Department of Correction

Since 2017, Hudson Classical Theater Company has collaborated with the NYC Department of Corrections to bring theater workshops and performances to detention centers across the city. In those three years, we've worked at jails in three different boroughs to provide classical theater to NYC's incarcerated population.

Our performances in NYC detention centers have included Romeo & Juliet, Trojan Women, and Antony and Cleopatra. We time these performances with our Summer Season so that all New Yorkers have the chance to catch a show.

At our workshops, students have the chance to experiment with acting as well as writing. In the past, we've led workshops using Hamlet or Romeo & Juliet, as well as plays by David Mamet. In 2018, we brought our Valentine's Day Monologue Festival to NYC jails. We took 32 submissions from 3 different jails, where inmates wrote a two-minute monologue about love. From those 32 submissions, we chose six to perform in detention centers using Hudson Classical Theater Company actors. Two of those monologues ended up in our Valentine's Day festival, which happens every year at Goddard Riverside's Bernie Wohl Center.