From Prison Programs to Prairie Stages

Curt Tofteland brings Shakespeare full circle in his return to North Dakota.

This summer, Curt Tofteland, ’74, returned to North Dakota more than 50 years after his UND graduation to direct the North Dakota Shakespeare Festival.

“As You Like It” premiered in Grand Forks in mid-June and traveled across the state to Medora.

“It’s bi-coastal,” Curt joked, adding that he hopes the festival will continue to grow. “I want to bring Shakespeare to the masses.”

Curt has been doing that for much of his career. A director, producer, and actor, he has been involved in hundreds of Shakespeare productions. But his most transformative work may come from the smallest audiences — those behind prison walls.

Healing Behind Bars

Curt’s work with vulnerable populations spans five decades. As a teaching artist in middle and high schools, he saw the power of storytelling to reach struggling students. That path led him to juvenile detention facilities and eventually to adult prisons.
In 1995, he founded Shakespeare Behind Bars (SBB), one of the longest-running prison arts programs in the country. What began at Luther Luckett Correctional Complex in LaGrange, Kentucky, has since expanded to serve incarcerated, post-incarcerated, and at-risk individuals across adult prisons, juvenile detention centers, and virtual programs. SBB also includes a touring, returned-citizen memoir program.

“I believe in the healing power of the arts,” Curt said. “I am not a therapist who does work that is artistic. I’m an artist who does healing work that is therapeutic.” 

He maintains that Shakespeare’s works give voice to the voiceless. “When a person doesn’t have language for the trauma they have suffered, Shakespeare does,” he said. “The trauma victim can explore it through this aesthetic.”

Curt notes that among the 1,200-plus characters Shakespeare created, incarcerated individuals can often find part of themselves. “What they can’t find in biography, they find in dramatic imagination.”

Through this process, SBB participants build emotional intelligence, coping strategies, and other essential life skills that prepare them for successful reintegration into society.

The impact is immeasurable. While the national recidivism rate is 67% within five years, the rate for Shakespeare Behind Bars participants is just 6% over nearly three decades.

A 2003 production of “The Tempest” at Luther Luckett was featured in a documentary by Philomath Films. “Shakespeare Behind Bars” premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, was screened at more than 40 festivals worldwide, and picked up 11 awards. A follow-up film, “Shakespeare Beyond Bars,” is now in production and focuses on the reentry and reintegration journeys of formerly incarcerated SBB members. 

Rooted in North Dakota

“Returning to North Dakota is a very sentimental journey back in time,” Curt said of the Shakespeare Festival. “I’ve never forgotten my familial or educational roots.”

Curt grew up in Martin, North Dakota, the eldest of five siblings. He was a bedtime storyteller who grew into a middle school poet and a high school actor. He arrived at UND a “full-fledged storyteller.”

And he never stopped. 

A professional director and actor, Curt has more than 200 professional productions to his credit. He has performed his one-man show, “Shakespeare’s Clownes: A Foole’s Guide to Shakespeare,” more than 400 times. For 20 years, he served as the producing artistic director of the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, where he produced 50 Shakespeare productions, directed 25, and acted in eight. 

Curt’s work in prisons has sparked numerous programs, including Voices Inside, a 10-minute playwriting initiative at the Northpoint Training Center in Burgin, Kentucky. The program has led to inmate-authored plays that have been professionally produced and staged in New York.

Today, Curt lives in Holland, Michigan, and continues his work as a prison arts practitioner and freelance theater artist — directing, acting, producing, writing, teaching, and consulting. 

After helping launch this year’s North Dakota Shakespeare Festival, he returned to Michigan to direct “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!” for Hope Repertory Theatre.

Despite being immersed in Shakespeare’s canon as both actor and director for decades, Curt said he’s still learning from him. “Each time, I discover something new because I’ve aged and experienced more of life.”

Life, and specifically his work with Shakespeare Behind Bars, has shaped him in return. “I am more compassionate and empathetic — and less judgmental.”