In November 2019 professionals and amatuer actors from Italy, Netherlands, Belgium and Greece attended a 5 days training in theatre technics and played the piece Railraod, written and directed by Bryan Reynolds. The event was held during the 2 LTA of the EHP project in Dinant – Belgium.
The title of the theatre piece is Railroad, it is a play of intense yet highly confined action (four murders in a narrow boxcar: imagine whirling atomic particles spiralling inward into a black hole) that explodes outward in the human dimensions of three living families from three cultures (Jewish, World War II German, and 21st-century American), four generations, and two eras. A piece that touches deep social issues and European historical phenomena.
Centripetal, centrifugal, and reeling by turns, the play emerges from the defining centre of the 20th century (the Holocaust, the nadir of civilized Europe) to create the wobbling imbalance of the present day on a “grassy knoll” in polyglot Battery Park, New York City. In design, acting, and production, we seek to create the pressure of confinement and the joy of childish hopes, the lack of air and the freedom of flight (emigration).
The objective of the play Railroad and Transversal Theater’s production is to create heightened awareness about the Holocaust and human rights at inter subjective depths rarely accomplished in representation and only accomplish able in theater — with actual human bodies interacting — rather than on film or in literature.
The activities have been chosen to train amateur and not amateur actors in order to get skills and competences to be used at local level to train the local community and the learners for the final event game. In this activity, all the participants are going to improve their theatre and multimedia technics. The group started to study the piece 2 months before the meeting to be able to focus the training on technics, expression, multimedia tools.
Cast and Crew:
Jewish-German Family: Giovanni Morassutti — JOEL MAYER (30) Francesca Tasini — His wife HANNAH MAYER (26) Romain Mathelart — Their son DANIEL MAYER (7) Shira Wolfe — His sister LIBI MAYER (3)
German-Nazis Family: Chronis Sapountzakis — KLAUS REINHARD (30) Sophia Dermitzaki — His wife MARIE REINHARD (26) Antonio Russo — Their son JANNI REINARD (7) Camilla Vincenzoni — His sister SARAH REINARD (3)
American Family: HENRY (30) played by actor playing KLAUS His wife LAUREN (26) played by actor playing HANNAH Their son STEPHEN (7) played by actor playing DANIEL His sister LISA (3) played by actor playing SARAH
Other: Bruno Mathelart — GERMAN SOLDIER WOMAN SELLING CHOCOLATE played by actor playing MARIE WOMAN ON BOAT played by actor playing HANNAH
PRODUCTION TEAM: Bryan Reynolds – Director, Playwright Oscar Seip – Stage Manager, Lighting Designer Anouk Briefjes – Musical Director Stefania Toscano – Choreographer David Backovsky – Sound Designer, Video Designer Laila Burane – Costume Designer, Make Up Artist
In Memory of Lydia Biondi.
In the morning before the theatre show, the partners had the opportunity to introduce the project during a conference organized by the Municipality and the “Provence de Namur” about cultural and historical heritage, cultural routes and intangible heritage promotion.
European Heritage Puzzle 