Prison theater group bridges society and its outcasts
On stage, inmates perform for a society they cannot otherwise participate in. The Berlin theater company aufBruch, currently staging a production of "Don Quixote," has been putting on shows with prisoners for 13 years.
AufBruch - a play on German words meaning "departure" and "breakout" - is one of Germany's most unique theater companies. The director, producers, designers and dramaturge are all veteran professionals, but the cast is entirely made up of convicted inmates.
In its 13-year history, the company has put on shows in several prisons in Germany, as well as others in places as far as Chile and Russia, but the jail they always return to, and where it all started, is Berlin's JVA Tegel.
A huge, ugly complex of brick and concrete buildings dating back to the 19th century, this is Germany's biggest maximum security prison, housing over 1,500 prisoners. Nineteen of them are currently performing aufBruch's latest production, an open-air version of Miguel de Cervantes' epic novel "Don Quixote," staged in a rough set made of metal and wood, complete with a giant windmill, in the prison yard.
The performances are subject to tight security - audiences have to leave their wallets, phones, keys and even chewing gum in lockers outside the gates - but the productions offer a unique bridge between society and those excluded from it.