Visitors to the prison at Alcatraz are shown a lot of old cells. Somewhere along the line in the prison tour, visitors are shown what solitary confinement was like. In the pre-recorded tour audio, a former inmate talks of being locked in solitary confinement in total darkness with a single shaft of light and nothing else to do. One inmate tells of a game: take a button off of your uniform. Toss it in the air. Then look for it. Once you’ve found it, toss it in the air again and repeat.
Solitary confinement might have changed over the years, but it’s still a very brutal form of punishment. As people who consume mass media, we like to think that we know what it is, but one can’t really know unless one has actually experienced it. Enter Julia Steele Allen’s Mariposa and the Saint: From Solitary Confinement. The dramatist corresponded with a woman named Mariposa who spent nearly three years in solitary confinement. The play illustrates the prisoner’s experience in her own words from many letters written to Allen.
Allen has been touring with the play. She comes to the greater Milwaukee area with a couple of different performances. At 3:00 p.m. on Apr. 28, the play will be performed at Calvary Presbyterian Church on 935 W. Wisconsin Ave. At 7:00 p.m. on Apr. 29, the play will be performed at St. Matthew's ELCA on 1615 N. Wauwatosa Ave. For more information, visit Julia Steele Allen online.
