Arts for Growth – Sing Sing film

A thoughtful, moving film on the healing power of theatre.  It follows hard-as-nails prisoners in New York’s Sing Sing jail as they go to a theatre class.  In a lovely circularity, many of the actors in the film are graduates of that theatre programme and are playing versions of their past selves.

People often overlook the value of theatre as a tool for growth, instead only seeing it as entertainment for an audience. 

We commonly also divide arts into people who “can” and people who “can’t.”  Most people see themselves as EITHER professional actors OR not do it at all.  That’s like separating sports into professional athletes OR people who can’t move at all.  I don’t need to be an Olympian to benefit from a jog along the seafront.  But you don’t need to be a professional dancer to benefit from dancing.  Many of us can benefit from theatre, acting and improv without it being a career.

Bessel van der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps the Score, talks about how theatre helped his son grow out of being quiet and frozen by acting more outgoing characters.  Theatre and play give us opportunities to try on new ways of being that are different to our default.  We can explore a visceral sense of what that’s like. 

Bessel van der Kolk says his son has grown up to be “a fantastically visceral pleasure-holding kid.”  What a lovely phrase “pleasure-holding”!  A wonderful outcome of improv and laughter can be to get better at enjoying ourselves.  To better create and absorb joy.

I’d just add that it’s not only children who can benefit from this.  It’s never too late 🙂

In the Sing Sing film, prisoners who are jailed for the most serious crimes, including murder, begin to find ways to inhabit different ways of being.  They loosen their aggression and defensiveness, open up to connection and creativity.  John Jay College for Criminal Justice found that inmate actors have better social skills and fewer conflicts.

Clarence Maclin, who was one of the original prisoners and plays himself in the film and – now released – continues to work with Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA).  “The programme isn’t really designed to make actors.  It’s designed to make better human beings.  We use the skills that we learn and translate those into life skills.”

 “We do these plays for Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA),” writes Buell the director. “And, man, for that little while, there’s no walls. We’re free. We’re soaring.”

As John Richardson writes in the Esquire article that inspired the film, “In this moment, there seems to be no doubt: Art heals, slapstick saves, killers can become comedians.”

“I got to be someone else for a while” said one of them.

Sources / Explore Further

• In the UK, the film is included in Amazon Prime or available on Google, YouTube, Apple & Sky.
• Review of film (Guardian)
• Esquire Article that inspired the film

Sing Sing Film Trailer (2.5 minutes)

How Drama and Theater Can Rewire Limiting Beliefs with Bessel van der Kolk (5 minutes)

Sing Sing actor Clarence Maclin on Jimmy Kimmel (8 minutes)

Clarence Maclin who was a participant in the programme and also plays himself in the film on the Jimmy Kimmel show