Mary Chater has been leading workshops at HMP Bronzefield in Ashford ( Surrey) from November 2024 into February 2025. The number of participants varies week by week but the engagement is always lively and thought provoking. Questions about the use of language and the way Shakespeare depicts women are usually to the forefront but the most gratifying element is the way the scenes draw the participants into the heart of the action with great elan and enthusiasm. We have worked on excerpts from The Tempest, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Henry V, Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It and Othello.

From May - October 2024 The Women's Support Centre, Surrey is working with those attending Friday's Art Class to make work for the annual New Beginnings Art Awards in the autumn. Open to women in the community and in the three female prisons in Surrey, the awards focus on a journey of expression, healing and recovery. The theme for this year's competition is Past, Present, Future. Mary Chater is leading drama workshops on the concept of Time in Shakespeare to complement the art work being made. We are hoping to create group drama pieces for the evening of the presentation of the award. The WSC provides specialist, practical and emotional support to women, by women. The centre works with women, with their truth, experiences and needs from a Trauma - informed, client led and professional approach. They welcome women who are in contact with or are at risk of being in contact with the criminal justice system. They offer a holistic approach providing support and advocacy on a wide-range of services both targeted and universal including groups, programmes and courses. www.womenssupportcentresurrey.org.uk

Thirteen women from HMP Styal performed The Christmas Toy Story (The Nutcracker springs to mind ) for Family Day - they designed panto type props and one woman, a professional seamstress made fabulous Toy costumes from material she found in the prison. About 150 family members and staff watched the performance with the Toys singing and dancing with some of the younger children in the audience. The women created a wonderfully celebratory atmosphere and everyone had fun whether performing or participating in the audience.

Professor Charlotte Scott ( head of Shakespeare at Goldsmiths) and founder Mary Chater took a programme of Arts Council funded work into HMP Styal in Cheshire in the late summer / early autumn that mirrored the type of work done in the spring at the Woking women's support centre. A Midsummer Nights Dream Mashup was performed by women prisoners in the gym - the performers were resilient and tenacious in the face of a rowdy audience and Eddie Tarry, an officer joined in the show as a Fairy. We spent two weeks rehearsing and making the props and back drop - the play was set in Ancoats woods near Manchester.

In the spring 2019 'All that Glitters is not Gold - but it's my time to shine - How do we know who we are?' with womeninprison.org.uk in Woking we ran weekly drop in sessions for former prisoners. We worked with some of the women to create a performance piece for International Womens Day, giving each participant the opportunity to tell her story as part of the project. The show was remarkable and the reaction from the audience to the stories overwhelmingly supportive A short performance followed for New Beginnings Arts Awards day in September at The Light Box in Woking https://www.thelightbox.org.uk/womens-support-centre-new-beginnings-art-awards-2019 The theme of the piece Journey Within - 5 words that best represent your journey or a journey you've taken.