It was my pleasure and privilege to be able to run a workshop at the wonderfully stimulating PAN/Will to Dream Conference in Sofia, Bulgaria. I had brought with me a goodly number of materials - some wholly original (e.g., materials that had not been previously utilised within the substantial LSW [London Shakespeare Workout] canon) - in order to best creatively present in this very rich and varied exchange. However, in direct response to the Conference itself; specifically (a) after meeting the delightful Bulgarian ex-offender, Sava, and having with him several conversations in animated (and, dare I say it, highly original) sign language and (b) responding to one of the points of weakness as highlighted in the W2D Interim Evaluation as noted in an earlier session, I disposed of my original prepared research and used the time allotted (90 minutes) to explore new ways of employing Shakespeare and Drama as an effective interactive tool with which to learn a new language where participants are schooled in the literacy of one but not the other. Given that our workshop would involve by definition a number of English speakers and a separate number of Bulgarian speakers this seemed too opportune an occasion to miss.

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There can, I think, be no question but that it proved - for me as much as anyone else -highly instructive. The response was electric.

It should be pointed out that the entire undertaking would not have been possible to accomplish were it not due to one primary factor: The participation of Ms. Valentina Petrova. Valentina was not only a participant in the workshop (fulfilling her assigned role of a dutiful and caring prison officer brilliantly) but she crucially served magically as the instantaneous translator. Valentina - as any inspirational prison warden should be - was a most telling go-between. She was, in effect, magical.

I was also delighted that we were able to be joined by a very real prison officer from Lovech Prison (where we would travel the next day - on what for me was a second visit - seeing a brave interpretation of an established text ‘The Fortune Teller' and the most bewitching artistic display of the body of a classroom, here christened the ‘Rainbow Room'. (New York's Rockefeller Center will, I know, be proud to share that nomenclature.) Indeed, so impressed was I that I have committed 800 Euros to the artistic realisation of another room at Lovech, the funds coming from LSW's Corporate Programme - the ‘Willing Dreams' Incentive - which sees a jointure between LSW and the London Business School where ex-offenders, global corporate executives and professional actors effectively work together as a team.

Here, following a brief introduction which included original inmate writing from the United Kingdom (delivered both in English and Bulgarian), each participant - aside from Valentina (the prison officer) and including the ‘real life' Bulgarian prison officer - were asked to go out of the room and to re-enter as their ‘favourite inmate'. I must say that it was a very motley crew that I had the privilege of greeting with a warm handshake and ‘Zdravei' or ‘hello/welcome' as they came in. Certainly they did not disappoint in the proceedings.

Although the team presented themselves as best they could (being a very challenging and challenged group) each took his or her part in the exercises at hand (whether it be portraying a primary bunny with two side kicks or realising a small segment from ‘Macbeth'). One participant, Sally Elsbury, here representing Austria's Galli Group and about to launch on much valued work in Cork's primary prison, remarked afterwards that: "even though I was portraying a very depressed individual, I found it impossible NOT to be engaged. The energy made it impossible ‘not to be'. When I pulled the line of Shakespeare out from that envelope (‘Nothing comes from nothing') it really hit home."

Language suddenly became universal. Without labelling it became a living model for mutual understanding. Physical and textual exercises equally employ the Bard's words. Those dealing with the theatrical art form itself - "Actor/актьор, Listen/слушам, Respond/ектения, Confidence/доверие" - became highlighted both in English and Bulgarian. Both languages lived side by side because they were applied in a living - thinking - context. The suspension of disbelief within the vast Meeting Room No. 1 was heady.

"You are a great teacher," the gifted ex-offender from Northern Ireland, Michael Diamond, exclaimed. I thanked him, but on this occasion I was as much a student as anyone else. That was the real joy. Perhaps that was the real test; the response to a very real need in interactive translation. Always there was a decidedly two-way interaction. All learning was as at its best it should be: ‘of the moment'. Even Prospero's plea: ‘We are such stuff as dreams are made on' shone with added relish.

One thing I promise: This simple and exciting workshop will have helped shape LSW's future as much as it may influence anyone else's. Certainly aspects I will employ this week in Her Majesty's Prison Leyhill. Alan Clarke has already suggested that it be used in another EU incentive dealing with literacy. Pure and simple, the weight of language was the currency all participants were dealing.

On the trading floor this morning it would probably have been shoved into the tray marked ‘futures'.

Let there be no doubt: There WILL be a credit return.

That much I think we can promise.

Dr. Bruce Wall, Executive Director
London Shakespeare Workout/LSW Prison Project

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