During an infectiously cheerful kpanlogo, which featured a number of impressive solos, at least a dozen inmates in the audience joined in clapping, rocking and stomping their feet.
C7 A Captive Audience Inmates are a niche market for consumer electronics companies that are willing to comply with prison rules.
Before the curtain rose, visitors were asked to remain seated after the play, so that inmates in the audience could be escorted out first.
"O.K., O.K.!" inmates in the audience interjected approvingly, or, more enthusiastically, "Ya-ya, ya-ya!" Steven Quinlan opened for Norfolk, seizing the attention of the room.
Activists and family members of inmates filled the audience Wednesday, applauding criticism of state policies and snickering at corrections officials' answers.
There were four performances: three for fellow inmates and one for a mixed audience of inmates and those invited from "the outside," many of whom are involved in prison work.
On another show, she told the audience, "Female inmates in the United States have been victims of sexual misconduct by corrections employees in every state except Minnesota.
But "The Life of Jesus Christ," which was performed in the rodeo pit before a reactive audience of inmates, relatives, church groups and ticket buyers, is not quite like anything that has come before.
As the audience enters, inmates in prison orange jumpsuits walk like zombies within the white space, their eyes closed and many with shaven heads; they are gently turned back at the perimeter by blue-clad guards.
The cast was, of course, all-male, and Ms. Arbus had decided to represent the one female character with a bunraku-style puppet — an effect that, to Mr. Horowitz's amazement, the actors pulled off and that the audience of inmates accepted.
The piece was first performed by Messiaen and fellow prisoners for an audience of inmates and prison guards.
