Prisoners take 'Christmas Carol' to the public, selling out almost immediately: 'Like a dream'

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University of Denver Creative Arts Program to enrich the lives of incarcerated people

Prison Arts Initiative founder Ashley Hamilton discusses the program on ‘The Daily Briefing.’

The set is professional, the costumes are intricate and the melodies are masterfully arranged.

From the outside, all aspects of the show resemble a standard holiday performance. But, as soon as the final number concludes and the curtains close, members of the all-woman cast swap their colorful costumes for prison uniforms and head back to their temporary home: the Denver Women’s Correctional Facility.

Nearly 40 inmates spent the holiday season rehearsing Christmas carols and dance ensembles for their performance of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." The first group traveled in restraints to the Newman Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Denver for three separate performances of the show, all of which sold out almost immediately.

The historic redemption-themed performance was a collaboration between the Colorado Department of Corrections and the university's Prison Arts Initiative — a program founded in 2017 by Ashley Hamilton, providing therapeutic and creative outlets for prisoners through art-based workshops, focusing on empowerment and fostering a healthy community.

"What gave me the idea is that I've been working inside with incarcerated folks for the past ten years," Hamilton said Thursday on "The Daily Briefing." "I think in our society, we tend to have a very specific stereotype of who is in prison. And, my experience these last 10 years have really shown me that the majority of people who are inside are really ready to make a major change in their lives and really want an opportunity to shift... and I think that the arts are one way that they can do that."

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The experience was "like a dream," Patrice Pullie told Colorado Public Radio. Pullie has been in prison since April and could be eligible for parole this spring. "I just feel honored and privileged, and I think it’s so awesome that our [Department of Corrections] has enough trust in us and enough faith in us to bring us out here into the public."

Hamilton, an assistant director of theater at the University of Denver, added that the public nature of the performances allowed the inmates to "show who they are and who they want to be" upon their release.

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"There have been plays and education happening in prisons for decades and I have had the opportunity to direct and create quite a bit of theater inside, but this opportunity to actually bring the production out into the public was truly historic," she said.

In addition to the sold-out public performances, the inmates also put on a private show inside the prison exclusively for their family members.

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"Specifically with our large theatrical productions, there is something that happens for people when they have to work on a large project and make it come to life," Hamilton said of the initiative. "We see major changes not only within the group... in their ability to work through conflict, to strengthen their interpersonal communication... but we also see shifts start to happen within the whole prison culture that we're working in."

"A Christmas Carol" marked the second time the Colorado Department of Corrections has partnered with DU’s Prison Arts Initiative to take performances on the road. In October, inmates of the Sterling Correctional Facility reportedly performed "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" for other Colorado prisons.