Editor’s note: This story was updated at 12:27 p.m. to correct the name and title of Captain Lindsay Cornwell.
PITTSFIELD – Five men moved across the black stage and then lay down with their limbs intertwined to embody the image of discarded bodies.
Actors Tom Truss, Max Conaway, Ahmed Moustafa Reda and Marcus Neverson begin a scene as dead characters during the rehearsal of “Repair” at the Foundry.
They were the actors who developed the script for a new play called REPAIR, which will be performed three times next week at Berkshire Community College’s Boland Theater. Through movement and dialogue, they symbolized the struggle with addiction and incarceration, said actor Ahmed Moustafa Reda.
He and his colleagues developed the play, which tells the stories of eight Berkshire County men who served their sentences behind bars and now find themselves in the sometimes precarious position of rebuilding their lives on the outside.
Actor Ahmed Moustafa Reda rehearses for “Repair” at the Foundry.
At a recent rehearsal, Reda rose from the floor and spoke his lines, recounting a moment when his character stumbled down the stairs from his ninth-floor apartment and found a dead body in the stairwell.
Then his co-star Marcus Neverson rose from the floor. His character recounted how his best friend was shot in the head and killed right next to him.
Another actor, Tom Truss, followed suit. His character’s son died of leukemia in prison in New York. Because he himself was incarcerated in a prison in Harford, Connecticut, his character was denied the opportunity to donate potentially life-saving bone marrow.
Actor Marcus Neverson recites his lines during the “repair” in the foundry.
“You really want to do justice to the people who have experienced all these things,” said the show’s fourth actor, Max Conaway, who completes the cast alongside John Moreno.
They are the stories of complex men whose misdeeds, often by upbringing and necessity, landed them in the prison system. The men found their way to Second Street’s aftercare group, Second Chances, the Pittsfield-based nonprofit also known as 2nd Street that helps former inmates reintegrate.
To help produce the play, the men participated in recorded interviews with directors Amy Brentano and Sara Katzoff.
This is the second time that Brentano and Katzoff have told the stories of former prisoners in a performance. In September, they developed and staged “Release,” which was based on the stories of the participants in the aftercare group for women.
captain Lindsay Cornwell, executive director of 2nd Street, described the process of making this show a reality as healing for these women.
“I know firsthand how therapeutic art and the process of creating something meaningful can be,” she said. “It allows them to be vulnerable.”
Actor Tom Truss rehearses for “Repair” at the Foundry.
The women’s stories revolved around themes like addiction and motherhood, Brentano and Katzoff said in an interview at Brentano’s theater, The Foundry, in West Stockbridge. The men they interviewed experienced more physical violence – both in prison and outside.
Brentano said the men – particularly those incarcerated in New York State’s prison system – described how they were forced to suppress any hint of vulnerability in order to get by.
Amy Brentano and Sara Katzoff direct the production of “Repair” at the Foundry.
“They talked about having to give up their humanity to survive,” she said.
Katzoff said the men had dreams and interests early in life that their environments did not encourage, and instead many of them were discouraged from pursuing their passions.
“The play,” she said, “starts to address what that is – the things we do to men.”
Actor Marcus Neverson recites his lines during the “repair” in the foundry.
Together, the actors and director developed a production that incorporated movement and set design to tell the men’s stories. With input from the actors, Katzoff and Brentano wrote a script based largely on direct quotes from their protagonists. However, none of the characters are a direct representation of any of the protagonists.
Actor Max Conaway rehearses for “Repair” at the Foundry.
The performance will take place on Monday, August 12th at 7pm and on Tuesday, August 13th at 2pm and 7pm. The performances are open to all and admission is free.
Reda, who immigrated from Egypt and is studying acting at MCLA, was inspired by his character’s journey and found commonalities between them. Finding these similarities, such as them both being fathers of daughters, allowed him to identify with his character and find truthfulness in his portrayal.
He hopes the audience will do the same.
“Don’t be so quick to judge; give other people a chance and try to understand them,” he said. “Appreciate what you have in your life and don’t take anything for granted.”
