POTSDAM -- For the second year, the Department of Theatre and Dance at SUNY Potsdam will present the Playwriting Across Prison Walls Play Festival, a staged reading of five short plays by playwrights incarcerated at Riverview Correctional Facility in Ogdensburg.

The free Playwriting Across Prison Walls Play Festival will be presented on Friday, Sept. 20 at 7:30 p.m., in the Black Box Theater, located in the College's Performing Arts Center.

Playwriting Across Prison Walls is the beginning of great community theatre -- providing a platform to those behind bars. In addition to the performance at SUNY Potsdam, there will be a staged reading at Riverview Correctional Facility in late September.

The five plays will be read by SUNY Potsdam students Austin Antle, Mal Brewster-Holland, Elinor Greenway, Riley Keyser, Devin LaBare, Joseph Pease, Inuer Pichardo, Isabel Wildflower and Monti Wilkins. Mia Bodine is the stage manager.

With months of script development, Assistant Professor Rivka Rocchio worked closely with the men at Riverview Facility to help them expand their ideas and make sense of their findings, as well as create cohesive plays to be put on stage.

The playwrights and title of the plays are:

Carlos Francis, "Untitled"

Thomas Carter-Love, "The Grass is Greener"

Isma McGhee, "PEACE or PIECE"

Corey "Harlow" McWhirter, "Lysergic Laughs"

Richard Sanders, "A Different Tale"

Admission to the staged reading is free, and run-time for the show is approximately 45 minutes. A talk-back will follow the performance.

For more information on this performance, please contact the Department of Theatre and Dance, at (315) 267-2556.