About the Medea Project
The Medea Project is a production of Cultural Odyssey, which continues to develop original productions that demonstrate their vision of "ARTS AS SOCIAL ACTIVISM". In 1989, on the basis of material developed while conducting classes at the San Francisco County Jail, Rhodessa Jones created "Big Butt Girls, Hard Headed Women", a performance piece based on the lives of the incarcerated women she encountered. During the work's creation, Jones and jail officials were made aware of issues that were specific to female inmates, such as guilt, depression, and self-loathing, which arose in response to feelings of failure in the face of community. These issues directly contribute to recidivism among female offenders. Based on this observation, Jones founded THE MEDEA PROJECT: THEATER FOR INCARCERATED WOMEN to explore whether an arts-based approach could help reduce the numbers of women returning to jail.
In 2008, The Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women joined forces with UCSF's Women's HIV Clinic to create theater that explores what it means to be living with the virus in the twenty-first century. For the past four years, The Medea Project: HIV Circle has performed shows all around the United States, sharing the Truth and the stories of what it means to be female and infected or affected.
Today, the Medea Project would like to reach out virtually to women all around the world to continue to break the silence and the stigmas around HIV as they continue to build a large scale production with Planned Parenthood, scheduled to premier at Brava Theater in San Francisco on April 9, 2015.
In 2008, The Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women joined forces with UCSF's Women's HIV Clinic to create theater that explores what it means to be living with the virus in the twenty-first century. For the past four years, The Medea Project: HIV Circle has performed shows all around the United States, sharing the Truth and the stories of what it means to be female and infected or affected.
Today, the Medea Project would like to reach out virtually to women all around the world to continue to break the silence and the stigmas around HIV as they continue to build a large scale production with Planned Parenthood, scheduled to premier at Brava Theater in San Francisco on April 9, 2015.
The Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women performing 'Birthright' at a Planned Parenthood benefit