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Drama stars real ex-cons

BY CAMILLE GAVIN, Contributing columnist | Thursday, Aug 12 2010 11:34 AM

Last Updated Thursday, Aug 12 2010 11:34 AM

"Off the Hook," a musical drama that will have its debut performance at The Empty Space on Friday, takes a bold look at what goes on inside California prisons. And to make it even more realistic, the entire 15-member cast is made up ex-cons, men who have lived behind bars, where the threat of violence is constant and racism is the norm.

"They've all been incarcerated at one time or another -- from one night to 38 years," said Deborah Tobola, author of the play and artistic director of the sponsor, the Poetic Justice Project.

One of the youngest actors is Jonathan Esquerra, who turns 19 Friday. In his role as Lucky, he is a "fish," a term used to define a new inmate who doesn't know the rules and is being reeled in by a "shot-caller."

"I'm the new guy in prison," said Esquerra in a phone interview. "The main guy for the Mexicans, he's manipulating me, telling me he'll buy my parents a house and give them money. But he's just using me."

This is the second time Esquerra, who lives in the Santa Maria area, has been in a Poetic Justice play. The first time was in December; he enjoyed it so much he asked Tobola to let him have a bigger role in the current production.

"When I (first) got onstage, I was nervous but now it's fun," he said. "I kind of like everybody watching me. I'm more social now."

Esquerra said he served six months in juvenile detention for burglary.

"All the kids think they're tough and they try to prove it," he said. "It's full of drama and tension all the time."

He's been out for more than a year and proud that he's been clean and sober for 22 months. Since his release he has gone to school, earned his GED and is a certified medical assistant. He also completed a mentoring program that focuses on various issues such as anger management, getting a job and re-entering the community.

"I'm still in the program as a mentor for other kids," Esquerra said. "Getting that positive feedback really means a lot to me."

For Tobola, the Poetic Justice Project is an extension of what she did during her working life. She retired last year after about nine years as an institutional artist facilitator. Some of that time was in local prisons.

In fact, the reason she wanted the play to have its premiere here is because, as she puts it, "Kern County is the prison capital of California, home to state correctional facilities in Wasco, Tehachapi and Delano, along with a federal prison in Taft and several private lock-ups.

"I taught creative writing at CCI and North Kern," said Tobola, a published poet and author of children's books. "Every year we did an original play written by a prisoner."

In her view the plays that were performed "inside" with prisoners as the actors and prisoners and staff as the audience, had a transformative effect, at least for the moment. "In prison it's so segregated," she said. "Sharing your meal with a black person is a death sentence. But during the play, racial barriers seemed to melt away."

No formal studies have been done recently to measure behavioral outcomes as a result of the in-prison performances. However, in Tobola's opinion, for those who continued in the program, it did have a positive effect.

"Off the Hook" follows several different plot lines and all are resolved at the end, she said. In addition to the one about the fish and the shot-caller, one scenario deals with a staff member and a prisoner who have become too close; another concerns an inmate who's a rat.

A key scene is an exchange between Sparrow Hawk, an Alaskan shaman played by Pius Savage; and Running Bull, played by Bull Chaney. In real life, according to information provided by Tobola, Savage, an Athabascan Indian, has acted in several motion pictures and in the 1970s served short stints in Alaskan jails for DUI and assault.

Chaney served a total of 17 years in Wasco, Soledad, San Quentin, Chino, CMC, DVI, CRC and Susanville for drug-related charges, including possessing stolen property, profiteering and weapons charges. He was paroled in 1996 and released from parole in 1999. Chaney now is executive director of Gryphon Society and Gate Help Inc., a group of sober living homes in San Luis Obispo.

The play is directed by Bill McLaughlin, a professional actor and director. Poetic Justice is based in Santa Maria. It is a program of the William James Association of Santa Cruz.

Following their performances in Bakersfield and Tehachapi, the troupe will travel to Fresno, Sacramento, Redding, Los Angeles and San Diego. The tour is funded by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council and the LEF Foundation.