Northwoods Ramah Theatre
Camp Ramah in Wisconsin is the home of The Northwoods Ramah Theatre Company, an ensemble group dedicated to creating new work that reflects the Jewish experience. Their work is developed through an open-rehearsal process aimed at a wide audience of children and adults. By opening up the creative process, not just the performance, to the camp audience, the NRTC inspires the potential for a deeper connection to the work; not only does the community serve the process, the process serves the community. Culling material from folklore, poetry, contemporary literature and ancient texts, all sources are treated as sacred, and by working them into the script, the NRTC aims to magnify the connection between the story and Jewish teaching.
During the summer of 2011, the Northwoods Ramah Theatre Company commissioned playwright Deanna Neil, a former Ramah WI camper and author of “The Land of Curiosities,” a trilogy of novels for young adults that has won several awards, including the 2009 & 2010 Nautilus Book Awards, to write a new play exploring the theme of our relationship and responsibility to the land. The play, How Do We Get Out of Here, revolved around four hikers who get lost in the woods in Israel and, for some reason, no matter which direction they go, always end up coming back to the same spot. The piece focused on four questions: How will the characters get out? