ARTS Missoula Presents: a series of free screenings which celebrate the act of creation of art for art's sake.
Winner of numerous festival awards and a Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury nomination, Shakespeare Behind Bars follows a year in the life of the renowned Shakespeare Behind Bars troupe at Luther Luckett Correctional Facility in Louisville, Kentucky. Led by director Curt Tofteland, whose innovative work began in the mid-1990s, the prisoners cast themselves in roles reflecting their personal history and fate. Their individual stories, including information about their heinous crimes, are brilliantly interwoven with the plot of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. As the inmates delve deeply into the characters they portray, they are forced to confront their personal demons. The result is an extraordinary story about the creative process and the power of art to heal and redeem–in a place where the very act of participation in theatre is a human triumph and a means of personal liberation.