Mark Dotson spent 25 years in prison. He's taking his stories to the James Theater.
Mark Dotson thought it’d be through his art shows that he’d get the chance to tell someone his story about spending 25 years in and out of incarceration.
He didn’t know he’d be introduced to Jody Hovland and Ron Clark, the founders of Riverside Theatre in Iowa City, who’d guide him toward the stage to share his experiences to an audience paying to listen to him.
But that’s exactly what’s happening this weekend.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Dotson, 51, will present audiences six tales from incarceration at the James Theater in Iowa City’s Northside, produced by Crooked Path Theatre. After the performance will be talkbacks with Dotson, who’ll be joined by Michelle Heinz on Sunday, the executive director of nonprofit Inside Out Reentry Community which assists incarcerated people as they reenter their communities.
“I want (audiences) to walk away with a better perception of the justice system,” Dotson said. “I don’t want anybody in there to have to be the person that wakes up one morning to find out the justice system doesn’t work the way they thought it did because now their kid is in some sort of s***.”
Tragedy leads Mark Dotson to crime
Dotson, who was born in Paris, Texas, and grew up more than 50 miles away in Mount Pleasant, Texas, was a young man out of high school suffering from the unexpected death of a friend whom he was planning on confessing his feelings for and imagining starting a life with.
Dotson wanted to end his own life, and soon found himself stuck living in a town where people knew he was experiencing a crisis but didn’t know the reason why. Their attempts to console and help Dotson failed as a result.
He realized he needed to leave, but to do that, he needed money.
Dotson had played golf in high school. He’d learned a friend of his had stolen a bag of golf clubs and sold them for $500 in Dallas.
It was an appealing way to make fast cash because Dotson knew there were plenty of golf clubs around, and that the folks who owned them weren’t going to be hurting for money, or at least that’s how he rationalized it.
That’s how Dotson first became entangled with the justice system — though it wouldn't be the only crime he committed. Dotson served prison time — including time at Anamosa State Penitentiary as well as in county jails across the Midwest — for years.
All that time spent behind bars, including in solitary confinement, made it difficult to find things to occupy his mind, Dotson said.
Dotson combated depression and sadness by keeping busy. That meant playing a lot of softball, and a working on a few meaningful opportunities that included training a guide dog or transcribing books into braille for a blind high school student.
“(My) Mom, she’s like, ‘You never hurt anybody,’” Dotson said. “I didn’t hurt anybody. Why does half my life have to be flushed down the toilet? I could’ve gotten some help.
“Maybe I can keep this from happening to somebody else,” Dotson added.
Making a difference by sharing his story
Dotson, who was released in August 2020, is a visual artist whose work goes hand in hand with his experiences in prison.
His work captured the attention of Bruce Levitt, a professor at Cornell University in New York, through the Justice Arts Coalition, a national program that connects artists and art advocates who are or were incarcerated and allies.
When he learned Dotson was living in Iowa City, Levitt knew to introduce the Texas-born man to the Riverside Theatre founders. They met with Dotson weekly starting in the summer of 2021, often at Dotson’s apartment, first as captivated listeners and later as mentors to guide Dotson’s innate storytelling into stories that would connect and engage with audiences.
“We kept going back to, what do you need to tell? What is essential?” Clark said. “And encouraging him to have the courage and strong desire — the desire was already there — but kindling that flame and keeping it growing. The best storytelling comes out of a need to tell and we could see immediately that he needed to tell these stories.”
Dotson gained from the relationship, but so did Hovland and Clark, who were treated to such candor that only furthered their understandings of the justice system and its impact on relationships, the pair explained.
It’s through art that Dotson has been able to process his experiences and the experiences of the men he left behind, Clark said.
“The arts do provide a unique healing opportunity,” he said. “There’s nothing else that will touch that. I've known that, but I've never experienced it firsthand until now.”
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Dotson’s artistic circle has expanded as well, Hovland said.
“These are only six of his very many stories,” Hovland said. “Our hope is that the work continues and we want him to be the agent of his own performances after this. So this is the boost with help from a lot of friends and then we hope he takes this and runs with it who knows where.”
Dotson’s not the same person he was for so long. That’s why he can talk about his story.
“I know that what I have to say, it will make a difference to people,” Dotson said. “It’s probably going to save peoples’ lives and I’ll never know who they were or nothing. I know it will. I know if I could’ve encountered something that spoke to me back then and let me understand that I don’t have to be this person.”
“Undoing Time: Reflections on 25 years of Incarceration.”
Where: The James Theater, 213 N. Gilbert St., Iowa City
When: March 24 and 25 at 7:30 p.m. and March 26 at 2 p.m. Tickets start at $10 for general admission on the James Theater's website.
Paris Barraza covers entertainment, lifestyle and arts at the Iowa City Press-Citizen. Reach her at PBarraza@press-citizen.com or 319-519-9731. Follow her on Twitter @ParisBarraza.
This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Iowa City man tells tales of incarceration at the James Theater
