Pelican Bay Prison Theatre Arts
Dell’Arte offers weekly ensemble theatre classes at Pelican Bay State Prison on three General Population yards throughout the year. Now in its ninth year of engagement, the program is supported by California’s Arts in Corrections Program and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). This work brings professional artists into the prison to advance rehabilitation and education, while cultivating a vibrant ensemble culture in which incarcerated artists collaborate to devise and perform original theatre, learn from one another, and share their skills, knowledge, and creative practices with visiting facilitators.
Through established performance exchanges with Dell’Arte’s students and broader community, as well as instruction from Dell’Arte faculty and invited guest artists, Orbit Arts Program participants have worked with artists from India, Mexico, Israel, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, Canada, Guatemala, Spain, England, Brazil, and the United States.
NEWS AND UPDATES
We’re All We Need: Theatre At Pelican Bay Documentary
“I Am an Artist”
Check out the article in the North Coast Journal that came out summer of 2025 featuring an interview with one of our participants, Sam Nault.
“Orbit Arts Sonic Showcase: Three Radio Plays from Pelican Bay”
3 Different audio creations from Orbit Artists inside Pelican Bay.
Participants in our performing arts classes at Pelican Bay work in ensemble to explore the creative act of generating theatre through the study of storytelling, character, improvisation, collaboration, and original play development. Healing-centered facilitation guides the work with participants focused on self-awareness through a creative lens.
Many participants have graduated from the program and continue classes as mentors after courses commence every spring and fall. As programming develops, various ensembles have created original performances for invited public audiences. Several former participants that have been released also serve on the Returned Citizens Committee, acting as advisors to the program.
Dell'Arte is grateful for the support of the California Arts Council, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and the Community Resource Manager's Office at Pelican Bay State Prison.
From Orbit Artists
“We can be free spirits, we can express inner creativity and it raises our emotions. Personally I’ve been able to express myself more dynamically outside of class to friends and family.”
— Anonymous Magone
“You let us be us. That is something I will never forget.” - Derek Adam
— Derek Adam
“I learned about myself in all aspects. I have left behind a person that was so nervous and embarrassed. Now, in this present time, I am comfortable and outgoing. I’m prepared to put myself in a vulnerable situation.”
- Bryan Flores
“Coming to this program, I got to see the individual in a different way and seeing how although we all have different paths or stories, we all have similar struggles”
-Rene Lopez
“In addition to a creative outlet, Dell’Arte’s Orbit Arts Program can bring about unexpected levels of maturation…theater provides a constructive way to process emotion in a healthy manner. The inability to do so limits all relationships, personal societal, and with the inner-self, which makes the processing of emotions crucial. This leads to valuable personal insight. Insight makes possible the cultivation of empathy and compassion, cornerstones of humanity, restorative justice, and genuine transformation.
— John Purugganan
“Programs like this are important because if these programs didn’t exist, some people would never know their true potential”
-Ruben Zarate
“The most valuable part of this program was connecting with our fellow incarcerated brothers on a more human level as well as remembering exactly who we are at the core of our identities”
- Zachary Hurlburt-Erhardt
“This program gave me insight into who I am and who I could be.”
-Paul Latanzio
ZINES
Our participants have created several “zines” over the years featuring their poetry, stories, and theatrical writings. In 2024/25 the guys who contributed our third volume elected to do a fundraiser for the Pacific Redwoods Missing & Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) Crisis Action Fund by selling the zine to raise money. We’d like to thank everyone who purchased a zine and supported their fundraiser!
Click on the zines below to read.
