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# A Prisoner’s Reintegration into Society Is the Focus of a New Theater Piece
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/kaneza-schaal-jack-redcat/
- Published: 2018-11-13T22:29:44.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T15:44:39.000Z
- Description: JACK &, a new theatrical piece from Kaneza Schaal, stars Cornell Alston, who served a 33-year sentence at a correctional facility.
- Author: Matt Stromberg
- Tags: Art, Events, Los Angeles, REDCAT, Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-18 14:37 (2018)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2018/11/copy-of-jack-photo-credit-christopher-myers.jpg)

JACK & (photo courtesy Christopher Myers)

The United States has only 5% of the world’s population, but it holds a quarter of the world’s prisoners. With over two million people locked up behind bars, the US has the [highest incarceration rate in the world](http://www.prisonstudies.org/highest-to-lowest/prison%5Fpopulation%5Frate?field%5Fregion%5Ftaxonomy%5Ftid=All&ref=hyperallergic.com). 650,000 of them are released each year and face challenges to reintegrate into their communities. [Small steps are being made](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/11/6/18052374/florida-amendment-4-felon-voting-rights-results?ref=hyperallergic.com) to make that process easier, but overwhelming obstacles remain.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2018/11/copy-of-jack-keisha--photo-credit-christopher-myers.jpg)

JACK & (photo courtesy Christopher Myers)

The struggles of reentering society after prison are taken up in [*JACK &*](https://www.redcat.org/event/kaneza-schaal-jack?ref=hyperallergic.com), a new theatrical piece from Kaneza Schaal, a veteran of experimental theater ensembles the Wooster Group and Elevator Repair Service. Eschewing a conventional structure, the work draws on 1950s sitcoms, debutante balls, minimalist painters, and an array of social rituals to present a dream-like “[multimedia comedy of errors](https://www.redcat.org/event/kaneza-schaal-jack?ref=hyperallergic.com).”

*JACK &* stars Cornell Alston, whom Schaal met when he was performing in August Wilson’s *Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom* at Fishkill Correctional Facility, where he was serving a 33-year sentence. Alston is a member of [Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA)](https://www.rta-arts.org/?ref=hyperallergic.com), an organization that uses the arts as a tool for self-improvement for those currently and formerly incarcerated.

**When:** Thursday, November 15–Saturday, November 17, 8:30pm nightly (tickets $10–$20)  
**Where:** Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater (REDCAT) (631 W. 2nd Street, Downtown, Los Angeles)

*More info at* [*REDCAT*](https://www.redcat.org/event/kaneza-schaal-jack?ref=hyperallergic.com)*.*