LEGACY
a music theatre piece about the rescue of a Jewish family out of Germany in 1939
written and directed by Shauna Kanter

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LEGACY premiered at England's Bristol Old Vic in 1995. A tour to Germany and France followed sponsored by the European Commission. In 1998, LEGACY transferred to London 's Cockpit Theatre. In 2003 LEGACY opened to rave reviews at the T. Schreiber Studio in New York City,
(T. Schreiber title, THE GIFT ).

Floor to ceiling archival footage, live Klezmer music and the uniquely stylized voice and movement ensemble techniques of VOICETheatre bring an theatrically evocative immediacy to LEGACY. The American Jewish response to Hitler's rise is irrevocably linked with the despair and courage of the German people, a Jewish family's escape and the tragedy of those they leave behind.

In Philadelphia, in the 1960's, David, an disillusioned American ex-Communist is dying. He tells his daughter Sarah, "I got Brecht's children out. They're alive, they're living in California ..." After her father's death Sarah tries to unravel the truth of her father's cowardice and courage, LEGACY travels from the playful sixties to the eve of WW II in a series of flashbacks.

In 1937, a young German Jewish boy begs the young idealistic David, to rescue his sister, Anna and her children from Berlin. Anna is on a Nazi hit list. Risking her life, she is photographing evidence of the Third Reich.

Back in America, afraid of the consequences David refuses to take action until his wife passionately convinces him to assume a fake identity and, with a forged passport, they both travel to Berlin where they find Anna and her children in hiding. Minutes before they are all to board an American ship, David is interrogated by the SS. 

The Legacy Project - school workshops

Workshops are coordinated with high school curricula, usually English and History classes. Theatre techniques are utilized to provide high school students with a historically informative, yet intimate experience of what life was like for young Jewish teenagers living in Germany during the Third Reich up to 1939, as well as an examination of racism and anti-Semitism in the students own life today.

In-depth workshops examine the economic, cultural, political and historical factors that contributed to the rise of the Nazi party. Holocaust Survivors come to the classroom and share what life was like for them during the Third Reich.

In writing workshops students develop monologues about their own experiences of racism and anti-Semitism. Selected monologues are then integrated into the script of LEGACY and performed by the students and the VOICETheatre ensemble in all performances of LEGACY .

Finally, students attend a matinee performance and participate in a post performance dialogue session focusing on the themes of individual social action, understanding and respecting racial differences, civic responsibilities well as the American and German response to the Third Reich.

Led by the teaching artists and the VOICETheatre ensemble. Teacher participation and length of workshop is flexible.

Funding for Legacy

The British Council, The European Commission, The Kulturamtes der Hannover, The Lord Ashdown Charitable Trust, The City Councils of London, Bristol, Hannover, Germany, Bordeaux, France, Lufthansa Airlines, and the Association of Jewish Refugees, among many others.

In 2003 the Board of Education in New York City funded The Legacy Project in five of its' inner city high schools in conjunction with the New York premiere of LEGACY.

2006 Season

VOICETheatre

Presents 
 

RETZACH

A theatrical exploration of the dark heart of vengeance. 
 

Written by Hanoch Levin – Directed by Shauna Kanter 

Translation by

Liat Glick, Tzahi Moskovitz, & Shauna Kanter 
 

LIMITED ENGAGEMENT

February 9 thru March 12, 2006

Off-Broadway at

59E59 THEATERS

59 East 59^th Street, NYC

By NEIL GENZLINGER

Published: February 18, 2006

VoiceTheater's production of "Retzach" by the Israeli playwright Hanoch Levin is all the right things: vivid, grim, frightening, sometimes mesmerizing….

The Force of Life That Drive Vengeance and Human Conflict

RETZACH (murder in Hebrew) lays bare the tragic ramifications of vengeance through three intertwined tales of lives caught in the blind cycle of violence and retribution.  Written by the acclaimed, controversial and now deceased Israeli playwright Hanoch Levin as a response to the riots that ensued following the Israeli Prime Minister's visit to the tunnel under the Temple Mount, RETZACH won 5 Israeli Theater Awards including Best Play in 1998.

The play does not specifically address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but rather explores the dark forces that underscore all human conflict, in a similar manner to Steven Spielberg's new film MUNICH.

RETZACH received rapturous critical acclaim in Israel for its political courage and cultural poignancy. In this New York production, VOICETheatre's uniquely styled physical and vocal ensemble brings a distinctly modern vision to this powerful and universal story. 
 

