Who We Are

What Drives Us

We use storytelling as both mirror and megaphone. We amplify voices that institutions tried to erase. We illuminate the connections between us, the shared struggles, small victories, and human complexity that systems work hard to obscure.

What We Imagine

Art can shift the social architecture. We create not to decorate the world but to restructure it. Our practice advocates for communities society trains us to overlook, insisting through every performance and workshop that transformation isn't theoretical—it's happening right now, in real time, when we commit to seeing each other completely.

How We Started

Mud Theatre Project was conceived behind prison walls.

Inside the Illinois Department of Corrections, a community of writers refused to accept silence as their sentence. Through workshops and performances, through late nights shaping scripts and early mornings revising drafts, these artists exposed the pipeline carrying children from classrooms into cells. Incarcerated writers became nationally recognized playwrights, journalists whose bylines appeared beyond razor wire, artists whose work demanded attention from people who'd never looked inside a prison before. Now many of us have come home. We return carrying skills honed in captivity, insights earned through decades of forced reflection, and an unshakeable commitment expressed in our guiding principle: Transformational Therapeutic Rehabilitation Through the Arts. Our conviction, tested and proven: artistic expression doesn't just document change. It catalyzes it. In overlooked neighborhoods, with dismissed communities, among people written off as disposable—there, especially there—art plants radical hope and cultivates impossible futures.

Meet the Team

  • BRIAN BEALS

    Director

    Brian Beals is an accomplished activist, organizer and award-winning playwright, who was exonerated in 2023 after spending 35 years incarcerated for a crime he did not commit. A Chicago native, Brian works in nonprofit and artistic spaces to create programming and support for communities impacted by injustice.

  • Darius Franklin

    Darius Franklin

    Ensemble Member

    Darius Utilizes his unique high energy filled positive spirit in in creative ways to amplify the voice of the voiceless via art by way of co-creating programs to spark social change . Darius has earned the nickname “FIX” as he continues to embark on his mission to FIX some of the broken pieces in our world one village at a time

  • Tekamia “Queen” Cannon

    Ensemble Member

    My name is Tekamia “Queen” Cannon. I grew up on the Chicago’s West Side, raised with three brothers. At the age of 16, I was indirectly system impacted by way of my older brother’s incarceration. That tragic event proved to be bittersweet; because through the loss of my brother, I learned that I am a resilient person. I believe that sharing stories matters and the Mud Theatre Project is a way I can help heal my sisters and brothers.

  • Darrion Benson

    Ensemble Member

    Darrion Benson was born  Chicago where he was raised in a home with siblings, Mother and Step-Father. A wrong turn led him into the Illinois department of corrections where he  is currently serving 17 years. During his incarceration, he has published a book of poems 325 miles away, he is also an aspiring playwright, he confounded a nationally respected prison theatre program (Dixon Theatre Workshop),led creative writing workshops, is a certified civics peer educator inside while currently active in a civics program that engages Chicago communities.


  • Toussaint Daniels

    Ensemble Member

    Twenty-six years system-impacted, beginning at eighteen. Toussaint discovered creative writing could fuse art with advocacy—that storytelling could dismantle what iron bars couldn't contain. His play The Story of Violence won the 2023 PEN America award. He served as lead writer for Searching for Justice, premiering at Steppenwolf Theatre in January. The Toussaint Fellowship Award now exists in his honor, supporting system-impacted writers who bridge creative expression with social change. At Mud Theatre, his Open Mic Lit Sessions proved: every voice carries authority, every story holds weight.

  • Joel "Yoel" Davis

    Ensemble Member

    Chicago native. Spoken word artist. Playwright making his theatrical debut with characteristic vibrance. Yoel earned his Associate's degree from Oakton College, where his original play In Search of a Better Place demonstrated to audiences: better worlds become possible when we dare imagine them aloud. Through rehearsal and performance, he's learned theatre transcends entertainment—it's transformation technology. Grateful to mentors and collaborators shaping his journey, committed to evolving as both performer and storyteller.

  • Marvin Alexis

    Ensemble Member

    Prince Saleem Alexis (Marvin Alexis) is a Chicago-born artist, author, and advocate who transformed a 24-year prison sentence into a mission of resilience. As the founder of Mogul Makers Performing Arts Coalition and XCon 2 Icon, he uses his experience as a playwright, poet, and motivational speaker to empower others to redefine their narratives. A co-author of Throwing Rocks At the Pen, Alexis is a powerful voice for transformation and the healing power of the arts.

  • King Moosa

    Ensemble Member

    King Moosa is a rising artist with a passion for using his music and Fine art to bring awareness to social injustices particularly in the area of juvenile justice. With his unique sound and captivating lyrics, he has already made a name for himself in the music industry and in the art community. Moosa's art has been displayed in various cities across the United States, including Chicago, New York, and Miami.

A glimpse into our Stage Ready program, featuring one of our standout artists in action.

Nickolas Haselrig

STAGE READINESS PROGRAM PARTICIPANT

Welcome home, Nickolas “Red” Haselrig! As our Stage-Ready Program participant, Nickolas was an art instructor at Dixon Correctional Center for years.

He created numerous murals inside IDOC and taught hundreds of men about how to showcase their art and creativity.

The majority of the art on our website is Nickolas’s work. He always says, “There is no such thing as prison art, there are just artists who create art in prison.” Currently, he’s working at Walls Turned Sideways with Sarah Ross on various projects.

Still Creating From Inside

Currently Incarcerated Participants:

Jason Foster, Jesse Martinez, Delandis Adams, Marvin Alexis, Apilinar J. Sernas, Lionel Barry

Plus hundreds more in our writing community—artists creating from within the system, whose work proves no architecture can contain the human drive to make meaning, speak truth, transform suffering into purpose.