SING SING is now in theaters nationwide.
Read select press coverage below.
Learn more about the film and the RTA program.
Notable Press
NYT: For This Drama, Some Actors Returned to Prison by Choice
“The chance to give those people that are still in the position I was in, in those cells, even a modicum of inspiration and hope and say, ‘Listen, this doesn’t have to be your life forever. Mine changed – maybe yours could change too.'” Clarence Maclin, RTA Alum and SING SING cast member.
IRISH INDEPENDENT: Sing Sing review: Life and art blur in compelling jail theatre symphony
“John “Divine G” Whitfield (Colman Domingo) is serving a sentence at Sing Sing, a maximum-security correctional facility in New York. When he’s not continuing a campaign from behind bars to appeal his sentence and prove his innocence, he’s the linchpin of a theatre troupe facilitated by prison authorities.
This is the Rehabilitation Through Arts (RTA) programme, in which prisoners are given purpose and expression through the performing arts. A new production is being scripted by course mentor Brent (Sound of Metal’s Paul Raci) – a barmy time-jumping play that will blend elements of Shakespeare and pantomime.”
NPR: ‘Sing Sing’ offers a glimpse at life behind bars — and the journey towards redemption
“…by, you know, being respected and being treated as if I matter. That’s one of the things that I would like to pass on for others that – brothers that may feel as though they’re not valuable or that they don’t matter.
If we could pour a little bit of that into everyone. If we could let them know, just let them know that they matter. And it would change their own expectations of themselves.” Clarence Maclin, RTA Alum and SING SING cast member.
ELLE: The Inside Story of Sing Sing’s Rehabilitation Through the Arts Program
“Almost three decades since it was founded, RTA is now gaining mainstream attention thanks to Sing Sing, Greg Kwedar’s new A24 film starring Oscar nominees Colman Domingo and Paul Raci, who act alongside a host of formerly incarcerated alumni of the program. Based on a true story about the creation of time-traveling comedic play Breakin’ the Mummy’s Code, the heartfelt new drama is a touching testament to RTA’s vital work and the life-changing difference the program continues to make in the lives of incarcerated individuals everyday.”
ROLLING STONE: How the Cast of ‘Sing Sing’ Broke Free From Prison to the Big Screen
“Once you get bitten by the element of creativity, it’s like you become hooked,” Whitfield, 60, tells Rolling Stone. “It’s escapism that’s so soothing and away from all the pain and suffering and despair. Prisons are brutal, especially [in] New York, they have a very draconian system, very draconian. So those moments of escapism are life-saving.”
HARPERS BAZAAR: Sing Sing Is a Moving Testament to the Rehabilitative Power of Art in Prisons
“Our apprehension got outweighed by the purpose,” one of the film’s protagonists, Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin, says. “We stand on the shoulders of a lot of brothers that sacrificed for us to be here, and we know the power of what this program can do.”
Maclin is referring to Rehabilitation Through the Arts, a program that teaches the arts as a channel for healing and coping skills inside six men’s and women’s prisons in the state of New York.
JACOBIN: Sing Sing Is a Humanizing Portrait of the Dehumanized
“Sing Sing tells the story of a theater troupe inside the Ossining, New York, maximum-security prison of the same name: Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA), a nonprofit that was founded in 1996 and has since expanded to seven more facilities across the state. It’s a tender portrait of the creative capabilities and emotional lives of a group of men who have been cast off by society as something less than human. What’s more: the overwhelming majority of the cast are actual RTA alumni, playing versions of themselves.”
AUSTIN CHRONICLE: The Rehabilitative Power of Art in Sing Sing
“In Sing Sing, that community and joy flourishes on and off the RTA stage in the true-life story of the friendship between one of the troupe’s oldest and most committed members, award-winning writer John “Divine G” Whitfield (Domingo) and newcomer Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin. It’s a revelatory screen debut from the real Maclin in the part, but far from his first performance. After all, he, like many members of the cast, is playing a version of himself, inspired by his own experiences as a member of RTA and by his own time behind bars and on the stage at Sing Sing.”
PEOPLE: How Sing Sing’s Real-Life Theater Prison Program Is Building Community and Changing Lives (Exclusive)
“It all started with a group of men that just wanted to have a voice,” says Sean “Dino” Johnson, a founding member and current board member of the org. “It changed my life.”
