On January 16th, Searching for Justice premiered at Steppenwolf Theatre to a sold-out audience.
Set in the office of a professor writing a paper on the school-to-prison pipeline, Searching for Justice tackles the question of what is justice. That question is asked again and again as a revolving door of visitors enter the office space: a burnt-out Illinois State Representative, an argumentative law professor who supports the status quo, a grieving janitor whose daughter was murdered, and a woman looking for support for her incarcerated brother. Poetry monologues full of emotion, depth, and rhythm are interspersed between nuanced conversations about the impacts of violence, the school-to-prison pipeline, and incarceration.
Through the interactions between characters, it is clear that no one receives true justice in our current system. Even when the perpetrator of violence is incarcerated, the victim’s family receives no resources or support for their insurmountable grief and loss. Incarcerated folks’ families end up “doing time” with them—they have to take second mortgages to pay legal fees, or drive five hours to the detention center to see their loved one just to turn back because of a lockdown. Incarcerated people are often released with severe trauma and little support for their re-entry into a radically different society. Billions are spent on the incarceration system instead of on consistently underinvested and over-policed communities whose children grow up with little hope of a better future.
The play received a standing ovation from the audience. The cast were overwhelmed with emotion seeing the full and ecstatic crowd. “Changing the narrative is how we’re going to change the law,” said Restore Justice staff after the performance.
The road to Steppenwolf was a unique journey that brought together Mud Theatre Project and Restore Justice Foundation. Mud Theatre Project was formed by artists in the Illinois Department of Corrections. Members of the team have become national award-winning playwrights and writers. Executive Director Brian Beals is currently an apprentice in Restore Justice’s Future Leaders Apprenticeship Program (FLAP), which receives funding from the Reva and David Logan Foundation.
FLAP is a full-time comprehensive program that supports and cultivates the leadership and advocacy skills in those coming home after serving extreme sentences, many of whom received these sentences as teenagers. Through the program, they receive a combination of on-the-job experience and related coaching, as well as a full-time salary with benefits. In addition to learning how to navigate life after incarceration, FLAP participants learn to advocate for policies that support their families, communities, and individuals still serving extreme sentences.
Searching for Justice is Mud Theatre Project’s first performance outside of the correctional center. All cast members are either formerly or currently incarcerated, or impacted by incarceration of a family member.
Congratulations to Mud Theatre Project and Restore Justice on a well-researched, well-written play with amazing performances from the cast. We highly recommend checking out Restore Justice’s new project “More Than a Conviction: Stories of Children Sentenced to Life Without Parole,” which shares the insights and lived experiences of formerly and currently incarcerated people and their loved ones, as well as research on the impact of life without parole sentences imposed on juveniles.
