Ref: 33/09 JSS                                         29 April 2009

University’s prison theatre company wins Global Citizenship award

An innovative theatre company set up by the University of Winchester has received a prestigious international award for its ‘exceptional’ work with prisoners at HMP Winchester.

News of the award came as the Playing for Time Theatre Company was preparing for their latest production, The Convict’s Opera by Stephen Jeffreys, which is on stage at HMP Winchester until 30 April.

The University has been awarded a MacJannet Prize for Global Citizenship by Talloires Network and the MacJannet Foundation. The prize recognises outstanding community initiatives in universities around the world and contributes financially to their ongoing public service efforts. Winchester is the only European university to win such an award.

“The selection committee was very impressed by the project and wishes to recognise and support its exceptional student civic engagement work,” said Elizabeth Babcock from the Talloires Network, an international association of institutions committed to strengthening the civic roles and social responsibilities of higher education. “We wish to congratulate everyone who works on the Playing for Time programme.”

Playing for Time Theatre Company was set up by the University’s Drama Department in 2001. Since then it has received Arts Council funding and staged six productions, bringing together students engaged in community theatre courses with prisoners, education staff at HMP Winchester, professional theatre directors, designers and playwrights.

“The MacJannet Prize is great news for the work of the Playing for Time Theatre Company and for the University’s profile in terms of community engagement,” said Project Manager Annie McKean from the Faculty of Arts. “It recognises the significant contribution this project makes to the community and addresses larger social issues including personal, social, cultural and educational deprivation.”

Other winners of the MacJannet Prize for Global Citizenship are the Urban Health Programme based in Aga Khan University in Pakistan, Operation 7th Day at Université Saint-Joseph in Lebanon and Cape Peninsula University of Technology’s Theewaterskloof International Community Development Project in South Africa.

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