HomeAbstract of 8th-womensconf“Chain, Chain, Chain”: Unbreaking the Chains of incarceration through improvisation, devised theatre, and storytelling

“Chain, Chain, Chain”: Unbreaking the Chains of incarceration through improvisation, devised theatre, and storytelling

  • Mar 26, 2026
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Abstract Book of the 8th Global Conference on Women's Studies

Year: 2026

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"Chain, Chain, Chain": Unbreaking the Chains of incarceration through improvisation, devised theatre, and storytelling

Oluchi Nwokocha

ABSTRACT:

This poster presentation centers the visual perspectives of women experiencing incarceration as they participate in improvisation and creative play. As a trained professional actor, working as a lead facilitator for Red Ladder Theater Company, I highlight our twelve-week performance workshops in a photographic book series that captures the experiences of incarcerated women as they use the tools of devised theatre and storytelling to further their rehabilitation and personal transformation. Within the use of improvisation, the women experiencing incarceration develop creative problem-solving skills, make informed non-reactive choices, and work collaboratively with their peers to see their own ideas come to fruition on stage. This integral performance workshop takes place within the Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF), one of two women’s prisons in the state of California. Inspired by Feminist philosopher and educator Nel Noddings work of “related ethical care,” I illuminate how the Theater Company’s consistent arrival each week, models accountability and commitment to not only ourselves but to the women experiencing incarceration as they have come to rely on our presence as a means of their rehabilitation (Noddings, 1984). The rehabilitation process inevitability demonstrates that facilitators continuously show up when so many others in their lives have not. The relative ethical care that is established from both the facilitators and the participants through the co-creations of play using the tools of improvisation, devised theatre, and storytelling, is foundational to the theater company’s ability to assist under-resourced community members in finding their voices by connecting with their creativity.

Keywords: Belonging; Feminist Ethic Of Care; Imagination; Imprisoned; Leadership