Muhlenberg Theatre Association presents Israel Horovitz’s Lebensraum
The Muhlenberg Theatre Association stage production of Lebensraum, Israel Horovitz’s dynamic and theatrically-charged play, will be presented in the Studio Theatre, Trexler Pavilion for Theatre & Dance of Muhlenberg College from October 6-9, 2005.Friday, September 16, 2005 01:59 PM
Performances are Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m; tickets may be reserved and purchased by phone at 484-664-3333 or purchased on the web at www.muhlenberg.edu/tickets.
Horovitz’s bold play is based on the explosive idea that Jews around the world might now be guaranteed citizenship and jobs in Germany – be granted their own living space. “As Chancellor of this great German republic, I extend an invitation to six million Jews from anywhere in the world to come to live their lives in Germany.” Announced to the world with apparent sincerity, the Chancellor’s outrageous political gesture launches a storm of confusion, protest, outrage, violence and hope.
“I speak to you, now: You will be given citizenship and full privileges in this great nation. You will be German. It is my heartfelt desire to re-establish a Jewish community in Germany, and to reduce, as much as humanly possible, the immeasurable shame we Germans feel each day of our lives for what this country did to our German-Jewish neighbors, 60 years ago. What I am saying to you six million Jewish people is quite simple, really. Please, come home. Please." --Rudolph Stroiber, Chancellor of the German Republic (from Lebensraum).
The Chancellor’s unthinkable yet visionary invitation generates dramatically disparate reactions that reverberate through the generations of German citizens at home and through the survivors, emigrants and descendents in America, Israel, Australia and around the world. This stunning exploration of history and forgiveness takes its audience on a thought-provoking journey in which actors switch quickly from one character to the next in near vaudevillian style. A cast of three actors plays over 40 characters in a rush of frenetic scenes that erupt out of the chaos of social, political and personal confusion. Horovitz chooses theatricality, invention and minimalism to tell a sharply-etched story, flooding audiences with sudden joy, dark humor and surprising humanity.
Actors are challenged to assume characters of differing ethnicities, accents, ages, exposing the charitable and the shameful things that all people do. An out-of-work Jewish dockworker from Gloucester, Massachusetts, chooses to bring his gentile wife and son to Germany in hope of prosperity; a survivor of Auschwitz returns to seek revenge on the woman who betrayed his family; a German minister preaches tolerance and understanding, while a German businessman capitalizes on the celebrity of his new Jewish workers. At the center of the play, an American boy and a German girl fall innocently and hopelessly in love, while their fathers struggle with the desperate shortage of jobs.
Against the backdrop of growing national tension, teenagers, parents and grandparents are forced to remember, listen and learn. From the youngsters who emerged in a culture that had erased its Jewish citizens, to parents who never dared to tell the truth about what they had witnessed, to grandparents who lingered in sadness and denial – how is Germany to prepare for this transformation? How do we handle the conflict between the need for forgiveness and the desire for revenge? How do we come to terms with history and, at the same time, put history behind us? Are reunion and integration possible? What happens when the Holocaust is no longer a distant echo of shame? Is redemption possible?
Funny yet devastating, this artfully drawn script from acclaimed playwright Israel Horovitz dares to risk exploring the path to atonement and asking the price of forgiveness. “All past is prologue,” writes Horovitz in his introduction to the play. “Such is the nature and condition of Hope. And, in the end, one cannot possibly have the fullest life without dreaming it, first. But, if we allow ourselves the dream, yes, oh, yes, all things are possible.”
Ironically, “Lebensraum” was Hitler’s promise to the German nation when he set out to conquer the world – such “living space” was believed to strengthen German unity, military power, and economic self-sufficiency. The Nazi Regime turned it into the rallying cry for expanding its European borders and overtaking Russia to ensure Germany’s greatness.
Director Noah Herman ’06 believes that at the play's very core is forgiveness and healing. The collective journey of Lebensraum is an exploration into what can be forgiven, what cannot, and what it takes to forgive. Herman calls the play “decidedly theatrical and decidedly comedic.” He explains that Horovitz has constructed this inherently comedic style of role-switching, in which an actor can have conversations with himself merely by changing hats, so that the play’s “devastating conclusion” is all the more poignant. “When the journey [of the play] is so much fun, the destination can take the audience anywhere,” Herman continues.
Lebensraum is about the consequences and the power of decisions; it is about the past and the future, the young and the old. Doors are everywhere in this production as Herman asks the audience to consider the effects of each choice we make. The love story between two of the play’s younger characters, Anna and Sam, is also about the undaunted quality of hope that resounds eternally in the hearts of the young. Their fated romance represents “the hope that the older characters in the play do not have,” explains Herman.
