Historical Theatre: Shanghai Jewish Refugees

04/14/2026

We are honored to perform tomorrow at the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage in observance of Shoah.

05/07/2025

The newest Historical Theatre: Shanghai Jewish Refugee project goes up tomorrow.

Over the course of this semester the New Development class has been researching and developing a new play about Jewish performers who found refuge from N**i persecution in Shanghai, China, during WWII. Specifically, the play is a revisal of social worker and amateur comedian Gerhard Gottschalk farewell performance of "Life of a Schlemiel," a cabaret he performed frequently before, during, and after his time in Shanghai. Gottschalk narrates the life of someone down on their luck who finds and spreads happiness through music and laughter. Under the guidance of historian Dr. Kevin Ostoyich and dramaturg/director Dr. Kari-Anne Innes, students have used source materials from the United States Holocaust Museum to research, write, compose, design, direct, choreograph, and perform songs and stories from the lives of Shanghai Jewish refugees. The shoes on the poster represent a technique promoted by actress and playwright Anna Deavere Smith who performs her plays barefoot as an act of humility, an acknowledgement that she is walking into someone else's story and that she can never fully walk in their shoes. We do the same in order that we might commemorate and learn from history through the empathetic art of theatre.

04/16/2025

We have several theatre majors presenting in tomorrow's Student Research Symposium:

Poster Presentations, Smith Student Center Ballroom, 12:30p-1:45p

Finding Fantasy in a World at War: An Alice by Heart Sound Design
Presenter: Ryan Mounteer

Childhood Nostalgia Reimagined: Sound Designing Junie B. Jones the Musical
Presenter: Isaac Perez

The Astronots Sound Design
Presenter: Isaac Smith

Oral Presentations

Rebuilding Hope: The Story of the White Horse Inn
Presenter: Kadence Storms
2p-2:20p, Smith Center 323

03/14/2025

12/12/2024

The international festival FIKTIVA - TheaterFilmFest (TFF) is the only German film festival that selects audiovisual works in which the theatre gets special ...

10/30/2024

On Sunday, November 10, the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum partnering with the Dallas Theatre Center will present a staged reading of the play "Knocking on the Doors of History," which was written by Kari-Anne Innes and Kevin Ostoyich with students at Valparaiso University as part of The Historical Theatre Project.

Dr. Innes is excited to bring The Historical Theatre Project to Slippery Rock University as part of the spring course, New Play Development. The class will write and perform the fifth play in the project, "Laughter and Lyrics from Shanghai," a cabaret with historical commentary about the musical life of Jewish refugees living in Shanghai during WWII.

"Knocking on the Doors of History" is presented as part of the NJTF Remembrance Readings program honoring the victims, survivors and lessons of the Holocaust. May the unique power of theater in performance and education overcome the forces of bigotry, Holocaust denial, and serve as an artistic moral compass for future generations. This program is a collaboration between the THE ASSOCIATION OF HOLOCAUST ORGANIZATIONS INC, Theatre Communications Group and NATIONAL JEWISH THEATER FOUNDATION INC.

10/30/2024

Knocking on the Door of History, the first play of the Historical Theatre Project in 2016, will be read at the Dallas Theatre Center!

On November 10, join the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum for a stage reading of the play Knocking on the Doors of History. Listen, learn, and witness the fictional Kaufmann family’s survival through the November pogrom of Kristallnacht to escaping and finding refuge in Shanghai. A talkback with the production’s director will follow the reading. This event is presented in conjunction with the Museum’s current special exhibition, Hidden History: Recounting the Shanghai Jewish Story.

Register for this FREE event, link in bio🔗

08/07/2024

"Three Girls of Shanghai" has been selected for the WRPN Women's International Festival. This means that it passed the first judging stage, now being able to go in front of the award judges.