{"id":46661,"date":"2025-05-09T01:41:04","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T08:41:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=46661"},"modified":"2025-05-23T11:20:42","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T18:20:42","slug":"theatre-from-a-jewish-lens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2025\/05\/09\/theatre-from-a-jewish-lens\/","title":{"rendered":"Theatre from a Jewish lens"},"content":{"rendered":"

Laen Hershler performing REMNANTS. Hershler brings an interactive version of Dr. Hank Greenspan\u2019s play, which is based on 40 years of conversations with Holocaust survivors, to the Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture on June 8. He will be joined by Vancouver Playback Theatre. <\/i>(photo from grad.ubc.ca)<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/i>In June, Laen Hershler celebrates his first year as artistic director of Theatre Terrific. He also hosts, on June 8, Listening with Survivors<\/i>, \u201can evening of deep listening and shared reflection as monologues from Holocaust survivors open into a live, interactive performance with Vancouver Playback Theatre.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was deeply honoured and excited to step in as the artistic director of Theatre Terrific,\u201d he told the Jewish Independent<\/i>. \u201cThis community has always felt like home to me, both as a person and an artist. I look forward to continuing this welcoming tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTheatre Terrific Society is a trailblazing mixed-ability theatre company that has been championing inclusivity in the arts since 1985,\u201d reads the website. The society is \u201cdedicated to tackling the challenges of accessibility, representation and inclusion in the arts by breaking down stereotypes and fostering empathy across diverse communities. It creates work that resonates with universal human experiences, bridging differences through storytelling. With a compassionate yet bold approach to theatre-making, it cultivates spaces where respect, rigour and risk drive the creative process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Theatre Terrific\u2019s last production, called Proximity: The Space Between Us<\/i>, was well received at the Vancouver Fringe Festival last September. Directed by Hershler and Susan Bertoia, it was created with the cast and is about the struggles of aspiring artists.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
In June, Laen Hershler celebrates his first year as artistic director of Theatre Terrific. (photo from instagram.com\/theatreterrificvan)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hershler is also an actor and improviser, and he is pursuing a doctorate in research-based theatre at the University of British Columbia. He is part of Vancouver Playback Theatre, as well, and, as an observant Jew, he performs complete with head-covering and tzitzit.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSince my shift to diligently keeping Shabbat about eight years ago, my acting career moved from mainstream theatre, which almost always necessitates working on Friday\/Saturday nights, to applied forms of theatre,\u201d he said. \u201cThese include playback theatre, forum theatre and academically situated theatre, which are much less dependent on weekend shows. I love performing in these types of shows since they tend to be very socially engaged and meaningful projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hershler\u2019s responsibilities at Theatre Terrific include arranging all the classes, courses and productions, and hiring the instructors, directors and other artists for TT\u2019s projects. He teaches, directs and sometimes performs in the company\u2019s offerings, and works on establishing connections with the broader community of theatre companies regionally and internationally, especially all-abilities arts organizations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI love the meaningfulness of the work, the creative freedom and the amazing human beings I get to work with,\u201d he said. \u201cI appreciate the opportunity to create work and opportunities for theatre artists of all abilities and to produce meaningful and evocative theatre. The challenge of the work \u2013 which is learning to hold a radically inclusive space that allows for high-level artistic work while including artists across spectrums of physical, neurodiverse and cognitive abilities \u2013 is also something I cherish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hershler\u2019s theatre career began at the Jewish Young People\u2019s Theatre of Vancouver, which was based out of the Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture. The program was guided by Lynna Goldhar Smith, who he credits as being a huge influence \u2013 he began classes with her when he was 8 years old and stayed with YPT until he was 14. He said a large percentage of people that he acted with in YPT are still involved in the arts today.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Since graduating with his master\u2019s at the University of Cape Town in 2011, Hershler has been an instructor in the education faculty at UBC in Vancouver and in the creative studies faculty at UBC in Kelowna. He began his career as a performer and educator touring and giving workshops in France, Korea, Australia, Kenya, South Africa and elsewhere on various aspects and uses of physical theatre for both children and adults.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved my role as the Tooth Prince while performing for 5-year-olds (and their parents) at one of the most prestigious theatres in Seoul, Korea,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A couple of years ago, at the Peretz Centre and at Or Shalom, Hershler performed the one-man show REMNANTS<\/i>, which was written by Dr. Hank Greenspan and first produced, for radio, in 1991. Based on 40 years of conversations with Holocaust survivors, the work delves into the survivors\u2019 experiences, exploring themes such as loneliness, rage, storytelling and the dynamics of relationships across generations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a deeply meaningful project,\u201d said Hershler, who is bringing REMNANTS<\/i> back to the Peretz Centre on June 8, in a different form.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this version,\u201d said Hershler in an email, \u201cthese monologues will open into a space for collective reflection, storytelling and discussion through playback theatre \u2013 a form of theatre that invites the audience\u2019s voices and experiences into the performance itself, creating a space for deep listening and dialogue. For this, we will be joined by Vancouver Playback Theatre.\u201d<\/p>\n

The evening will be about listening to the Holocaust survivors, as well as one another, he said, \u201cto find overlap and connection with our own lives, today, in this moment in time \u2013 to learn with, to learn from, to learn alongside.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hershler would like to do more Jewish storytelling. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI would love to create work that brings down the mystical tales of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, an interest I inherited from my father, who has long been a storyteller of Nachman tales\u2026. Being Jewish is who I am, and it pulsates through all the work I do,\u201d he said. \u201cAll my artistic work emerges from this prism, from a Jewish lens, from a Jewish neshamah <\/i>(soul).\u201d<\/p>\n

For tickets to Listening with Survivors<\/i>, go to peretz-centre.org<\/a>. For more information about Theatre Terrific, visit theatreterrific.ca<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cassandra Freeman<\/b> is a freelance journalist and improv comedy performer living in Vancouver.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Laen Hershler performing REMNANTS. Hershler brings an interactive version of Dr. Hank Greenspan\u2019s play, which is based on 40 years of conversations with Holocaust survivors, to the Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture on June 8. He will be joined by Vancouver Playback Theatre. (photo from grad.ubc.ca) In June, Laen Hershler celebrates his first year […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46667,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[785],"tags":[53,23468,24035,4838,2893,24036,24034],"class_list":["post-46661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performing-arts","tag-holocaust","tag-laen-hershler","tag-remnants","tag-storytelling","tag-survivors","tag-theatre-terrific","tag-vancouver-playback-theatre"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}