Rehabilitation Through The Arts to Screen DRAMATIC ESCAPE Documentary at SVA

Dramatic Escape, a new feature-length documentary, will have a special screening at the School of Visual Arts Theatre, 333 West 23rd Street, on Thursday, December 1, 2016 at 6:30 PM, presented by Rehabilitation Through The Arts (RTA), a NY-based non-profit. A panel & reception with RTA prison alumni will follow the screening; tickets: $30, $50 (reserved). More information at www.rta-arts.org.

Dramatic Escape transports viewers into the lives of a group of maximum security prisoners who are attempting to mount a behind-bars stage production of A Few Good Men at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York. Tracing THE JOURNEY from auditions through curtain call, viewers witness the inmates' development as individuals and as an ensemble. Personal stories and candid accounts of the crimes that landed them in prison are interwoven with everyday struggles and philosophical considerations of the nature of redemption. 2015. 90 m. Nicholas Quested. Goldcrest Films. USA. English. NR. Trailer at: https://vimeo.com/139630064

"When director Nick Quested approached us about making this film we could never have imagined what a compelling work of art would result, and how beautifully it would encapsulate RTA's mission of changing lives behind prison walls," says RTA founder and executive director Katherine Vockins.

RTA's Sing Sing stage production of A Few Good Men was adapted from the legal drama about the court-martial of two U.S. Marines charged with the murder of a fellow Marine and the tribulations of their lawyers as they prepare a case to defend their clients. The 1992 film, directed by Rob Reiner and written by Aaron Sorkin, stars Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson and Demi Moore.

Through creative expression in theater, dance, voice, writing and visual art, the RTA program gives prisoners the opportunity to learn social and cognitive skills that act as a springboard to education, family reconciliation, and ultimately, successful re-integration into community life, reducing recidivism to a rate significantly lower than the national average. The organization began at Sing Sing in 1996 with the production of an original play performed for the prison population. RTA now produces a major play at Sing Sing each year attended by over 250 guests; over the past 20 years, thousands of community members have been amazed by the humanity they discovered behind the walls. Today, RTA serves 200 incarcerated men and women (at any one time) in 5 New York State prisons, teaching in at least one facility every day of the week, year-round. More than 30 arts facilitators travel to remote prisons in three New York State counties to teach a wide variety of artistic media.