Article by Peter Marks via The Washington Post
Submitted by David E. Geiger, MEE, PE (RET)
A Broadway show about life after incarceration “finds its most avid
audience in a New York City jail”
Lynn Nottage, an American playwright and the first woman in history to win two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama, had the opportunity to deliver her Broadway hit, 'Clyde,' to incarcerated people at Rikers Island. The play's five-person cast is led by Uzo Aduba — playing a corrosively funny cafe owner, unrestrained in her bullying of vulnerable employees — "Clyde's" is that rare piece of narrative art that paints formerly incarcerated people as whole human beings. The plot touches only tangentially on the crimes they served their sentences; the story revolves more centrally around their striving for material and spiritual comfort, symbolized by their amusing, collective efforts to create the perfect sandwich.
"It's not exploitative," said Aduba, Emmy-winner, for her role in "Orange Is the New Black," a Netflix series about women in a New York state prison. "We're curious about prisons, but we often find people are less concerned with the 'after.' This play is a deeper dive into the after and what that reality is. And how returnees are disregarded."
These attributes convinced Rikers officials that extending Second Stage Theater's simulcasting of "Clyde's" to the jail made sense. "We had read about the play and felt that this would be a perfect opportunity to take a chance on something like this," said Tommy Demenkoff, an actor and director of performing arts for the New York City Department of Correction.
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“This book is well-written. David Geiger has an explicit talent for linguistics and is exceptionally smart. His personal story about mental illness is very interesting. He conveys his personal experiences in a very raw and emotional manner. It's riveting throughout.”
–Daisy Bright, 5/5 stars on Goodreads
David Geiger is a licensed and retired professional electrical engineer who spent 7 years in psychiatric hospitals and over 40 years since 1979 in the courts as a result of his schizophrenia. He began writing about mental illness and criminal justice reform in May 1998. He writes about his illness in his book In the Matter of Edwin Potter as well as those who have the illness and are caught up in the criminal legal system.