By Becca Falivene Grillot, BA 鈥�10
Associate Professor Kyle Lemieux, MFA, has been teaching at the 吃瓜网 since 2008, returning to his alma mater after a successful theater career in New York and Chicago. Lemieux, who also serves as the chair of the drama department and has directed nearly 20 productions, said that his hope is to serve students in the way that he was served during his undergraduate years, particularly through the leadership of Professors Emeriti Patrick and Judy Kelly.
His desire to serve a younger generation of artists isn鈥檛 limited to the 吃瓜网allas campus, though. Lemieux gave countless hours of his time last year in a program called Shakespeare for Incarcerated Youth, bringing theater to the residents of the Henry Wade Juvenile Detention Center in Dallas.
When he received a call from some theater colleagues asking him to join the Junior Players in bringing theater into the detention center, Lemieux immediately accepted and began the long process of getting local, state and federal clearance to enter the detention center. Once inside, he recalled, he and his fellow actors had to be creative about how to provide for the needs of the production: not only were props such as swords forbidden inside the facility, but actors could not even bring in pens or staples on their scripts.
Junior Players is an organization whose mission is 鈥渢o encourage intellectual growth,
mental well-being, and the development of life skills in youth through mentoring,
creative expression, and participation in the fine arts,鈥� and they particularly aim
to serve disadvantaged communities where arts education is scarce or nonexistent.
Junior Players began bringing theater into Henry Wade in 2023, and Lemieux joined
for the second year of the program.
鈥淵ou see the transformation in them to a degree I don鈥檛 normally see working with people who are not incarcerated,鈥� Lemieux said. 鈥淭heir lives are so structured, so regimented, that any opportunity for them to express themselves, to give voice to feelings and complicated things that they鈥檙e processing 鈥� it鈥檚 so powerful to see and just to be a small participant in that. It鈥檚 really a powerful experience.鈥�
The interaction between the actors and the residents began with a professional reading of Macbeth. The youth in the audience had varying degrees of exposure to Shakespeare, but Lemieux said the residents came alive as they watched the play unfold.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really just about putting that play in front of them, done by professional actors, which in some ways is this powerful sign of respect for them that we care enough to come in here and do this and share our work with you and play with you.鈥�
One student, sitting in the front row, began watching the play peeking out from the ball he had curled himself into, while one of his feet tapped intensely.
鈥淗e was like a human child in an eggshell,鈥� Lemieux said, but as the play went on, his body literally uncoiled. By the end, the boy was sitting on the edge of his seat, his back straight, his foot still, and he was intimately involved in the unfolding of this play and what was going to happen next.
鈥淗e literally came out of his shell,鈥� Lemieux reflected. 鈥淗e had all kinds of questions
after. I thought, 鈥楾hat鈥檚 just a powerful physical embodiment of the way in which
art can penetrate us and allow us to radiate out into the world.鈥� 鈥�
After the reading, Lemieux and one of his fellow actors, Emily Ernst, returned almost daily for several weeks to direct the residents in their own productions of Macbeth. Ernst and Lemieux had met previously through the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture, and Ernst currently serves as the artistic director for the Dallas Children鈥檚 Theater.
Two directors, one male and one female, were essential because male and female residents of Henry Wade are never permitted to interact, so each cohort put on their own production.
The program, which is considered a privilege for the residents of the detention center and can be lost through bad behavior, is aimed at 鈥減utting an expectation of excellence on them and seeing them rise up to that,鈥� Lemieux said. In fact, Lemieux was adamant that the original Shakespeare text not be simplified for the residents and instead worked through the challenging language with them. Additionally, residents were not permitted to keep anything brought in by the actors, including their scripts, so the young actors learned their parts during the limited hours of instruction they received.
鈥淵ou could see the transformation in them,鈥� Lemieux remembered. 鈥淔or me personally,
the most powerful thing about the reading was watching their own guards, who are with
them all day every day, being moved by what these kids were capable of.鈥�
The guards were so moved, in fact, that in the end, they allowed the male and female residents to watch each other鈥檚 productions.
The Shakespeare for Incarcerated Youth project was featured in a documentary by filmmaker Frank Darko titled 鈥淪hakespeare with Henry: Behind the Prison Pipeline.鈥� The documentary was shown at the Texas Theater in Dallas on Sept. 15, 2024.
Lemieux reflected on his involvement in the program and how it shaped him as an instructor.
鈥淚t really enkindled in me a desire to find a way to keep doing this. It speaks to the power of the arts and specifically the power of theater to transform lives.鈥�
