Four Formerly Incarcerated New Yorkers Present Theater Production Of THE CASTLE

On Sunday, May 19, The Fortune Society will present the groundbreaking drama The Castle, featuring personal accounts of four formerly incarcerated individuals and their reentry into society. The sold-out performance will take place at 3 PM at The Fortune's Society's supportive housing development Castle Gardens, at 625 West 140th Street in Upper Manhattan.

Due to popular demand for the performance, an additional performance date is scheduled for June 9 at the same time and location. Tickets can be purchased by emailing David Rothenberg at dprfortune@hotmail.com.  

Conceived and directed by Fortune Society founder David Rothenberg, The Castle has a cast that includes Vilma Ortiz Donovan, Philip Hall, Ervin Hunt, and Casimiro Torres – all of whom tell their own real-life stories. The Castle, Stories of Life After Prison, previously has performed Off-Broadway at New World Stages as well as recently at Rikers Island.

This performance also calls The Fortune Society back to its roots in theater: Over 50 years ago, Rothenberg produced the off-Broadway play Fortune and Men's Eyes which spurred discussion around criminal justice and led to Fortune's founding. Now, The Castle aims to showcase what changes still need to be made to the criminal justice system. 
Since its founding days, The Fortune Society has been developing model programs that support people with prior criminal justice involvement. Their continuum of services includes behavioral health, food and nutrition, alternatives to incarceration, supervised release, housing, job training/education, benefits access, HIV/AIDS services, digital literacy, creative arts, and lifetime aftercare. 

ABOUT The Fortune Society

Founded in 1967, The Fortune Society has advocated on criminal justice issues for over five decades and is nationally recognized for developing model programs that help people with criminal justice histories to be assets to their communities. Fortune offers a holistic and integrated “one-stop-shopping” model of service provision. Among the services offered are discharge planning, licensed outpatient substance abuse and mental health treatment, alternatives to incarceration, HIV/AIDS services, career development and job retention, education, family services, drop-in services, and supportive housing as well as lifetime access to aftercare. Fortune has a dual mission of services and advocacy, through our David Rothenberg Center for Public Policy, as well as research in our Center for Research, Inquiry, and Social Justice. We use what we learn from our justice impacted staff and leadership and from the people we serve about the obstacles that people with criminal histories face to inform and fuel our advocacy work. For more information, visit www.fortunesociety.org.

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