{"id":133776,"date":"2026-01-14T22:23:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T22:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/133776\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T22:23:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T22:23:07","slug":"formerly-incarcerated-performers-headline-at-berkeley-rep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/133776\/","title":{"rendered":"Formerly Incarcerated Performers Headline at Berkeley Rep"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article is adapted from an episode of our podcast, \u201cCivic<\/a>.\u201d Click the audio player below to hear the full story.<\/p>\n

A four-day festival of solo performances by formerly incarcerated people is coming to Berkeley Repertory Theatre\u2019s main stage this week. The Jan. 15-18 festival culminates the theater\u2019s first-of-its-kind partnership with the Formerly Incarcerated People\u2019s Performance Project, a Bay Area theater company working to expand public understanding of its members\u2019 life experiences.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t even know I had the dream until I got here,\u201d said Tony Cyprien, a performer with the group. \u201cIt\u2019s literally a dream come true.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Berkeley Rep\u2019s shows have received international recognition. Many productions have advanced to Broadway, and the theater has won eight Tony Awards. Cyprien first connected with Berkeley Rep as an audience member, and then as a student in an acting workshop. He never thought he would be performing on the main stage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Establishing the project<\/p>\n

Mark Kenward, co-founder and director of the Formerly Incarcerated People\u2019s Performance Project, started the company six years ago after years of directing solo performances around the Bay Area.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just some of the most powerful experiences I\u2019ve ever had in the theater,\u201d Kenward said about rehearsing with the project\u2019s performers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This episode of \u201cCivic\u201d profiles the Formerly Incarcerated People\u2019s Performance Project, a Bay Area theater company working to expand public understanding of its members\u2019 life experiences.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kenward said he and the performers hope their stories go beyond entertainment and can dispel stereotypes about people leaving the criminal justice system.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way that formerly incarcerated people are depicted in the media, I believe, is sensationalized and superficial,\u201d said Al Sasser, one of the organization\u2019s original performers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some participants, like Gerald Cypert, center their work around topics most people can relate to, regardless of their involvement with the carceral system.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Cypert, a key theme is fatherhood. \u201cIt\u2019s not just all about the hard-guy stuff on the yard,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s about the heart, because we all care about our kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

Systemic injustices\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other performers highlight difficulties they encountered navigating the legal system and the conditions of California prisons.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Anthony Michael pleaded guilty to felony criminal threat when he was 21 years old. When he was convicted for subsequent offenses, his initial sentence snowballed due to California\u2019s \u201cthree strikes\u201d law. Adopted in 1994, the mandatory-sentencing law lengthens punishment for people with felony criminal backgrounds, and includes a minimum 25-years-to-life sentence for three-time offenders.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Michael reflected on the effect of the three strikes law in his performance. \u201cThis law only makes sense when dealing with people who are calm and rational,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd at 21, I was neither of those things.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The three strikes law is not unique to California, and was initiated as part of a national tough-on-crime push under President Bill Clinton. While two-dozen states passed similar policies between 1993 and 1995, California\u2019s law is considered the most stringent and affects the most people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

From 1994 to 2006, the California prison population grew steadily, and prisons became severely overcrowded. Critics cited the three strikes law, which lengthened the sentences of more than one-third of incarcerated people, especially for Black Californians. Resentencing policies and other measures have reduced the prison population in California considerably in recent years \u2014 it\u2019s now at its lowest point in 30 years \u2014 but prisons are still overcrowded<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cyprien and Scott Schell both highlight the effects of this overcrowding in their performances for their Formerly Incarcerated People\u2019s Performance Project.<\/p>\n

Schell said he was shocked by the living conditions when he first arrived in prison. \u201cUnsanitary is an understatement,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s feces on the wall, dust on top of ducts, stains that would need to be carbon dated.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cyprien\u2019s favorite character in his performance is his personification of \u201cclose quarter disease,\u201d representing the sicknesses that spread rapidly in a cramped prison environment. He said he sometimes laughs about the term now, but noted that unsanitary conditions and neglectful health care caused him to lose a friend in prison.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this time in the mid-\u201990s, from like \u201996 to maybe \u201998, inmates were dying for things that were preventable,\u201d he said. \u201cIf a person gives you early warning signs that they\u2019re having chest pains, you\u2019re supposed to attend to that person and see what that person needs. But the prison system was \u2014 no, everybody was a malingerer.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cyprien said his friend Jackie died due to inadequate care. In response, Cyprien and others organized a peaceful protest demanding reform to the prison health care system.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cyprien said the prison eventually listened. But changes were short-lived: \u201cThat lasted for about 18 months,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then it was back to business as usual.\u201d<\/p>\n

People who are incarcerated are not the only ones expressing concern about prison conditions. In September, California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued Los Angeles County over jail conditions<\/a>, citing broken plumbing, rodent infestations and lack of basic hygiene supplies.<\/p>\n

Performance facilitates reentry\u00a0<\/p>\n

Formerly incarcerated people often encounter challenges when they rejoin society.\u00a0 Some find making everyday decisions overwhelming. Others have trouble getting jobs, especially those who were incarcerated at a young age and lack job skills.<\/p>\n

Performer Chirstina Anistad hasn\u2019t been incarcerated since she was 21, and is now 47 working as a journalist at KPFA Radio in Berkeley. To this day, she said she often thinks about what she experienced in jail.<\/p>\n

\u201cBig traumatic experiences \u2014 and being incarcerated is a traumatic experience \u2014 those things just don\u2019t go away,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Community reentry programs that support formerly incarcerated people with things like housing, substance-use disorder treatment and job opportunities, can help with the difficult transition. These programs have proven to reduce recidivism rates and increase employment prospects<\/a> for formerly incarcerated people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Joseph Bell Jr. served 24 years, 10 months, in prison on a falsified felony murder charge and was released in 2020. He now works for the Reentry Engagement Program at the Felton Institute in San Francisco.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Bell, emotional support was a crucial part of his transition. \u201cI got a lot of spiritual support, a lot of emotional support,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I think that\u2019s what\u2019s lacking for a lot of individuals inside that are incarcerated.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his work today, Bell has observed that expression through art can help facilitate hope.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce they can feed their creativity, it makes them feel better,\u201d he said, adding that making art can feel empowering.\u201d It changes people as a whole and lets them feel the humanity of somebody that shouldn\u2019t be defined by a bad decision that they made.\u201d<\/p>\n

To purchase tickets and learn more about the Formerly Incarcerated People\u2019s Performance Project\u2019s four-day festival at Berkeley Rep, see fippp.org\/fipppfestival<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article is adapted from an episode of our podcast, \u201cCivic.\u201d Click the audio player below to hear…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[28910,143,145,144],"class_list":["post-133776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-hide-related","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}