Program Partners

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Northpoint Playwrights Cavins, Trumbo, Cook, Holder, Sturgill, Daughenbaugh
Northpoint Playwrights Cavins, Trumbo, Cook, Holder, Sturgill, Daughenbaugh

In the summer of 2010, Curt L. Tofteland, Founder & Producing Director of Shakespeare Behind Bars, partnered with filmmaker/director/producer Robby Henson, Holly Henson, Artistic Director of Pioneer Playhouse, and playwright Elizabeth Orndorf to begin a new 10-minute playwriting program funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) at the Northpoint Training Center in Burgin, Kentucky.

For 2011, the NEA has funded, for a second consecutive year, the collaborative Prison Playwrighting Program at the Northpoint Training Center in Burgin, KY between Curt L. Tofteland, Founder & Producing Director of Shakespeare Behind Bars, and the Pioneer Playhouse in Danville, KY.

“I am excited that the Pioneer Playhouse is interested in coordinating and conducting this project at Northpoint.  I am always eager to partner with community agencies in events that are beneficial to the inmates and help teach positive new skills and interest,” said Steve Haney, Northpoint’s warden.

Voices Inside, the inmate writing and theatre program at Northpoint Training Center

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Northpoint:  Voices from a Kentucky Prison

Theatre Lab in New York City presents an evening of plays by Northpoint Playwrights.

NEW YORK, N.Y. — Theaterlab, in association with AMZ Creative LLC, will present “Northpoint: Voices from a Prison,” a one-night-only benefit reading of short plays written by inmates at Northpoint Training Center, a medium security prison in Burgin.  The playwrighting project is a collaboration between Curt L. Tofteland, Founder & Producing Director of Shakespeare Behind Bars,  Robbie Henson, Producer of Pioneer Playhouse, and Elizabeth Orndorff, a professional playwright.

“Northpoint: Voices from a Kentucky Prison” took place Monday May 23, 2011 at 7 p.m. Monday at Baruch Performing Arts Center (25th between Lexington Avenue and Third Avenue). The benefit includes the reading, live music by singer-songwriter Doug Wamble, and a post-show reception.

$15,000 grant will support a playwriting workshop begun last summer at Northpoint Correctional Facility.
May 24th, Rocco Landesman, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, announced the Pioneer School of Drama (d.b.a. Pioneer Playhouse) in collaboration with Shakespeare Behind Bars Founder Curt L. Tofteland and professional playwright Elizabeth Orndorff was recommended for a grant of $15,000 to support the Northpoint “Voices of a Kentucky Prison” play writing project. It is one of 1,145 not-for-profit national, regional, state and local organizations recommended for a grant, as part of the federal agency’s second round of fiscal year 2011 grants. In total, the arts endowment will distribute more than $88 million to support projects nationwide.

 

PRISONERS GET THEATRE TRAINING IN SPECIAL PROGRAM AT NORTHPOINT

Over 80 playwrights applied for the 2012 Northpoint Voices Inside Residency at the Northpoint Training Center, a medium security prison near Danville, Kentucky. 

LEX 18, Lexington, KY: Prisoners get theatre training in special program at Northpoint

Voices Inside: Northpoint Training Center