No Joke Theater Fundraiser

No Joke Theater is an impactful, transformational theater program for participants of pre-release programs and individuals under court-ordered supervision. It aims to assist these populations in their recovery and transition to society. The program is designed to give participants a complete theatrical experience culminating in a production open to the public.

No Joke Theater is a new incubator program under the 501(c)3 non-profit, Arts Missoula, which serves as its fiscal sponsor and guide.

MISSION: The mission of No Joke Theater is to create bold, original and devised theater productions about current social justice issues with inmates from the pre-release centers, individuals supervised by the drug courts who have court-ordered community service hours, community members and university students. No Joke Theater aims is to humanize the incarcerated population and the recovery community by providing education and insight to the general public by addressing problems such as substance abuse, addiction, racism, mental illness, family dysfunction and mass incarceration.

HISTORY: No Joke Theater is based on Leah Joki’s twenty-three years of experience as a teaching artist and facilitator working with the incarcerated and formerly incarcerated populations in the state of California. Ms.Joki worked in 30 different state prisons of all security levels and specialized in working with adult men, twenty-five to lifers, in maximum security. Her program has been featured in American Theatre Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly and The Missoulian.

In 2021, NJT created a pilot program for UM’s College of the Arts and Media at the Warm Springs Addiction, Treatment and Change program (WATCh.), The DUI Project. In 2022 a 2nd pilot program was created at the Missoula Pre-Release Center, Addiction Roulette.

Ms. Joki is an actor, writer and director. She is a native of Butte and the first person from the state of Montana to be accepted to the Juilliard School of Drama and has an M.F.A. from the University of Montana. Ms. Joki is the author of numerous plays, the memoir Juilliard to Jail and in 2015 her one-woman show PRISON BOXING was nominated for Best Solo Performance in Los Angeles, CA. Her play, The Poppovichs, was selected as the Montana Playwrights Network Premiere Project and produced at the Downtown Dance Collective in 2019.

STAFF: Leah Joki is the Artistic Director. Jacob Christensen, an M.F.A. directing candidate at UM, is the Assistant Director. No Joke Theater employs and trains community and professional actors and the University of Montana interns as teaching artists, actors and stage managers.

SPONSORS: No Joke Theater has been sponsored by the University of Montana College of the Arts and Media, the MT Department of Transportation, Drive Safe Missoula and Individual donors. The Montana Repertory Theatre and the UM Department of Theater and Dance have offered in-kind services of rehearsal and performance space based on availability. No Joke Theater is also supported by Missoula Correctional Services and Community Correctional Counseling Services.

CONTACT: Leah Joki: leahjoki.com or NoJokeTheater.com

Heather Adams, Executive Director of Arts Missoula