Jenkins Teaches Theater to Balinese Inmates

Ron Jenkins, professor of theater, was featured in the June 9 edition of The Jakarta Post in an article titled “From Hell to Heaven at Kerobokan Prison.” In January, Jenkins started running a theater project at the Kerobokan Correctional Institution in Bali, where he taught 20 men and women inmates about acting. After six months of practice, the group performed Dante’s Divine Comedy,” a story about taking a personal journey through hell and purgatory to heaven.

“It is a story that anyone who has experienced hard times can understand,” Jenkins explains in the article. “But people in prison unfortunately have a deeper understanding of hell than most of us, and they can identify even more strongly with a character like Dante who is trying to learn something as he travels through hell, which will help him get to heaven.”

Jenkins spent part of his sabbatical in Indonesia working with I-Nyoman Catra, Ph.D. ’05 now a professor in Indonesia. View the Jakarta Post article here.