ABOUT THE PROJECT

LOGLINE
After decades spent in prison, inmates in Wyoming collaborate with a playwright seeking to turn their stories into a play, and perhaps win their freedom. As actors arrive to meet the people they are set to portray, neither are certain of the outcome.

SYNOPSIS
Wyoming has an old idea of justice: be tough, but be fair. The first part comes easily. The second is harder.

The Wyoming Project centers on two people with deeply troubled pasts, at a precarious point in their lives.

Over decades spent in prison, both have changed. Both are considered model prisoners. Both are facing parole board hearings in 2027 to hear whether they will be recommended for commutation. And both are likely to be denied. In a country with one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, in the most conservative state in the nation, mercy is in short supply.

They are also two subjects in a new play, created by criminologist (and former Executive Director of the Wyoming parole board) Daniel Fetsco and playwright Matthew Greenberg, who believe deeply in the possibility of redemption and in prison reform.

Over the next year our cameras will be there as Dan and Matthew workshop their play with male and female inmates. We’ll explore the psychological toll on actors who are trying to understand the people they are set to portray. We’ll see the play come to life and watch it evolve as it’s performed across the state.

At the end of the run—when the stakes are at their highest—the state of Wyoming will grant the inmates one last chance at commutation. Wyoming will decide, as the audience will decide, if it can be tough and fair.

PROJECT TYPE Documentary Feature

DIRECTOR Kevin Huffman, Alexander Hyde
PRODUCER Kevin Huffman, Alexander Hyde

ID: 821