Lebensraum never lets the audience forget that this is a play, states Herman. The stage for this play will always be a stage as the actors often turn on and off their own lights and retrieve props from onstage prop tables. The transitions are quick and the set is minimalist; Herman says that an audience member can expect to see what “may look like the backstage of a theatre.” To carry this further, the production’s actual stage manager, Erica Hunt ’08, will come onstage to interact with the actors and the sound designer, Alex Garlen ’06, will be manipulating the show’s sound effects live onstage. Herman emphasizes that Horovitz does not intend for this to be “another Holocaust play.” Lebensraum has a new focus that enters more into the theoretical and the imaginative than the strictly historical. As Horovitz says in his introduction, “I felt that any play dramatizing Jews, Germans, the Holocaust, at this point in history, needed a fresh approach, both formally and substantially.”
Peter Pettit, Director of the Institute for Jewish-Christian Understanding at Muhlenberg College, will lead a conversation with the audience after the opening night performance on October 6. "The questions raised by the Shoa (Holocaust) are timeless, particularly when we look at how it came to be,” says Pettit. “MTA and Noah Herman courageously tackle some of those questions with Israel Horovitz' play, which considers whether justice can be simple and how ‘never again’ demands both societal and personal transformation. This show will get you thinking, and then stay with you to think some more."
PROFILES
Kristyn Brady (Costume Designer) graduated in May of 2005 with her self-designed major in Costume Theory & Function and Dance. Her most recent work was with The Theatre Outlet last Spring, co-designing And My Name Ain't Peaches by Lisa McCree. Kristyn and her co-designer Annie Simon, also a recent 'Berg graduate, were very excited to be a part of the ...Peaches debut as well as its acceptance at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, and look forward to the anticipated New York run of the show. As a student, Kristyn costumed “What’s the Story?” for the MTA’s New Voices 2004. She co-costumed the Fall 2004 Student Dance Concert as well as various other concerts for the Muhlenberg Dance Association. She served as president of the MDA while performing in its many concerts as well. She currently works as an Art Consultant for the Galeria Sottil located in the Dolphin Resort at Walt Disney World, Orlando, FL.
Troy Dwyer (Dialect Coach) is a Lecturer in the Department of Theatre and Dance. An actor, director, writer, and vocal coach, Troy co-wrote the musical Lures & Snares (with Beth Schachter), which premiered last spring here at Muhlenberg. Additionally, he has directed (and performed in) the Neo-Futurists’ comedy 43 Plays for 43 Presidents at the Theatre Outlet, and served as dramaturg and vocal coach for Charles O. Anderson’s Parables of Mutants and Madmen for dance theatre X. A VASTA voice and speech trainer, Troy has voice/dialect coached several MTA mainstage productions, including Measure for Measure and Dancing at Lughnasa, and several Black Box productions, including Springtime, The Dumbwaiter, and Wasp. He served as Artistic Director for New Voices 2004, for which he directed The Journal by Adam D. Pinti. His national acting credits include principal roles with the Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, the Georgia Ensemble Theatre, Madison Repertory Theatre, Horizon Theatre Company, the Georgia Shakespeare Festival, and C.A.S.T. Atlanta, and his directing credits include Moisés Kaufman’s Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba, Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman, Robbie McCauley’s Sally’s Rape, and David Saar’s The Yellow Boat. He most recently directed Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest for Bethlehem’s One World Theatre. Troy is also a performance artist whose original work includes Body of Knowledge (1998) and Journey/Cave (1999), which was developed with “NEA 4” performance artist Tim Miller. He holds a B.A. in psychology from Oglethorpe University and an M.F.A. in acting from the University of Wisconsin.
Israel Horovitz (Playwright) is author of more than fifty produced plays, of which several have been translated and performed in as many as thirty languages, worldwide. Horovitz has won numerous writing awards, including the OBIE (twice), the EMMY, the Prix de Plaisir du Theatre, The Prix du Jury of the Cannes Film Festival, The Prix Italia, The Christopher Award, The Drama Desk Award, The Elliot Norton Prize, a Lifetime Achievement Award from B'Nai Brith, an honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Salem (Massachusetts) State College, and many others. Mr. Horovitz is founder and Artistic Director of Gloucester Stage Company, and of The New York Playwrights Lab. Among Horovitz's best-known plays are The Indian Wants The Bronx, Line (now in its 22nd year, off-Broadway, at the 13th Street Repertory Theatre), Rats, It's Called The Sugar Plum, Morning, The Primary English Class, The Wakefield Plays, The Chopin Playoffs, and the "Growing Up Jewish" trilogy. Mr. Horovitz visits France, frequently, where he often directs French-language productions of his plays. He is the most-produced American playwright in French theatre history.
Noah Herman (Director) has appeared on stage at Muhlenberg College in George M!,Summerfolk, The Beggar’s Opera, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, and New Voices 2004. His directing credits include directing the studio production of WASP, and assistant directing The Seagull for the Muhlenberg Theatre Association and Annie Get Your Gun for Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre.
A. Nelson Ruger, IV (Set and Lighting Designer) is a graduate of Syracuse University and Muhlenberg College. His design credits include Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Virginia Stage Company, Surflight Theatre, The Savoy Company, The Lincoln Square Theatre, Kirkland Fine Arts Center and Circa’21 Playhouse.