WABE: Academy Award-nominated actor Colman Domingo celebrates art’s redemptive power
“Redemption through art is not a new theme, but it feels extraordinary in the A24 film, ‘Sing Sing,‘ directed by Greg Kwedar. The story is based on work of the nonprofit organization, Rehabilitation Through the Arts and centers around the production of a play by a troupe of prisoners.”
NYT: Colman Domingo Finds Brotherhood in SING SING
Rachel Sherman brings us behind the scenes at a screening of the film “Sing Sing” at the correctional facility of the same name in Ossining, N.Y. The film’s cast was mostly made up of nonprofessional actors who were formerly incarcerated and had been part of a rehabilitation theater program inside the prison. Sherman spoke with the film’s stars, the Oscar-nominated actor Colman Domingo and Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin, about what it was like to play these roles — and in Maclin’s case, to return to the prison where he was incarcerated for 17 years.
TODAY: Live interview with Colman Domingo and Clarence ‘Divine Eye’ Maclin on NBC
Colman Domingo and Clarence Maclin join TODAY to discuss their new movie “Sing Sing,” a story based on a real life theater group for incarcerated men — of which Maclin is a former participant. Maclin opens up about being “apprehensive” at first about reliving the experience for the movie. “Nobody wants to voluntarily walk back into a prison,” he says adding, “but the purpose outweighed all apprehensions.” Domingo and Maclin also discuss the chemistry between them and the brotherhood on-and-off the screen.
LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MYERS: Colman Domingo Interview
Colman Domingo talks about working with the real person who his character in Sing Sing is based on and the Rehabilitation Through the Arts prison program that inspired the film.
WTF PODCAST: Clarence Maclin Interview
Clarence Maclin was uniquely suited to make his film debut in the new movie Sing Sing, starring alongside Colman Domingo. That’s because the film is based on a real life group of incarcerated men at Sing Sing prison and Clarence plays a fictionalized version of himself. Clarence talks with Marc about how a theater program run by an organization called Rehabilitation Through the Arts turned around his life on the inside and helped him find who he needed to be when he got on the outside.
NPR: ‘Sing Sing’ tenderly probes the joys – and limits – of art in prison
“RTA operates as a lifeline for these men – a way, as one of them puts it, for them to “become human again” within the confines of a place deliberately structured to strip them of their humanity. The film takes time to clearly communicate this often; it’s especially effectively rendered during an exercise where volunteer director Brent prompts each performer to imagine a favorite memory or place, and then describe it aloud.”
HUFFPOST: In ‘Sing Sing,’ Black And Brown Men At Play Are The Key To Liberation
“Many projects based on both the real and fictionalized lives of those in prison, especially Black and brown men, focus on darkness, with room for maybe a slither of light. That would leave one to assume that these stories can only be told when weighed down with sobering hardships. And while you can’t dismiss that, solely depicting those legitimate struggles results in a flat, inhumane representation. This is doubly damning for individuals whom society has already metaphorically imprisoned before they even have a criminal record.
“Sing Sing” isn’t like that. The A24 film implores you to watch these men bring light through play, humor and art. It commands that viewers look them in the eyes as these formerly incarcerated men introduce themselves. It’s a reminder that the men of the Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) program at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in upstate New York are human and deserve to be seen and treated as such.”
NYT CRITIC’S PICK: ‘Sing Sing’ Review: Divine Interventions
“Colman Domingo imbues his character John Whitfield, a.k.a. Divine G, with a steadfast compassion but also the tamped-down frustrations of a man convicted of a crime he says he didn’t commit. And Clarence Maclin — a formerly incarcerated newcomer whose story, along with that of the actual Whitfield, the film is built upon — burrows into his former self in a finessed and fierce performance as Divine Eye, the prison-yard alpha who auditions for Sing Sing’s Rehabilitation Through the Arts theater program. That program is the movie’s other star.”
LA TIMES: How the prison-set ‘Sing Sing’ captures the magic of acting
“It is here that a prison theater group meets multiple times a week, sometimes for a few hours, sometimes all day. When working, they are not incarcerated men, but swashbuckling pirates, Old West cowboys, and Shakespearean antiheroes. They play improv games, try on costumes, recite lines and rehearse with props; they laugh, cry and embrace their many emotions, as all the best storytellers do.
As one incarcerated actor puts it in the movie, “Brother, we’re here to become human again.”
