Acting Prisoners

1. What makes this fieldsite good? It is a one on one interview with the prisoners (actors) themselves so the audience can have a better insight on how the prisoners are.

2. What observations the author makes gives better understanding of subculture? He sees how the prisoners have to get out of their prisoner mode and play the role of their characters. He realizes how they are normal people and why do we have to put them in prison. The author also sees how some of the prisoners change between the time span that he sees them.

3. What interview techniques does author use to work to help us in understanding this subculture? He asks the prisoners to relate their characters to themselves, and ask insight of how Hamlet relates to the prison world. The author also talks to the prisoners by themselves so he can individually get to know them.

4. What are norms/values of subculture? Some of the norms and the values shared is that the prisoners are that they prisoners are strip searched before coming to act, they engage in relaxation exercise, they are violent criminals playing men who have commited violent crime ,and most share an interested in acting.