See Me: Prison Theater Workshops and Love explores how the intimacy that podcast host Jan Cohen-Cruz and so many others have experienced in prison theatre workshops is possible in such a dehumanizing environment. The throughline is a deep dive into the workshop that she co-led in the early 1970s, cowritten with Finn K., a core participant, interspersed with reflections from five other pairs of people who were part of other prison theatre workshops together. They reflect on why people joined the workshops, how they got started and developed, building trust and affection, creating performances, learning lessons, facing obstacles, and what happened after the workshops.
Contributors share final reflections on the attraction of prison theatre workshops. They explore the importance of being seen in all one’s complexities and discuss how imagining the world on stage manifests a vision for the real world. Finn and Jan affirm their workshop experience together.
12 Mar 2026
Aftermath
This episode covers what happens to Jan after she is banned from the workshop and Finn when he is released. Ausettua and Kathy create the Graduates for women to continue theatre when they get out, and the Free Mama Glo campaign launches. Jess supports of returning citizens. Rand discusses the challenges of reentry.
5 Mar 2026
Collapse
In this episode, personal relationships between Finn and Jan and Alex and Kevin fall apart. Collective efforts like the Trenton workshop and the street theatre house, which took great care to build, collapse. How long it takes to build something; how quickly it can tumble.
26 Feb 2026
In the Name of Love
In this episode, wonderful and terrible things are done while in the thrall of love. Jan and Finn go beyond their comfort level in trying to provide what the other needs. Alex and Kevin’s loving friendship is undercut by racial tension. Jess is unfairly accused of romantic ties in her prison workshops.
19 Feb 2026
Experiential Education
In this episode, looking at the world from each other’s perspectives stretches participants personally and artistically. This can be sobering, like dealing with white privilege; inspiring, like seeing the value of self-agency for all; or both, like Jan and Finn’s different ideas about love and community.
12 Feb 2026
Prison Shows
In this episode, shows develop in the various workshops. The impact of making, performing, and being seen in multiple dimensions deepens interpersonal relationships and a sense of purpose. Jan and Finn’s relationship thrives through the meaningfulness of collectively creating with each other and the group.
5 Feb 2026
Building Trust and Affection
In this episode, the intimacy of self and group expression brings loving relationships of all kinds into being-–deep friendships, Jan and Finn’s romance, familial feelings, and ancestral bonds–with joys, like unexpected connections, and complications, including the challenge of racial difference.
29 Jan 2026
The Individual and the Collective
This episode takes a closer look at the interplay of particular participants and group dynamics in the workshops. They get to know each other by making theatre together and empathize with people from radically different circumstances. Jan and Finn begin a slow courtship. The drama club becomes a safe space for Mama Glo.
22 Jan 2026
Workshop Beginnings
The different prison theatre workshops get started. This episode explores their diverse atmospheres, why people join and who they are, early exercises, initial challenges, first impressions, hopes, and expectations. Finn and Jan meet on Day One, her twenty-first birthday.
15 Jan 2026
It Started with a Calling
What leads people to prison theater workshops? This episode begins six intertwined, first-person tales of these workshops, framed by a love story between Finn, who was incarcerated, and Jan, who cofacilitated.
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