During the Pandemic, Streaming Theater about Solitary Confinement

The Global Investigative Journalism Network published a piece about Sarah Shourd's play The BOX and how—positioned at the intersection of journalism, art, and activism—it tells stories of solitary confinement. 

Shourd spoke to journalist Nina Sparling about adapting the play to an online format during the pandemic. Though initially reluctant, Shourd said in the interview she began to re-imagine the production. In the online version of the play, each actor is confined to a Zoom rectangle, both a cell and a window.

"No matter what you do to people, no matter how hard you try to cut them off from anything to any kind of connection, any kind of meaningful work or existence in the world, people find a way," Shourd said in the article. "People have just an incredible desire to connect with each other."

Performances of The BOX have been supported by the Pulitzer Center. Read the full article here.