Living Arts Playback Ensemble Provides Powerful Workshop for Eighth Graders

Armand Volkas, artistic director of the Living Arts Playback Ensemble, actors from Living Arts Playback Ensemble, and members of the Jewish German dialogue group met our eighth grade students today as the finale to their Holocaust unit in Judaic studies. This workshop, “Healing the Wounds of History,” was made possible through the Brandeis Innovation Grant program. “Armand has developed innovative programs using expressive arts for social change, intercultural conflict, reconciliation, and intercultural communication,” Rabbi Angel explained in her grant application. “I believe his work is transformative.” The workshop brought together descendants of Holocaust survivors and descendants of Third Reich perpetrators to talk about life with their legacies. As students shared their reactions to what they were hearing and feeling, actors and musicians transformed their feelings and personal stories into improvised theater pieces.

 

“It was interactive, as students had the opportunity to react to the complexity of the stories and the subjects of judgement, punishment, forgiveness, and legacy,” explains Rabbi Angel. Tomorrow students will finish their Holocaust studies by sharing with one another through poetry, prayer, and song their enduring understandings and the impact this unit has had on their identity. The workshop and the whole Holocaust unit were very powerful for our eighth graders. MORE PHOTOS