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<\/a>Learning how to perform has other benefits for the incarcerated individuals involved, boosting confidence and dramatic delivery, and it can also have a positive benefit on mental health, says Rubin.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re learning how to speak up in terms of projection, they\u2019re learning how to stand and be in front of an audience and be confident,\u201d she says. \u201cIf someone comes in and they\u2019re super shy, there can be a huge transformation and expansion of confidence. If they\u2019re not feeling sure about standing up in front of people and saying anything, by the end of this they\u2019ll be feeling so much better about it and doing it with gusto and feeling really good about it.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The program also has benefits for the audience, who usually gain a more rounded perspective on the performers, according to Rubin.<\/p>\n \u201cSome people who have never been inside a prison before really have a shift in their consciousness around the people that are inside, because I think if you\u2019re not inside and you don\u2019t know someone in your family who\u2019s been incarcerated, there can be certain preconceptions that label or stereotype, or put them in a particular bracket, and that gets washed away pretty quickly after they see the performance,\u201d she says. \u201cThey\u2019re human and they\u2019re full of joy and laughter and hope and sadness and all the things that we have as well on the outside, but you sometimes forget that when you\u2019re thinking of people on the inside.\u201d<\/p>\n Rubin believes that those in prison\u2014particularly in minimum security prisons like William Head\u2014are no different than those outside of prison in terms of humanity. Prison, like life, is full of complicated grey areas, and fear and judgment toward incarcerated people are often resolved within audience members.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are fathers, there are wives, there are partners, mothers, brothers, all of that, there are people who have relationships on the outside, and their families will come see this show, and it makes a huge difference to their sense of esteem and their sense of success,\u201d says Rubin. \u201cI think that for some people, their whole mindset can be completely swept away around what they were expecting. They\u2019re coming in with preconceived notions but it\u2019s not black and white, good or bad, it\u2019s all the colours in between.\u201d<\/p>\n