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Every year I attempt to view my way through Oscar nominated films and performances, because in my experience, if the Academy likes them, I’m going to like them too. This led me to watch “Sing Sing” recently. Colman Domingo, whom I admire, was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of real-life former Sing Sing inmate John “Divine G” Whitfield, who was a founder of the Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) program during his stint at the New York state maximum security prison.

I’ve written before about the transformative power of the arts, concentrating specifically on what they can do for young people. “Sing Sing” shows us that the same is true for almost anyone in any situation.

The movie depicts Whitfield as a long-timer, convicted of murder, who fills half of his time writing and researching as he seeks clemency for a crime he didn’t commit and the other half as a talented and respected leader of RTA and a counselor for other inmates.

Second billing in the film goes to Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin, who plays a younger version of himself. Maclin, college-educated but toughened by street life, was incarcerated at 29 for robbery. He brought his tough guy persona to prison and the violence and drug-dealing continued in the prison yard – until Whitfield convinced him to give RTA a chance.

Now Maclin is winning nominations and awards for acting and screenwriting, appearing on talk shows, and attending celebrity-filled events. He and Whitfield (who was finally granted clemency) both work with at-risk populations to inspire them to aspire to better things. Talk about a turn-around, and it’s all thanks to a theater organization.

Eighty-five percent of the cast in “Sing Sing” are now paroled alums of the prison’s RTA program. They are amazing and diverse, black, white and Latino, from huge muscular young guys to old men. RTA has now expanded to many more institutions, sponsoring workshops in visual arts, poetry, dance, music, and writing in addition to theater.

The Sing Sing group’s productions have been just as diverse. They include well-known published works as well as original, both tragedy and comedy. They’ve done everything from Broadway (West Side Story, The Wiz) to classic drama (Our Town, Death of a Salesman, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) to Shakespeare (Macbeth, Twelfth Night).

Brent Buell (played in the movie by Paul Raci), a civilian director and writer who has been instrumental in Sing Sing’s theater program, says that he sees the exercises he uses to help the inmates get into character can often be their “first step in empathy,” something necessary to change their lives for the better. They learn trust and respect, he says.

The beauty of theater is that it teaches individuals to be committed to a common group goal of creating a quality production that will entertain and inspire many more individuals. It teaches hope and the pride of accomplishment while expanding the participants’ world views, their relationships, and, of course, their empathy.

Maclin related in an interview that he had to discipline himself to be a well-behaved inmate with no infractions for a whole year before being allowed to join the program. That was his first step in rehabilitation. Once involved, it took him a while to completely shake his troubled outlook, but he changed so much that he eventually received early parole.

And get this: At Sing Sing, there is typically a 60% recidivism rate in the three years after release. For members of the theater program, it is an astounding 3%. You can’t argue with those numbers.

You’ll hear “To be, or not to be” many times during the film. In that famous soliloquy, Hamlet ponders whether to be active or passive. The inmates in RTA choose to act, create, hope – and that changes their world and ours.