Inside the walls of the Arizona State Prison Complex, identity is often reduced to a serial number and a cell block. "Inside Out: Men Behind Bars," opening this week at Invisible Theatre, aims to change that by bringing the real stories of incarcerated men to the stage.

Adapted from the work of Linda Green, a professor of anthropology at the University of Arizona, the production offers an insight into the daily lives of men navigating the American prison system through their own stories.

"There's this idea that all criminals are no good, so we don't have to think about them. But we never stopped to consider who they are as human beings," Green told Tucson Spotlight. "Sure, they have committed crimes, but we should listen to their stories."

The production, starring Jonathan Heras, Lucas Gonzales, Richard "Chomps" Thompson and Steve Waite, is based on months of ethnographic research funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.

The project began in the classroom where she teaches incarcerated students. Green's goal was to document the happenings and personal resilience hidden behind prison walls.

"Day after day, you live in a cell with one other person," Green said. "You rarely have time to get out during the day. But that's their life, and it's what we are trying to capture."

With the partnership of Invisible Theatre's managing artistic director Betsy Kruse Craig, the play seeks to maintain the scientific integrity of Green's findings while creating an emotional experience for the audience.

"We were talking one day, and she said, 'We could totally put this together in a theatre,'" Green said. "Once I brought the idea up to my students, they were on it."

The production features a cast tasked with portraying the complexities of men who are often stereotyped in mainstream media. Using the theater's intimate space, the staging reflects the physical and psychological confinement of the men whose stories it tells.

For Craig, the play is more than a creative outlet for stories.

"The point of the piece was to bring out the humanity of the individuals that were working on it," she said.

Craig visited the prison to speak with the men who would share their experiences for the play, which she said opened her eyes.

"I had conversations with them about how to write something that was interesting and vulnerable, and that's tough," Craig said. "The guys really wanted to talk about their humanity as people, because as an inmate they are just considered a statistic."

The men Craig met in the prison were fathers, sons and husbands and told Craig they wanted the public to know that they are just regular people.

Craig said the brainstorming process with Green was transformative, with teaching experiences evolving into a high-stakes drama. She said that hearing the specific inflections and emotional weight behind Green's field experiences allowed the script to move beyond clinical observation.

"If I can get an audience to think about the people inside of the prison rather than think of them as criminals, then whatever these guys are doing will be well worth it for the community," Craig said.

Isabel Vidrio is a journalism major at the University of Arizona and Tucson Spotlight intern. Contact her at vidrioi@arizona.edu.

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