The Coffee Creek Theater Company
Cast and crew of Elektra
Perfomed at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in November of 2025
THEATER AS A TOOL
Each year, The Coffee Creek Theater Company trains incarcerated women for careers in theater, preparing them to earn income and connect to the support system within the inclusive theater community. Throughout our program, we coordinate with the Department of Corrections staff to bring in professionals with expertise in acting, design (lighting, sound, set, prop), stage management, playwriting, and production management, among many others. During their minimum one-year commitment to participate, professionals mentor the female adults in custody, share their experiences, impart industry knowledge and soft employment skills, and give career advice. This exposes these incarcerated women to the breadth of professional wisdom housed in the theatrical community of the Pacific Northwest, while opening their eyes to the truly egalitarian nature of theater as a field of practice.
Our first performance was Elektra written by Sophocles and translated by Anne Carson. This took place during 2025 with performance happening in November.
Program Design
For the first half of the year-long term, our class reads and discusses classic plays that deal with themes of isolation, female empowerment, ambition, and transformation. The second half of the term focuses on gathering what we have learned and putting it into practice through the production of a single play. We guide discussion of several plays to consider, with the goal of exposing the women to the most prevalent performance styles and playwrights around the world. Then the group votes to select which play to collaboratively produce with the support of the professional mentors whose services are applicable/appropriate to the prison as a venue.
Melody and Nistasha as Elektra 1 and Elektra 2 in Sophocles’ Elektra
Performed at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in November 2025
Sofia as Klytemenstra and Melody as Elektra 1in Sophocles’ Elektra
Performed at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in November 2025
Goals
To create a knowledgeable workforce of diverse female theater professionals prepared to successfully infuse the Oregon arts industry upon release from incarceration.
To create opportunities for current theater professionals to do good, share their experiences, mentor, and get paid a living wage for it.
To create a therapeutic environment inside of prison walls, where trauma can be shared and internal growth is possible.
Through the production of a play, to teach skills in collaboration, community-building, empathy, conflict resolution, and self-awareness.
To offer a support system once the women are released from custody to increase their potential for success and reduce recidivism to the justice system.