Picture from class with EPICC, Ensemble Play in Cook County Jail
DRAMA CLUB NYC
Teaching Artist at Riker’s Island, Crossroads, and Horizon Juvenile Detention Centers
Drama Club is an innovative non-profit organization that provides theatre programming and positive mentorship to young people who are incarcerated or court-involved in New York City.
EPIC
EPIC is a theatre ensemble composed of women in Division Five of the country’s largest jail, Cook County.
Jail is a space of transition. EPIC ensemble members may participate for multiple years or for a few weeks, depending on the timeline of their incarceration. Long-time players have grown into apprentice teachers who demonstrate the games for new players, introducing and welcoming them to the group. The collaboration between new and old players reflects the ethos of the program. Through access to a universal understanding of story, we see our shared human experience.
Project Reset
Project Reset is a pre-court diversion from the traditional justice system that connects participants to community, resources, and themselves.
Our client centered programming gives voice to our participants, lends transparency to the criminal justice system, and helps individuals navigate their arrest experience.
As a project of the Center for Justice Innovation, we are committed to the ongoing work of making our program anti-racist, trauma informed, and anti-oppressive.
"Honest.... Unflinching."
...“Hopelessly Devoted” is hopeful without being saccharine. That hope can be its own source of sadness, too – as Chess notes, “It’s not the bad things that hurt you in here. It’s the good things.” Yet somehow, she does manage to give voice to the bad and the good."
“...Pierce’s staging allows the intertwining stories of these women to spin out with truthfulness and moments of silence that still speak that truth."
--Kerry Reid, The Chicago Tribune
“Hopelessly Devoted” performance at Cook County Jail
