Inheriting Attica

Combining stories of institutional and personal memory, Inheriting Attica examines the U.S. Prison Industrial complex through puppetry, visual narrative, and an architectural lens. The Attica Prison riot of 1971, a historic event turned prison lore, has been historically used to justify abusive methods, overly strict punishments, and the development of the super-max prison, a legacy of Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticons. A collision between a first-generation U.S. Salvadorian family’s cultural memories and the United States institutional prison legacy, Inheriting Attica, mixes real events with imaginative interpretations to understand this U.S. lineage and a family's relationship to it.

Team:
Writer, Designer – Tanya Orellana;
Co-creator, Director – Joshua Rivas;
Production Manager – Brittany White;
Lighting Designer – Rose Malone;
Sound Design – Carl Pillot

Team OrellanaDesign (USA)