PUSHING THROUGH
a music theatre piece performed by Palestinian and Israeli women
written and directed by Shauna Kanter

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PUSHING THROUGH presents the humane struggle of the Middle East crisis. It was one of the first theatre pieces in the world to combine Palestinian and Israeli actors in an effort toward peaceful co-existence and mutual respect and understanding. PUSHING THROUGH reveals the deadly misconceptions on both sides that continue to fuel the fires of hatred in the Middle East. The text was developed at LA MAMA in New York City with Palestinian and Israeli women and then toured the UK and the US from 1989 – 1993.

WORKSHOPS

Post performance dialogues are led by Arab/Muslim and Israeli/Jewish women. The themes of PUSHING THROUGH are utilized as boundaries to structure our dialogue as well as enabling us to push through to a deeper understanding of the Middle East Crisis and the new challenges that America must face if it is to lead the world in mutual respect, democracy and understanding.

Funding for PUSHING THROUGH

Performances of PUSHING THROUGH and it's workshops have been funded by the Sir Edmund Rothschild Foundation, U.S. Arts International, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Joyce Mertz-Gillmore Foundation, the Middle East Institute, American Airlines, the Glasgow and Edinburgh City Councils, among many others.

UP CENTRE BETWEEN
one man show written and performed by Robert Langdon Lloyd
directed by Shauna Kanter

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Jonathon Fortescue, triumphant English actor, veteran of historic masterpieces and survivor of getting last month's rent for free, has staggered his way into living illegally above an abandoned theatre on New York's Lower East Side.

Nine or ten months ago, the Princess Maria-Grizelda Droutskoi gave him five thousand dollars to create an evening of experimental theatre for her and one hundred of her closest friends.

This performance is to take place tomorrow night and Jonathon hasn't thought about it for a moment. He now has twenty-four hours to come up with a show – the future has arrived.

On a stage packed with worthless theatre junk Jonathon attempts to conquer self-doubt. By creating an imaginary audience he begins to re-call and rehearse theatre stories, poems, excerpts, life experiences, anything to ignite the muse. His stories are based on Robert Langdon's Lloyd's experiences of working with Peter Brook, Grotowski, the Royal Shakespeare Company and touring the world in many ground breaking productions.

UP CENTRE BETWEEN premiered at the KO Festival of Performance Arts in Amherst, MA in 1998. Performances where funded by The British Council.

UP CENTRE BETWEEN workshops

A Workshop Celebration of Shakespeare Dreaming

Robert Lloyd has led Shakespeare Dreaming Workshops at New York University School of the Arts, Stanford University, Amherst College and Bowdoin College. He is a founding member of Peter Brook's Paris Company and has acted with the Royal Shakespeare Company since 1963.

Past Productions

School and Community Workshops

New York City High Schools
(supported by the New York City Board of Education)

Seward Park High School, 10th grade
Washington Irving High School, 12th grade
Bayard Ruston High School for the Humanities, 10th grade
Chelsea High School , 10th grade
University Neighborhood High School , 9th grade

USA

Theatre and Community Centers

Arab American Cultural Foundation, Washington DC
Carver Center for the Arts, Local High Schools , San Antonio , TX
Columbia Festival of the Arts, Community Workshops, Columbia , MD
Bowdoin College , New Brunswick , Maine
Jewish Women's Dialogue Group, Washington , DC
KO Festival of the Arts, Amherst , MA
Louisiana Tech University
The T. Schreiber Studio
Unison Arts Center , New Paltz , NY

International

Theatre and Community Centers

Arts Express, Glasgow , Scotland
Ashtar Theatre, Ramallah, Palestinian Authority
Bristol Old Vic Theatre School , Bristol , England
Cameri Theatre, Tel Aviv, Israel
Centrum Sztuki Dziecka, Poznan , Poland
City & Westminster College , London
Edgeware Masorti Synagogue, London
Georges Lapierre High School , Bordeaux , France
Hartcliffe School , Bristol , England
Helena Lange Schule, Hannover , Germany
Holocaust Survivor's Office, London
Jewish Association of Cultural Societies, London
Link, London and Bristol , England
Middlesex University , London
Peres Centre for Peace, Israel
Palestinian Regional Authority, Palestinian Authority
Pfefferwerk Arts Centre, Former East Berlin , Germany
Queen Margaret College , Edinburgh , Scotland
Second Generation, London
Syracuse University , London
Tzediak, London
West London Synagogue, London