Thousand Kites

Thousand Kites is the title of both a play script by Roadside Theater and an interdisciplinary project by Appalshop, Inc. addressing prison justice. 

In 1998, when Amelia Kirby and Nick Szuberla (www.workingnarratives.org) were volunteer DJs at WMMT, a community radio station in Whitesburg, KY, they received hundreds of letters describing human rights violations in newly-opened prisons in their community. Concerned about what was happening, they responded with an art project called "Holler to the Hood" to address human rights abuses in the United States criminal justice system. One of the first things they did was produce a radio program that brought the voices of prisoners' families to the airwaves. As people who live in a small town they were also concerned to learn that many prisons are built as a form of economic development in struggling rural areas. Building on these projects, they began working with Roadside Theater and other artists and community activists around the country to create Thousand Kites. Thousand Kites was a national project that provided tools (theater, web, radio, and video) for people concerned about human rights and criminal justice issues to use to facilitate dialogue in their local communities across the United States.

The project consisted of “Up the Ridge,” a film by Nick Szuberla and Amelia Kirby, “Calls From Home” a national radio call-in show on Appalshop’s WMMT-FM that connected incarcerated individuals and their families, and “Thousand Kites,” an original play by Roadside Theater.

Roadside’s Thousand Kites was scripted from the personal stories of people affected by the U.S. criminal justice system, including prisoners and their loved ones, prison employees and their families, and those living in communities where prisons are sited.

The play has three acts without intermission. Act 1 is a scripted performance or reading. Act 2 builds on Act 1 by turning to the audience for comments and testimony. In Act 3, a moderator asks cast and audience to focus on actions to be taken based on the analysis flowing from the first two acts.

Theater experience is not necessary to perform the play, which can be read by community members in a living room or performed in an auditorium. It can be used along with the Kites video and audio tools or by itself. Anyone can:

Do an informal play reading at a group meeting or family get-together;
Pass out scripts and read the play at a house party;
Talk to their local college or community theater about doing a public reading or production of the play;
Adapt the play to their particular circumstance – adding their own stories or ideas;
Combine a play reading or performance with Kites video and radio tools.