MIAMI – High school students in South Florida are using theater to turn history into powerful lessons.
The Holocaust Impact Theater is putting on the show “Linked”.
Written and directed by the students, the show is connecting the history of the holocaust to present day injustices.
The Holocaust Impact Theater is a high school student theater project at the Alper JCC Miami made up of about 60 students, led by the one and only Ruth Gordon.
“Just to see students from all different sorts of backgrounds come together with one common goal and respect each other, I think it’s amazing,” she said. “And learn from each other.”
If Gordon looks familiar, that’s because she won Local 10′s My Future My Choice Education award a few years ago for her work with the Holocaust Impact Theater, which is now celebrating 20 years.
“Both my husband and I have ties to the holocaust,” she said. “My father was a liberator. He liberated Buchenwald, and when he did, he liberated my husband’s grandfather.”
Her journey with program started with a phone call 20 years ago.
“When Lisa Reichart called me to do this program, I said ok Lisa, I have no experience writing scripts,” Gordon recalled. “She said, we’ll figure it out, and that’s how it started.”
Gordon has been at the helm of the program ever since.
This year, the students are putting on the show “Linked.”
For years, the unique program has used the atrocities of the holocaust as a platform to better understand and teach their audiences what happens when hate infiltrates a society.
Every year the show pushes the boundaries and expands perspective.
“Linked” is running now until Sunday, March 9 at the Alper JCC Miami Robert Russell Theater. For tickets, click here.