Playing Hamlet is one of those things an actor dreams about. But winning the role is only half the battle.
In “Sing Sing,” Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin finds that out the hard way. His director Brent (Paul Raci) gives him the note to try and embody the Danish prince before he delivers the famous “to be or not to be” speech, to find the character in the way he walks onto the stage before he starts to speak. Clarence struggles with this direction, particularly when it comes to confidence – as Brent puts it, he walks to his mark like he’s asking the audience for permission to be there.
So how do you stop asking the world around you for permission to exist? That’s a question that Clarence will have to reckon with, and one that “Sing Sing,” directed by Greg Kwedar and co-written by Kwedar and Clint Bentley, seeks to help him confront. The movie follows a group of incarcerated men at Sing Sing Correctional Facility participating in the Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) program, a real program that offers arts workshops for men and women in prison.
Read Sammie’s full review on Rough Draft
