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PAST EXPERIMENTS

WITNESS

Trailer by Anton Nikolaev. Scenography and costume design by Anna Fedorova, virtual design by Daniel Cormino.

WITNESS

December 10, 2021    -    January 23, 2022

Virtual | Online

A new virtual theater piece
Written by Nana Grinstein

with Blair Cadden & Igor Golyak
Conceived and directed by Igor Golyak 
Scenography & Costume Design by Anna Fedorova

Virtual Design by Daniel Cormino

Sound Design by Viktor Semenov

Director of Photography/Editor, Anton Nikolaev
Produced by Sara Stackhouse

Featuring the Arlekin Acting Company

See full cast and creative team

Where do unwanted people go?

WITNESS, the third project from Arlekin's Zero Gravity (zero-G) Virtual Theater Lab, is a new documentary theater piece about Jewish immigration in the face of antisemitism.  WITNESS brings actors and audience together from around the world for a shared immersive experience set on a boat in digital space.  The piece is inspired by the journey of the MS St. Louis, which left Hamburg in 1939 with over 900 Jewish people on board and headed to Cuba only to be turned away, leaving the passengers stranded with nowhere to go and no escape. WITNESS shares stories of Jewish immigrants from around the globe through an interactive virtual theater experience at the nexus of film, theater and video games.

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Four young girls on MS St. Louis deck

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum,

courtesy of Fred [Fritz] Vendig

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MS St. Louis Picture Postcard 

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum,

courtesy of Julie Klein, photo by Max Reid 

PERFORMANCES & PRESENTING PARTNERS

Preview Performance

Post-show talkback with members of the cast and creative team

Preview Performance

Post-show talkback with members of the cast and creative team

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Special post-show talkback moderated by Miriam Anzovin, Host, The Vibe of the Tribe

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Post-show talkback with members of the cast and creative team

Sponsored by Jookender

 

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Post-show talkback with members of the cast and creative team

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Special post-show talkback moderated by Dr. Rebecca Erbelding, US Holocaust Memorial Museum Historian

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Post-show talkback with members of the cast and creative team

Sponsored by @akiva for Teens Cleveland

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Special Post-show talkback moderated by Dr. Barbara Wallace Grossman

Co-presented by Jewish Arts Collaborative and The Vilna Shul

Preview Performance

Post-show talkback with members of the cast and creative team

Opening Night (World Premiere)

Post-show talkback with members of the cast and creative team

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Special Russian Language post-show talkback, moderated by Lena Kreindlin, Director General, Gesher Theatre

 

Co-presented by Gesher Theater (Israel) & Cherry Orchard Festival Foundation (New York) Sponsored by the Consulate General of Israel to New England

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Special post-show talkback moderated by Amir Tadmor, Director of Cultural Affairs, Consulate General of Israel to New England

Co-presented by Gesher Theater (Israel) & Cherry Orchard Festival Foundation (New York) Sponsored by the Consulate General of Israel to New England

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Post-show talkback with members of the cast and creative team

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Special post-show talkback moderated by 

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann

Co-presented by Mishkan Chicago

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Special talkback moderated by Joyce Kulhawik, President of the Boston Theater Critics Association, Emmy Award-Winning A & E Critic

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Post-show talkback with members of the cast and creative team

Special performance to support Shalva (Jerusalem)

Sponsored by .ART

With additional support from Consulate General of Israel to New England

Thank you to our WITNESS sponsors and co-presenters:

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