Research Project
The Interactive Theater of Liliane Atlan: Rethinking the way we think about and teach the Holocaust
Caila Dela Cruz researched the innovative theater of the French playwright Liliane Atlan to examine how a theatrical framework can be used to help us better understand the Holocaust experience of children.
- Research Area(s)
- Undergraduate Research
- Co-Investigators
- Ireland, John
- Funding Source
- LASURI Undergraduate Initiative
Abstract
Caila Dela Cruz (B.A. 2017) researched the innovative theatrical works of French playwright Liliane Atlan to examine how a theatrical framework can be used to help us better understand the Holocaust experience of children, with particular focus on Atlan's interactive “play” An Opera for Terezin which uses no actors – communities use the text of the “play” as if it were a Seder Haggadah. Situated in the divide between ritual and spectacle, Atlan’s text explores the Theresienstadt ghetto with a mixture of dramatic invention and historical documents from the Yad Vashem archives in Jerusalem, detailing the artistic and journalistic activity of children confined in the ghetto before being transported to Auschwitz. How does this kind of creative engagement take on trauma in a way inaccessible to the novel and film? How does Atlan use theater as a learning medium for children? How does An Opera for Terezin use multiple media to expand the theatrical experience but also its pedagogical possibilities? These are a few of the questions that guided her research. Caila presented her research at the 2017 In/Between project. She won a Chancellor's Student Service and Leadership Award and on graduation was named an Impact Scholar. She was one of a select group of students invited to present her Atlan project to State Senators in Springfield.