Set in 1938 Germany, Isaak explores the dilemma that a Jewish teenage boy faces when his parents insist that he must leave his home for the safety of America rather than stay and fight for his homeland. Faced with these choices, Isaak questions the bravery of the German-Jewish men in his small town, and grapples with the philosophical and concrete consequences of “resistance” vs “survival.”
Arts Community Network
Isaak
Funded by LAUSD Arts Community Network and the California Arts Council 2017
The Project
Isaak School Tour
Isaak
Jeanette Horn
Playwright
Susan Franklin Tanner
Director
Susan Franklin Tanner
Producer
Ethan Remez-Cott, Robert Schaefer
Participants
David Caprita, Jeanette Horn
Professional Actor(s)
Robert Schaefer, Student Assistant Stage Manager & Understudy for Isaak
Other Participant(s)
PERFORMANCES
Venue(s)
Multiple venues including Nava College Prep High School, Sequoyah School and Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACSHA)
“Isaak is a play that is timely. Unfortunately, the issue of genocide is not a topic of the past. Students are forced to come to terms with the world they are living in and decide what role they and their country should play in combatting the worst instincts of people.”
Jerry Freedman
LACHSA Economics and History Teacher
MEDIA
“The Junior High benefitted from a performance of Isaak, which made the experience of persecuted Jews in Hitler’s Germany more relatable.”
Chris Colthart
Jr. High Science Teacher at Sequoyah School