Mr Curt Tofteland

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Fulbright Senior Scholar

Media profile

“I wondered if someone like me - a professional theatre artist - might be able to bring out some of the innate human goodness hidden within a convicted criminal through the power of art, theatre, and the works of William Shakespeare.”

Mr Curt L. Tofteland, Founder & Producing Director, Shakespeare Behind Bars, Inc. (SBB) in Kentucky and Michigan, has won a Fulbright Senior Scholarship to come to The University of Queensland (UQ) from August 17 through December 19, 2011.

“SBB is a nine-month program in prisons that aims to help change the behaviour of convicted criminals and encourages them to lead productive lives when they are released from prison,” Curt said.

SBB has been running in the U.S. for sixteen years. It was first program of its kind created in the U.S., and continues to be the longest running program of its kind in North America.

“Our research has found that in prisons where this program has been running, we can see a lower incidence of re-incarceration following release from prison,” Curt said. The current SBB recidivism rate over the past sixteen years is 7%. The national recidivism rate in the U.S. is 67%.

In Australia, Curt will work with UQ’s Dr Rob Pensalfini, who is the co-founder and artistic director of the Queensland Shakespeare Ensemble (QSE), a professional Theatre Company based in Brisbane. Curt will co-direct with Crystal Arons a production of William Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice. QSE runs a ‘Shakespeare-in-Prison’ program modeled on SBB, Arts in Community Enhancement (ACE) in a prison west of Brisbane, the Borallon Correctional Centre.

“Shakespeare in Prison is a trailblazer in its fusing of the plays of William Shakespeare with the methodology and work of Shakespeare & Company and of Augusto Boal, the preeminent Brazilian theatre director, writer, and politician, and his Theatre of the Oppressed. This is a theatrical style that embraces relevant interaction and dialogue between the performer and the audience. ACE is the first Australian Shakespeare-in-Prison project and it continues to be the only program of its kind in Australia,” Curt said.

“By sharing my work in the SBB program with my Australian colleagues and learning their unique methodology of combining the plays of William Shakespeare with the work of Shakespeare & Company and Augusto Boal, my Australian colleagues and I believe the cross fertilization of beliefs, ideas, and methodologies will make both of our programs stronger, deeper, and richer.”

Curt has a BFA in music (vocal performance) from the University of North Dakota and a MFA in Acting from the University of Minnesota. He also has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Bellarmine University; a Petra Foundation Fellow; a Distinguished Alumni Award from University of Minnesota; and an Al Smith Fellowship in Playwrighting from the Kentucky Arts Council. In his spare time he enjoys reading, playing guitar, biking, swimming, and hanging out with his family.