Did you know a former Miss India runner up is working to bring together jail inmates of India and the US in a creative experiment? Dance exponent Alokananda Roy, who, over the past 12 years helped inmates of Alipore Central Jail stage several dramas, is planning to take their work to
the US.
Roy is planning to showcase the performance of convicts in a scene of Othello that will be staged in the US by inmates of a local prison later this year.
“I have planned to shoot a scene of the play, where Othello has a nightmare, in Kolkata with the jail inmates. It will be projected in the background when convicts of a US prison stage the play of Shakespeare in the jail,” Roy tells Indulge.
She spotted the opportunity to highlight the talents behind the bars in India when she was attending a World conference organized by Shakespeare In Prisons Network, a global forum for the prison and community arts practitioners, in San Diego, California in April this year. Roy was the only representative from India. “There I also met Jeremy of Actor’s Gang and did a workshop with the inmates of a prison in Los Angeles,” informs Roy.
“I have mooted the idea to Curt Tofteland, founder of Shakespeare Behind Bars programme. He quite liked the idea of collaboration. I am working on the modalities now,” she recalls.
Sixty-eight-year old Roy, who looks, and packs the energy of a woman a fraction of her age, is excited about the possibilities that this experiment may throw up. “If it works out well – and there is no reason why it won’t – I see a world of opportunities where the skills and expertise of inmates of Indian jails can be exported before a global audience,” she avers.
Roy is no glib talker. She is a pioneer in introducing stage acting among the jail inmates in Bengal. There are about 50 jail inmates, who are a part of her group and they regularly perform four dance drama productions for public viewing.
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Roy, however, has a small regret. “The authorities in the US and other countries don’t allow inmates to go out and act in plays. In this respect, Indian jails, especially in West Bengal, are far ahead. We regularly organise theatre productions and open air art camps with convicts. For the past 11 years my group has travelled to many states and cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Bangalore and Bhubaneshwar,” sighs Roy.
Roy’s life and work has been captured in celluloid in director-duo Shiboprosad Mukherjee and Nandita Roy’s film Muktodhara that released in 2012.
Though Roy has 12 lifers in her team, she was initially reluctant to take any rape convict in her group. “I had a mental block against rapists. But a conversation with one such rape convict changed my perception. I realised that those who commit atrocities on weaker genders, are most of the times themselves victims of abuse at some point of life as youngsters. Hence I have decided to raise awareness about male child abuse and trafficking. Much work needs to be done in this area. If we can protect and educate our boy child, it will also go a long way to ensure a safe environment for our girls in the future,” feels Roy.