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Isbell’s award-winning documentary on the Holocaust opens next week
BY JAMI REINHART
STATESMAN STAFF WRITER
ISSUE 17/27
SUBMITTED PHOTO / JIMI SIDES
(Left to right) Brian Kess, Christopher Ryan
Olsen and Serena Brook playing victims of the
Holocaust. In “Dear Finder,” the performers
change characters multiple times.
TYLER SWEENEY / STATESMAN
Dan Bigwood, Kathy Tingum and Leigh
Wakeford playing Germans discussing what it
means to be Jewish.
Though the Holocaust may be an event of the past, its impact and magnitude tells a story that one playwright believes should not be forgotten, even decades later. “Dear Finder,” an award-winning documentary play about the Holocaust, was written by UMD Professor Tom Isbell, along with seven other students, 10 years ago. The play will open on the Mainstage Theatre at UMD April 24.
“I wanted to write the play because of my own ignorance about the Holocaust,” said Isbell. “I was ashamed that I knew so little about the event.”
Isbell and his students began writing the documentary play in the summer of 1997 and completed a working draft the following summer, just in time for rehearsals for the first production. “I wanted to work with students because I knew from experience that students have the best ideas,” said Isbell. “I also wanted a group of others to learn more about this horrific event.”
“Dear Finder” gives the audience a look at the Holocaust through the telling voices of its victims while incorporating letters, interviews and materials from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The documentary play depicts Hitler’s rise to power, the wide-spread persecution and massacres, life in the ghettos and concentration camps and liberation. “We went through several articles, books and newspapers looking for hard data and quotes for use in the play. It was a very daunting experience in many ways,” said Jamison Haase, one of the students involved with the creation of the original play.
The fact that Haase had never been previously involved in writing a play like “Dear Finder,” mixed with limited knowledge of the subject matter from the onset and the awe of working with highly-esteemed peers along with Isbell, left Haase feeling scared. “He [Isbell] had written and performed—to much acclaim and success—another play that was very similar in form about Walt Whitman and his letters about the Civil War, which I had seen earlier the year before,” said Haase. “And the idea that I could write something like that dealing with the single greatest tragedy that man ever committed upon himself … I was really scared at first.”
While “Dear Finder” depicts the trying times throughout the trials of the Holocaust, the relation to current events and more recent occurrences around the world are also of relevance. “It was the most grueling and heartbreaking play I was ever in,” said Andy Nelson, another student involved in the original play. “The reward was that many people were able to perhaps connect current world ideology to the framework of the Holocaust, but we went through tremendous grief getting that message out.”
Although the Holocaust was an event of the past, reenacting some of the occurrences of its history made the once harsh realities somewhat difficult to bring back. “I found that in order to read about what was happening and see the images that I was seeing on a regular basis, I almost had to shut off the part of myself that felt emotion,” said Haase. “I almost had to think only clinically about what we were discussing and seeing, because to spend three months face to face with that unbelievable horror would be too much for me to take.”
Following its debut, “Dear Finder” was performed in front of a national audience at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. It was also selected as one of six national winners in the 1999 American College Theatre Festival. “The fact that the community embraced it as they did and so completely supported the efforts of those students was remarkable,” said Isbell. “And then, for the production to be so well-received at the regional and national levels was extremely humbling. This was one of the most gratifying experiences.”
In spite of the emotional ties or personal beliefs an individual hones in regards to the Holocaust, it is an event, that for Isbell, people in the 21st century absolutely must know and not forget. “It’s too important an event for us not to know about it,” said Isbell.
As a documentary-style play, “Dear Finder” is not only unique in its storyline, but also finds its own niche in the world of plays. “We’re presenting a type of theatre which doesn’t get much attention: the documentary play. It’s a unique way of presenting factual material to the stage,” said Isbell. Aside from being written as a documentary- style play, “Dear Finder” is unique in that each line was taken directly from a quote or historical fact. Whether the audience is drawn to see the play in order to learn more about the event or to support the cast, crew and director, “Dear Finder” presents a depiction of trials throughout the Holocaust, while highlighting the talent of the writers.
“It was tremendous working with Tom. With so many cooks in the kitchen, things could have easily gotten out of hand, but Tom, while being open to all our ideas and suggestions, also led us with a very sure and steady hand,” said Haase. “I will always value and admire him for his honesty, sensitivity and passion for his craft.”
Aside from the admiration and one-of-a-kind experience, the writers took away from their involvement with a play like “Dear Finder,” the current students involved with the play are just as committed. “What touches me night-after-night is the commitment of these actors who literally threw themselves into the mud to tell this story,” said Isbell.
Showtimes:
April 24-26 @ 7:30 p.m.
April 27 @ 2 p.m.
April 30-May 3 @ 7:30 p.m.
*All performances are in the Marshall Performing Arts Center (MPAC). Student admission can be purchased through the MPAC box office for $6.
