An award winning play written by a prison inmate 33 years ago is No Joke Theater’s newest production. Dan McMullan wrote BLYTHE, a tenderhearted comedy set in a prison town, when he was incarcerated at Chuckawalla Valley State Prison in Blythe, CA. The play placed first in a statewide prison playwriting contest. It was scheduled for a staged reading at the Ivar Theater in Hollywood, in a benefit sponsored by Ed Asner and Edward James Olmos.
But the day before the show, the prison’s Warden pulled the plug on the performance. The Los Angeles Times published an article about the controversy titled, “Go Directly to Jail, Don’t Collect $200 and Don’t Write a Play!”
This is a full circle moment for Artistic Director Leah Joki, who hopes to shed some light on how she came from working in prisons in CA to running No Joke Theater in Missoula, MT. Author Dan McMullan, former commissioner of Human Welfare in Berkeley, CA and director of the Disabled People Outside Project for 20 years, will be present for a talk-back after each performance.
No Joke Theater (NJT) is the only theater company in Montana whose performers are formerly incarcerated, under court-ordered supervision or members of the recovery community. NJT is committed to exploring social justice issues such as addiction, recovery and mass incarceration.
PLAY SYNOPSIS: In 1990 the small desert town of Blythe, CA had a medium-security men’s prison built in its backyard. Some locals loved the huge boost to the local economy, but others despised its very existence. At the opening of BLYTHE, BOB FOLEY has a serious problem… an escaped convict just stole his tow-truck from right outside of Andy’s diner. The flirtatious waitress, BETH, is more concerned about her new love interest, the handsome new prison guard, FLOYD PETERSON, who promises to save the day. What ensues is hilarious. Although BLYTHE takes place in a local diner, the centerpiece of the play is the new prison. The play’s author, Dan McMullan, was an inmate at that prison when he wrote this play. BLYTHE is an intelligent and deliciously witty play about the explosion of prisons built in the state of California in the 1990’s.
