In 2015 Zuzka Sabata, acting as Dell'Arte International's Arts Engagement Director, established the first ever theatre arts program at Pelican Bay State Prison, funded by the California Arts Council's Arts in Corrections, together with fellow faculty member Janessa Johnsrude.

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Zuzka was the program director in its first year of existence and created foundational curriculum structures that saw the program expand from a single minimum security yard to all 4 yards in the prison. She taught in the program from 2016 to 2019. 

 

She left the program in 2019 due to a toxic work environment and problematic power dynamics at Dell'Arte International, which led to her exit from employment at the institution in 2022.

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Credit for co-founding the prison arts program and her 3+ years of teaching in the program is omitted from the current program's website.

 

To watch a short documentary about those initial years of the program go here.

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For current info about this program, now called Orbit Arts, go here.