Tags: Third Reich

Albert Speer

Plucked from obscurity to be Hitler’s architect and minister of war, Albert Speer became the second most powerful man in Nazi Germany and the closest Hitler had to a friend. This panoramic adaptation of Gitta Sereny’s definitive and magisterial biography tells the epic story of a man whose devotion to Hitler blinded him to the worst crime of the twentieth century.

Good

Good is a two-act play that dramatizes how John Halder, a seemingly progressive and “good” professor, whose best friend is the Jewish psychiatrist Maurice, is convinced to become a member of the Nazi party, and is also eventually able to rationalize all of the horrors of Nazi Germany, including the Final Solution (the official Third Reich policy to annihilate the worldwide Jewish population), which results in the deportation of his best friend.

Lech Lecha=Go Forth

The play, written for intermediate school students, chronicles the changing circumstance of two young Jewish girls: one leaves for Palestine, the other remains in Nazi Germany. The play employs flashbacks to present their former lives and the events leading to their separation.

The Third Wave

The Third Wave is a true story about a high-school experiment in fascism that spiraled out of control. Set in 1967 in Palo Alto, California, during the Vietnam war, racial integration and social revolution, the play centers around a young, popular teacher, Ron Jones, and his world history class. When a student asks how so many people could be led to deny the Holocaust of World War II, Mr. Jones decides to demonstrate by giving his students an exercise in discipline not unlike that of a totalitarian society. To his surprise, the students delight in the order and power of that discipline and relinquish their freedom in favor of the prospect of supposed superiority over other students in the school. The class adopts the name "The Third Wave," and soon many others, even from neighboring schools, clamor to be part of the "elite" group.

The Third Wave Musical

The Third Wave Musical tells the true story of a classroom experiment in fascism that takes place in January l967 at Cubberley High School in Palo Alto, California. It is a time of anti-war protests, racial integration and a cultural revolution. To answer a student's question about how the Holocaust could happen, a young teacher, Mr. Jones, decides to give his world history class an exercise in discipline—the experience of being in a totalitarian society. To his surprise, the students like the order and power that comes with discipline. No one could predict the explosive events that would follow. During a five-day period, students give up their freedom for the prospect of being superior to their classmates. Student curiosity and questioning is replaced with conformity and violence. Membership cards, salutes, bodyguards and informants fuel the excitement that becomes known as “The Third Wave”. Everyone wants to join—to be part of the action. Students welcome the witch-hunts, rallies, and the feeling of being special. Like his followers, Mr. Jones crosses some invisible line—he's no longer a teacher conducting a simulation but a leader of a national movement who enjoys the power, adulation and control. The Third Wave Musical explains what can happen when we stop believing in ourselves and fall victim to fear and intimidation, allows us to feel how difficult it is to stand up to injustice and group will, and shows us the price we pay when we lose the democratic process and respect of others to a world of bullies.