End of Isolation uses art & education to knit-together local campaigns across the country seeking to replace mass incarceration and solitary confinement with real safety and justice in their communities.
This transformative tour is being turned into a groundbreaking documentary co-directed by Sarah Shourd and Bobby Field
This transformative tour is being turned into a groundbreaking documentary co-directed by Sarah Shourd and Bobby Field
This transformative tour is being turned into a groundbreaking documentary co-directed by Sarah Shourd and Bobby Field
In the summer of 2022, nine people embarked on a two-month tour to 10 cities across the US, traveling 8,000 miles in a converted school bus to perform The BOX, a critically-acclaimed play about prison resistance, in communities on the frontlines of reimagining justice. In the words of D.C. theater critic John Stoltenberg “I cannot recall a theater experience that had a greater lock on the conscience of its audience. It was not just good theater, it was phenomenal.”
The momentum from the tour is palpable and the movement to transform our carceral system unstoppable. The End of Isolation Tour is being transformed into a feature length documentary. Developed with support from The Pulitzer Center, the film will travel the country as impactful advocacy and communication tools. Join us!
The End of Isolation Tour Documentary Film follows the mesmerizing journey of nine theater activists–three of whom are formerly incarcerated, all fresh out of a global pandemic–as they adapt to unpredictable life on the road–the unsettling setbacks imposed by extreme weather, the highs and lows of collective living and the demands of pop-up theater. When the journey gets rough they all have to dig deep and try to re-focus on why they embarked on this journey in the first place. Will they succeed? Is it worth it? Will their legislative theater have the impact they desire–to uplift communities on the frontlines of ending the torture of solitary confinement and challenging our country’s reliance on prisons, police, and punishment? Or will it be a “beautiful failure,” as their co-organizer and bus driver Rob Connell fears?
Developed with support from The Pulitzer Center and currently in post-production, the completed full-length film will trace parallel journeys for justice–with the content on the play, on the bus, and in the lives of local organizers often mirroring and intertwining with one another. This will include short, in-depth chapters that highlight the work of formerly-incarcerated organizers around the country and go deeper into the trials and tribulations on the bus — from taking a critical look at the impacts of white leadership to fighting over dishes. Drawing from 150 hours of interviews, our intention is to delve deeper into the conversation about what prisons were designed to do and show the incredible impact our art and activism have had on audience members (90% of those that filled out our survey would vote in favor of legislation limiting solitary confinement and reducing incarceration.) “You succeeded in opening my mind,” said Beverly Lewis, “If someone in one of the most unlikely and unimaginably horrific circumstances can become an agent of transformative change, I too can accomplish profound things!”
First and foremost, we are humans. Many of us are humans who have experienced incarceration and the horrors of solitary confinement first-hand.
Together, we’re a team of organizers committed to creating an impact through transformative theater, transformative arts, and transformative justice. On the tour, we traveled, ate, worked, and lived together in a converted school bus for two months as we brought The BOX to communities across the US. Now, we are preparing to launch a documentary about our tour and the movement to transform the carceral state. This made us more than a team. We are friends. We are a chosen family. Together, we are strengthening a movement.
Individually we are professionals: award-winning authors, interdisciplinary artists, activists, actors, educators, chefs, and storytellers.
We are also artists, teachers, healers, mentors, parents, allies, founders, movement strategists and movement weavers. We change laws, save lives and shut down carceral facilities.
Get to know us! Check out our bios and explore our personal websites.
There are so many ways to be a part of the End of Isolation Tour and movement!
Help us make an impact by signing up for our newsletter and sharing the word about the End of Isolation Tour.
We need your help to get on the road. We’ve already raised $300k and only need to raise $150k more. Any amount helps!
Show your support and solidarity with ending isolation and beginning transformation. Rock our sweet EIT shirt.
In Memory of
With gratitude toward the people who shared their stories with us from solitary confinement, hugely contributing to this project:
And the survivors on the outside, who will never forget those they had to leave behind:
And family members: