By Winfield Murray, Esq. Morehouse College, Political Science, AYC-HEP Program Ambassador, and Site Director at Burruss Correctional Training Center.
The culmination of the semester at Burruss Correctional Training Center (CTC) was a series of one act plays collectively entitled “ZIP! ZAP! ZOOM!.” The event was held on the evening of December 20, 2024. In partnership with Common Good Atlanta, faculty from Morehouse have been teaching humanities classes at Burruss CTC since 2020. (The Higher Education in Prisons Program in the Andrew Young Center at Morehouse College also teaches at Metro Reentry Facility and the Federal Correctional Institution—formerly the US Federal Penitentiary—in Atlanta.)
The prison theatre program is part of the overall mission of empowering individuals through the transformative power and education and creative expression. Theatre provides a platform for growth, collaboration, and storytelling that bridges barriers and fosters connection. The prison theatre program allows incarcerated individuals—thespians—to tell their stories, find their voices, and envision new possibilities for their futures. The play was directed by Mr. Wigasi Brant, who is himself an actor as well as a Morehouse Man. One act plays including scenes from FENCES (August Wilson), THE WINNING STREAK (Lee Blessing), THE MUTHAF**KA IN THE HAT (Stephen Adly Guirgis), BEFORE IT HITS HOME (Cheryl West), and DEATH OF A SALESMAN (Arthur Miller).
While the Director said that what he “initially envisioned to be an acting class designed to simply introduce the fundamentals of acting to a group of new actors.” What Mr. Brant discovered, however, “was a group of men who were not only eager to perform but more talented that my wildest expectations.” Mr. Brant writes in the ‘Director’s Note’ that the work that resulted—in just fourteen weeks—was “actually beyond the level of many professional actors.”
The actors inside Burruss CTC were simply amazing. They mightily delved into learning the key tenets of acting and, in the process, they pushed themselves far beyond their comfort zone. However, what they learned far exceeded the realm of acting: they also enhanced their communication skills, team building skills, and public speaking skills. Most importantly, they learned a lot more about themselves and the way they connect with the world. Dr. Robert Edwards, who taught at Burruss over the summer, described the theatrical performances as “a revelation”:
“It helped me see that performance art is not only an opportunity to express the self (and to perhaps embody the stories of others in ways that might encourage compassion), but it also offers a chance for performers to experiment with their own personal development. Having known some of the students who performed in the play as quiet and reserved men, I was blown away by the way their performances revealed other possibilities in their character. While acting, students quite literally became the people they were assigned to perform, and what is remarkable is that the good qualities of their assigned characters lingered in their personalities long after the performance was over.”
Mr. James Shaw (’87), who visited Burruss CTC on behalf of the Office of Institutional Development at Morehouse, said that the event “was fantastic.” He added: “These men proved that despite some of the choices that they might have made earlier in life, they still have value and that they are extremely talented.” Combining the liberal arts curriculum with theatre and music is both creative and transformative.
Over the past six months, since the Summer of 2024, the incarcerated scholars at Burruss CTC have taken college-level classes in Literature (with Dr. Robert Edwards, Spelman), History (with Mr. Winfield Murray, Morehouse), and Philosophy (with Dr. Peter Wakefield, Emory-ILA). As part of the philosophy class, the Vega Quartet, who are in residence at Emory and frequently prepare topical performances for undergraduate classes, traveled to Burruss CTC to perform inside the prison. A surprise culmination of the evening came when one student in the class, a member of the CGA learning community at Burruss CTC and himself a musician and composer, took out hand-written copies of one movement of a work he had composed, entitled Requiem for Incarcerated Men. Professor Wakefield reports that “the quartet generously and powerfully sight-read and performed the piece, bringing tears to many in the audience.”