Here is a wonderful letter from someone who used my plays to help a group of adults get excited about improving their literacy skills:
"Thank You for your contribution to prison education! Your plays have given courageous voices to reluctant readers with the boldness of your characters from your FreeDrama.net plays. Music-Maybe, Fart-Zen, and Somebody Famous have been especially well enjoyed in a classroom full of felons reading the scripted roles you laid out for actors. Your playful characters lines empower men who struggle to read out loud. Your written words encourage men to read your words with gusto without fear of ridicule and to openly embrace the freedom of emotion and joy that otherwise they would never exhibit from themselves. The irony of men in prison playing the parts of women prisoners cleaning a theater while devising plans for escape for a play makes a reading of “Somebody Famous” even better than winning the biggest lottery prize of all time. Your inspirational creativity and gifted imagination is appreciated by men who are striving for educational goals before getting out of prison. Not only do the men gain courage and voice from reading your scripts, but after each reading of your plays in the prison classroom, there is always an active conversation among inmates about their own struggles and future ambitions in real life. Your plays are like a 'free-pass', for important conversation after each reading. For these men, the active reading of your plays always has an ‘after-reading’ effect of introspection giving them unusual confidence for self evaluation and open discussion."
David Bibeau
Prison Educator
