Abstract
The immediate power of Holocaust survivor testimony and witnessing is unmistakable. As Rob Baum once wrote “testimony arises from the concomitant, simultaneous need to tell the story and to be heard. That’s all. The presence of the witness is that which grants testimony its power.” Nevertheless, survivors are dying and as Mary Dejevsky put it in 2014, “there is no substitute for just one individual’s testimony, spoken face to face. As the number of those who remember declines, so – inexorably – the link between that past and this present is loosened.” While Dejevsky notes that it is the spoken part of testimony that is key, I argue that it is the face to face that is essential. The power of testimony is seeing the survivor’s body as she tells her story, as Rob Baum stated, “bodies perform as containers and signs, serving to mark and enliven trauma and its memory.” This presentation focuses on the creation of my new play, Five Survivors Tell the World that incorporates the verbatim testimony of Holocaust survivors to tell their stories on stage. These survivors told their stories to countless people in the Philadelphia region for many years. Their testimony served as a valuable tool to bring history to life and combat antisemitism and Holocaust denial. This study explores how to create a play using the survivors’ own words and how these words spoken and lived in the bodies of actors can keep these histories alive through theatrical production.
Presenters
Anthony HostetterAssistant Professor, Theatre and Dance, Rowan University, New Jersey, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2023 Special Focus—-New Aesthetic Expressions: The Social Role of Art
KEYWORDS
Holocaust, Theatre, Drama, Social engagement, Body, History, Performance
