Formerly Incarcerated People’s Performance Project to Present Festival of Work at Berkeley Rep
The festival will consist of five unique shows over four days. Each show will feature multiple solo performances as well as short films.
The Formerly Incarcerated People’s Performance Project Co-Founder and Producer Mark Kenward has revealed the dates for their festival of performance work, taking place at Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Roda Theatre from Thursday, January 15 through Sunday, January 18, 2026. The festival celebrates the culmination of a three-year residency at Berkeley Repertory Theatre and will take place at the Roda Theatre.
FIPPP develops and presents solo performance stories by formerly incarcerated people with the goal of changing the world, one story at a time. FIPPP produced two festivals in Oakland in 2021 and 2023, and then joined Berkeley Repertory Theatre as their first-ever company-in-residence in 2023. Since its founding six years ago, FIPPP has grown into a full-fledged theatre company with a team of eight professional theatre directors and fifteen formerly incarcerated performers.
The festival will consist of five unique shows over four days. Each show will feature multiple solo performances as well as short films by documentary filmmaker Jim Granato. Three of the shows will conclude with hard-hitting panel discussions with the FIPPP performers, moderated by Bay Area theatre luminaries (and FIPPP coaches) Dan Hoyle, Wayne Harris, and Mark McGoldrick.
The twelve formerly incarcerated people who will perform at the festival bring a wealth of stage experience, including as stand-up comedians, TEDx speakers, Moth winners, Shakespeare actors, Marsh performers, and SF Fringe Festival artists. Their stories of incarceration and reinvention, directed by FIPPP’s team of professional theatre directors, give invaluable insight into the circumstances and choices that led to incarceration, the conditions in prison, and the post-prison experience. A new, nine-episode podcast series of previous FIPPP stories debuted on KPFA on December 2, 2025, ahead of the festival.
