SURVIVORS
Written by Wendy Kout
A touring play teaching the Holocaust and tolerance
SURVIVORS, an hour-long, educational, and inspiring drama enacts
the history of the Holocaust through the eyewitness testimony of ten survivors.
A young and diverse cast is our guide on this perilous journey.
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
~Nelson Mandela
WHY THIS PLAY?
The indomitable individuals depicted in SURVIVORS teach history and provide hope, life lessons, and encouragement to speak up and act against today’s hatred and bullying.
In an era of great divide with increased incidents of antisemitism,
racism, religious hate, hate based on sexual orientation, and
hate-fueled violence, we cannot silently stand by and allow
selected groups to be singled out and marginalized.
NEVER FORGET! NEVER AGAIN! NEVER IS NOW!
WHY IS HOLOCAUST EDUCATION IMPORTANT?
To combat prejudice, we teach our children tolerance. Holocaust history and survivor stories help students identify and understand the dangers and repercussions of prejudice and how to act
against it. We must never forget that between 1939 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; around two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population. Five million of Hitler’s other “undesirables” were also brutally murdered, including people of color, gay people, the mentally and physically challenged, priests, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the Roma and Sinti people. These eleven million were killed because of antisemitism and hatred for those who were not deemed to be superior Aryans. These atrocities are considered by some to be the worst genocide in history. Others deny that it ever happened.
WATCH THE SURVIVORS TRAILER
PRODUCTION HISTORY
2017 – Playwright Wendy Kout was commissioned by CenterStage Theatre in Rochester, NY to write a Holocaust play, based on the lives of ten survivors who immigrated to Rochester. A month later, while watching Neo-Nazis march with tiki torches in Charlottesville, Wendy realized she wasn’t just writing a history play. She was writing a warning play.
2018-2019 – Approximately 10,000 students experienced SURVIVORS throughout Rochester and surrounding areas at 25 private and public schools and at CenterStage Theatre.
2019 – Playwright Wendy Kout was asked by Skylight Theatre Company in Los Angeles to pen a full-length adaptation of SURVIVORS weaving in contemporary conflicts. The resulting iteration of the project, NEVER IS NOW, played to a multi-generational, diverse audience of over 2000 during a limited run.
2022 – Coming out of our Covid hiatus, this past spring SURVIVORS had new productions which toured schools and stages in Philadelphia and Victoria, B.C. Canada.
2023 – SURVIVORS school and stage tours continued in NY, Philadelphia, and Victoria and Vancouver, B.C. Canada. Keshet Chaim/Arts for Change launched the Los Angeles and West Coast school and stage tour of SURVIVORS at Calabasas High School, followed by performances at Adat Ariel Temple and Camp Alonim. The public premiere was at, and presented by, the Museum of Tolerance on September 10, and was followed by another public performance at Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on October 15.
2024 – SURVIVORS school and stage tours continue in Los Angeles, the West Coast, NY, Philadelphia, Vancouver, Victoria, B.C. Canada and a new production will launch in Saint Paul, Minnesota.