THE GUARDIAN: ‘Opened my whole world up’: Inside Oscar-tipped prison theater drama Sing Sing
“That journey – the personal transformation through art, and the program’s too-rare opportunities for dignity, community, expression and exploration in prison – is the subject of Sing Sing, a new feature starring Rustin’s Colman Domingo and filmed on location at the facility where RTA began in 1996. Directed by Greg Kwedar, the film mixes professional actors with formerly incarcerated alumni of the program, including Johnson, Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez and Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin, all playing versions of themselves. Domingo stars as Divine G, based on the real-life John “Divine G” Whitfield, a mellow, bookish man who found purpose during his decades at Sing Sing through RTA.”
NBC: ‘Sing Sing’ actor Colman Domingo on a maximum security prison’s life-changing program
“Politics doesn’t work. Religion is too eclectic. But art, art just might be the parachute that saves us all,” Domingo said on June 26 at the Brooklyn premiere of “Sing Sing,” his upcoming movie.”
“The story is based on the real-life Rehabilitation Through Arts (RTA) program, in operation at Sing Sing since 1996.RTA uses theater, dance and music, among other art-related workshops to help reduce recidivism, which is the tendency to relapse into criminal behavior after being released from prison. According to the program, in almost three decades it has been successful in breaking the cycle of incarceration: less than 3% of RTA alumni return to prison.”
AP NEWS: ‘Sing Sing’ screens at Sing Sing, in an emotional homecoming for its cast
“As movie premieres go, the one for “Sing Sing” at Sing Sing was about as poignant as it gets. The film was screened above the stage where RTA performed its first show for an audience half civilian, half incarcerated men in navy green jumpsuits. For the formerly incarcerated actors in the film, returning to Sing Sing was an emotional homecoming. They brought a message of hope and healing that they, themselves, are still trying to live up to.”
DEADLINE: A24’s ‘Sing Sing’ With Colman Domingo To Screen At New York Correctional Facility Where Film Is Set
“It has been the honor of a lifetime to help tell the story of the men inside the RTA program at Sing Sing, and since we began on this project over eight years ago we’ve held onto the dream to bring the film back inside to the very place where so many of our alumni cast discovered the transformative power of the arts. We hope the incarcerated men out in that audience find inspiration, encouragement, and walk away with a greater imagination of what’s possible. And yes, we’re bringing lots of tissues,” said producers Kwedar, Clint Bentley and Monique Walton.”
VANITY FAIR: Inside Sing Sing, the Colman Domingo Prison Drama That Will Break Your Heart
“In 2016, Kwedar and his longtime cowriter Clint Bentley were introduced to Sing Sing Correctional Facility’s Rehabilitation Through the Arts program, which immerses incarcerated people into the worlds of theater, dance, and more. The pair shadowed RTA’s leadership, taught workshops, and got to know some of the program’s alumni. They saw how it quite literally saved lives. Sing Sing is the product not just of that extensive research period, but also the direct testimony of people who were formerly incarcerated and rediscovered themselves through the program. Marking Kwedar’s first directorial effort since his feature debut Transpecos (2016), it’s a startling, raw piece of work.”
GQ: It Took Colman Domingo Three Decades to Reach the Summit of Hollywood. Now What?
“Out this July from A24, Sing Sing is set in the namesake maximum security prison and tells the story of a theater troupe made up of incarcerated men. For them, acting is a means of passing the interminable time behind bars, of transcending their circumstances, and of survival.”
“What makes the project so singular is that, besides Domingo and a few other professional actors, the rest of the cast are formerly incarcerated men who went through the actual Rehabilitation Through the Arts program at Sing Sing. Director Greg Kwedar started working on the movie eight years ago. Offering the lead to Domingo popped into his head instinctually one day—he had been writing a treatment in a notebook and then, at the bottom, just scrawled down “Colman Domingo.”
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Colman Domingo on his emotional prison drama Sing Sing and its arts rehabilitation program
“I thought that was an interesting perspective — someone who was using their intelligence while they were in the inside to advocate for others, using their skills, not only for themselves but for others,” he explains. G, he discovered, wanted to be a ballet dancer when he was a child but stopped because he was picked on. Domingo infused some of his performance with small flourishes — a pirouette here, musically playing with his fingers there — to honor the “artist [who’s] still in there… it’s not dead yet.”
