ACTING OUT: How a Pr*son Theatre Workshop Broke Free with Richard Hoehler

The Drama Book Shop presents, in association with Jay Michaels Global Communications, “ACTING OUT: How a Pr*son Theatre Workshop Broke Free” with Richard Hoehler

About the Book

When Richard Hoehler first walked through the doors of a medium security Pr*son in upstate New York, he assumed it would be a one-time thing. As a busy freelance writer, actor and teacher he had nonetheless agreed to drive upstate to teach an acting class for inmates pro bono. At the very least he hoped the experience might give him new ideas for his teaching on the outside.

What he could not have anticipated was the beginning of an odyssey that led Hoehler to an incredibly popular series of acting and writing workshops and mounting seven full productions with Pr*son inmates—men whom society has written off and locked away as irredeemable. In this account of his journey working with the men, we witness a rare kind of theatrical magic. Within the incredibly dehumanizing and often arbitrary Pr*son system, participants work to express themselves and connect with dramatic works where anger, compassion, forgiveness and tears pour forth in the safety of the workshop.

It is clear that Hoehler is not a “do-gooder” but simply there to do good work. This is the remarkable story of theatre’s ability to change lives even in the most unlikely of settings.

About the Author

Richard Hoehler’s original theatre works (New Jersey/New York, Working Class, Human Resources, I of the Storm) have run Off Broadway, regionally, and abroad and he is the winner of the OOBR for Best Solo Performance. His full-length play, Fathers and Sons, was produced at the Lion Theatre on 42 nd Street and his collection of 10-minute plays, Showdown, was recently presented at the Gerald W. Lynch Theatre.

For thirty years, Hoehler has created theatre with at-risk teenagers, inmates, and the formerly incarcerated. Richard conducted creative writing workshops on Riker’s Island for over a decade and for the past fourteen years has led weekly theatre workshops at Otisville State Pr*son mounting eight productions on the inside during his tenure. In January of 2020, Hoehler founded Acting Out, a professional acting company for the formerly incarcerated in residence at HB Studio. This year Richard received the Justice through the Arts Award from the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Hoehler’s book, Acting Out: How a Pr*son Theatre Workshop Broke Free, will be published by Applause Books in the Fall of 2024. Other theatre work is published by Smith and Kraus and included in the Billy Rose Collection at Lincoln Center. Hoehler’s material has been optioned by Columbia Tri-Star Television and featured at the Midtown International Theatre Festival in Manhattan and Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. His newest solo work, E, was performed this year at Delaware Valley Arts Alliance.

Hoehler is an acting instructor at HB Studio and Stella Adler Studio, and an adjunct professor of Theatre and English at John Jay College and City College of New York.

The evening will also include a live performance by members of the Acting Out company.

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