Author Archives: Teresa

Our first workshop teaching comedy to women in prison was done in late September, and it was an AMAZING weekend. We were able to teach comedy to nearly 60 women and see them overcome fears, shyness, and a lifetime of hurt to channel their life experiences through the comedic filter and make quality comedy. I am in awe of our instructors and students. I am grateful for the prison staff for being accommodating and doing everything they could to make the weekend a success…

Today three letters arrived in a single envelope, with carefully selected and placed postage stamps that said, “Love” and “Celebrate.” The envelope was addressed in a beautiful hand using purple ink. The return address was a California women’s prison.

I’d requested contact with women inmates to hear their impressions of our nonprofit and its first objective; to bring comedy instructors to teach the women improvisational comedy and stand-up. Knowing as little as I do about prison life, I expected them to say something guarded and light, along the lines of, “Sure, we could use a good laugh around here.”

But the women went so much deeper than that, addressing issues such as remorse, poor choices, emotional self-imprisonment, broken spirits, and physical and emotional scars…