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
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.
Four young girls on MS St. Louis deck
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum,
courtesy of Fred [Fritz] Vendig
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 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 talkback moderated by Dr. Rachel Merrill Moss
Co-presented by Action for Post-Soviet Jewry and the Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center at New England Historic Geneological Society
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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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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:
