LOS ANGELES — When a.k. payne was a middle school student in Pittsburgh, one of their plays was presented as part of a Young Playwrights Festival at City Theater.

"I remember sitting in the audience at 12, and I was like, 'I want to do this,'" they said.

What struck them, they say, was the gift of sharing space. It’s something that’s very much at the heart of their play "Furlough’s Paradise," which is having its West Coast Premiere at the Geffen Playhouse. The story centers around a pair of cousins who are home for a funeral. One has moved away. The other is incarcerated and on a three-day furlough.

“In the same way that the pandemic tore us away from being able to gather with people, I think that that has happened in various ways from various different systems that have impacted these cousins,” they explained. "And they're able to sit together and that's like such a gift and a tremendous thing for the two of them."

For payne, the play is personal. Growing up in Pittsburgh, or any Great Migration city, they said prison becomes a constant point of reference in people’s lives, something the members of the community exist in relation to. They personally had several incarcerated family members.

"I want people to think about an entire enormous population of our society who is incarcerated, and who… exists and who, often, there's this attempt to disappear and to render invisible, but who are still here," payne said.

It’s a lot of people. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, the U.S. has the largest incarcerated rate of any democratic country around the world — just under 2 million individuals. It’s a huge issue and one the Geffen’s artistic director, Tarell Alvin McCraney, says it needs to be explored. The theater, he said, is a perfect place to do it because it’s a space that allows for ”collective dreaming.”

“What could the world look like, say, with reformed prisons or if we had a different justice system," he said. "Or, the justice system worked in favor of making sure that folks who are incarcerated could reconnect with their families in their lives in a way that was impactful.”

This is McCraney’s first full season at the Geffen, a season that began with his own play, "The Brother’s Size," which also dealt with themes of incarceration. This year, he also launched the Theater as a Lens for Justice initiative, which — among other things — invited people who have been impacted by incarceration into the theater to see the plays and take part in talkbacks. The Geffen partnered with UCLA’s Center for Justice and Prison Education Program as well as the group ManifestWorks to explore the issue further and develop pathways to possible careers in theatre for formerly incarcerated individuals.

The Geffen also brought their production of Waiting for Godot to the Victorville Women’s Federal Correctional Institution.

"Theater as a Lens was really important to me because it was… a way in which I could connect with folks who may be reentering society, who may be at a crossroads in their life and help them see that there are many paths before them and all of them lead to us being together," McCraney said.

Throughout "Furlough’s Paradise," the cousins discuss their utopia, building their perfect world. It’s a conversation payne hopes audiences will continue on the ride home and beyond.

“I hope that people walk away from seeing this play thinking about who would be with them as they move closer and closer towards freedom, towards utopia, towards liberation,” they said.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorreclty stated McCraney’s first full season was over. The article has been updated. (May 12, 2025)