DU PRISON ARTS INITIATIVE
LIGHTING DESIGN MENTOR and CONSULTANT
IF LIGHT CLOSED ITS EYES
CURRENT PROJECT:
The DU Prison Arts Initiative is the brainchild Dr. Ashley Hamilton. It’s mission is to change the conversation about prison in this country by providing incarcerated people with opportunities to create art and to tell their stories.
In June 2018, Dr. Ashley Hamilton asked me to come up to Sterling Correctional Facility to talk to her DU PAI students about Lighting Design. I prepared a little “Intro to Lighting Design” speech and made the two hour drive from Denver, having no idea that this experience was about to change my life. The incarcerated men I met that day had been working for months on their production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I walked into the room with them and experienced a level of passion and commitment that I have rarely seen in my career. As I spoke about lighting design, they listened to me with an intensity that I can barely describe. I was spellbound. They asked intelligent nuanced questions, and excitedly asked for input about their design choices for the show. It was a teacher’s dream come true. What I found in that room that day was a group of men hungry to express their ideas and creativity, to tell their stories. Dr. Ashley Hamilton has brilliantly shaped her program to empower those voices. The confidence they gain working with her, the validation that their stories have meaning, the strength of being that they walk away with after experiencing her program is maybe the most remarkable statement of the importance of theatre that I have ever witnessed.
Since that day, I have jumped at every opportunity to work on the DUPAI productions. We have struggled to define exactly what I do into one word or title. I am a designer, mentor, teacher, facilitator, supervisor, cheerleader, planner, organizer, electrician, programmer. I am the team leader and the support staff. I help to make real, what the incarcerated designers imagine.
One Flew Over the CUCKOO’S NEST
STERLING CORRECTIONAL FACILITY, 2018
Director: Dr. Ashley Hamilton
Scenic Designer: Christopher Shetskie McAllister
Lighting Designers: Mannie Legrand and Shakiel Madden-Vaughn
Lighting Mentor/Consultant: Shannon McKinney
Costume Designer: Leroy Maetas
Sound Designers: L. Barela, J.R. Sarabia-Martinez, D.B. Gonzalas
Photos by Trent Davis Bailey
For our first production of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, I planned the lighting installation in the prison gymnasium. We brought in lighting trees, dimmer packs and a manual lighting board. Most of our equipment was borrowed from the University of Denver or rented in Denver.
The production went on tour to the Limon Correctional Facility and the Denver Women’s Correctional Facility.
“The creative process took much longer than a typical theatre performance because Hamilton and her team taught the prisoners every aspect of the theatremaking process — and then empowered them to do it. Rather than hiring multiple award-winning lighting designer Shannon McKinney (DCPA’s Tribes) to create lighting for the show, Hamilton had McKinney come in and work with Rada to mentor prisoners Mannie Legrand and Shakiel Madden-Vaughn on how to do it themselves.”
—John Moore, DCPA News Center
—Prison Theatre: Finding freedom and purpose in the power of making art
A Christmas carol
DENVER WOMEN’S CORRECTIONAL FACILITY, 2019
Director: Clare Hammoor
Scenic Designers/Properties Designers: Chris Nye, J. Jacobson, Amanda Norris
Lighting Designer: Jake Jacobsen
Lighting Mentor/Consultant: Shannon McKinney
Costume Designer: Allegria Morrison and Jamiylah Nelson
Sound Designers and Foley Artists: C. Rieb, A. Deleon, G. Younger
Our production of A Christmas Carol was produced at the Denver Women’s Correctional Facility, and then toured to the Newman Center for the Performing Arts for historic performances before a public audience. Moving the show from the gymnasium at the correctional facility to the Byron Theatre at The Newman Center meant expanding the production design to a include full theatrical light plot. I taught our incarcerated lighting designer how to program an ETC Ion light board and how to use ETC Colorsource Pars and Lekos as well as Chauvet Maverick intelligent fixtures.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL LIGHTING PLAN
Denver Women’s Correctional Facility, 2019