PASTE MAGAZINE: Sensitive Prison Drama Sing Sing Finds Collective Healing in Theater
“Greg Kwedar’s sensitive, joyous Sing Sing does more than simply dramatize the workings of the RTA program, it incorporates participants into the very fabric of the film’s DNA.”
“Sing Sing is an emotional prison drama that doesn’t beg for your tears amid all of the typical heartstring-tugging signifiers that come with the genre’s territory. It represents these lives sincerely and avoids grandiose histrionics, melding the real experiences of these men within the fantasy of filmmaking to find graceful emotional truths.”
THE WASHINGTON POST: Summer Movies: 5 breakout stars to watch in ‘Sing Sing,’ ‘Quiet Place, ‘Horizon’ and more
“Clarence Maclin didn’t know he had knack for acting until he was in prison, where he found the Rehabilitation Through the Arts Program and an appreciation for Shakespeare. His experience provided the inspiration for “Sing Sing,” where he plays himself in a cast that includes Oscar nominees Colman Domingo and Paul Raci as well as a group of formerly incarcerated men.”
PRIDE: Colman Domingo’s new drama Sing Sing doesn’t hit a single false note (SXSW review)
“The film opens with Colman in full thespian mode, delivering a soliloquy with all the grace and gravitas you would expect. From there, we follow him backstage where he celebrates the pure joy of performance with his cast mates. It’s warm, it’s familiar, it’s human. We then cut to the cold and winding institutional halls of the prison. Reduced to silent numbers, the men line up while a guard shouts at them. With this stark and shocking juxtaposition, the film quickly makes its case for why RTA is so life-changing for the men who join its ranks.”
VARIETY: Colman Domingo Explains Why He Attended the SXSW Premiere of ‘Sing Sing’ the Same Weekend as the Oscars (EXCLUSIVE)
“I’m here because this is the work that I believe in. Every actor hopes that they can do work like this, I think. I’m very proud of the way we built this in a very equitable model. I’m very proud of what it can possibly do to change minds and amplify these voices, and also to really change the system.” Colman Domingo
DEADLINE: ‘Sing Sing’ Review: Greg Kwedar’s Ode To The Humanity Behind The Bars – Toronto Film Festival
“The film leaves its audience with a resonating thought: that behind every prison number, there exists a human, yearning for acceptance, understanding, and a chance to rewrite their story.”
“Sing Sing presents a vibrant tapestry, highlighting the lighter moments in the otherwise shadowed confines of incarceration. At the heart of this is the Rehabilitation Through The Arts (RTA) program. An oasis in the desert of the penal system, RTA illuminates the film’s central theme: that even behind bars, the spirit can soar, uninhibited, into the expanses of imagination and creativity.”
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: ‘Sing Sing’ Review: Colman Domingo Shines in a Subtle Portrait of a Prison Arts Program
“an urgent document of our time.”
“Kwedar’s film is a portrait of friendship and a tribute to art’s restorative value. The helmer’s considered direction coaxes a lot of big lessons from this quiet film. Sing Sing is about the gift of creating with community and the redemptive nature of self-expression.”
VANITY FAIR: Colman Domingo Anchors the Riveting, Tender Prison Drama Sing Sing
“Domingo’s transcendent performance — he’s also here at the festival with the Netflix-backed Rustin, but this is the one to watch for me — may be the center, but it’s the world that flowers all around him that makes Sing Sing feel so special. Currently seeking distribution at TIFF, it ought to win over many more audiences from here.”
“Written in collaboration with people formerly incarcerated at the Sing Sing, the story of a theatrical prison troupe finds deep beauty in an effort to make art for art’s sake.”
VANITY FAIR: The 14 Best Movies From the Fall Film Festivals
“Domingo’s performance in Sing Sing is a showstopper, as I wrote in my review, but the film is a true ensemble effort, cowritten by director Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley in collaboration with two Sing Sing prison alumni, one of whom plays himself in the film. It’s a film full of small miracles that deserves a long life beyond the festival.”
VANITY FAIR: Colman Domingo Anchors the Riveting, Tender Prison Drama Sing Sing
“…the beauty of it is apparent immediately, not just in Domingo’s stunning audition with Hamlet’s soliloquy, but the way acting exercises and rehearsal set something in these men free. We don’t know much about what most of them are in for, and we don’t really need to; RTA embraces them as they are, and the film encourages us to do the same.”
