venues throughout the St. Louis City and County

1989- The Women's Self Help Center of St. Louis asks The New Theatre to co-produce Getting Out, a play about a woman getting out of prison, for a conference on incarcerated women. The conference never happens, but grants fund a mainstage run and performances at the City Workhouse.
The inmates discovered that theatre could put their lives onstage; the performers discovered that people in jail looked and sounded like them. Prison Arts is established as a program of TNT, taking TNT's mainstage productions into City Workhouse, County Jail at Gumbo and MECC at Pacific.

1993-95- Funding from Missouri Humanities Council allows one TNT show per year to tour to five Central Missouri prisons.

Spring 1995- Inmates at MECC convince Agnes that they need to write and produce a show of their own. Throughout the summer, Mary Ann McGivern teaches playwriting and Agnes teaches acting on a volunteer basis. In November 1996, the men at MECC produce Barbers, Robbers and Nuts, a play written and acted by inmates.

Spring 1999- TNT runs out of money and the board votes to close the company. Agnes asks for the not-for-profit corporation and the Prison Arts program; the board assigns it to her.

December 1999- The Hamlet Project begins at MECC at Pacific (through 7/02).

March 2000- I'm an Actor begins acting classes at St. Louis City Juvenile Detention Center. Arts Alive! continues.

August 2002- This American Life broadcasts a one-hour documentary on The Hamlet Project entitled "Act V," giving Prison Arts its first national attention.

September 2002- The Oedipus Project begins at MECC at Pacific (through 7/03).

October 2003 - The Oedipus Project begins at NECC at Bowling Green.
The Vandalia Women's Theatre begins at WERDCC at Vandalia.

Prison Performing Arts receives funding from:

Arts and Education Council
Ben and Jerry’s Foundation
Clemence Lieber Foundation
Dana Brown Charitable Trust
Dula Foundation
First Unitarian Church of St. Louis
Fox Associates Foundation
Incarnate Word Foundation
Kalliopeia Foundation
Missouri Arts Council
Regional Arts Council
Ronald McDonald House Charities
School Sisters of Notre Dame
Sisters of Loretto
Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondolet
Siteman Family Foundation
Trio Foundation of St. Louis
The Whitaker Foundation
The Women of the Well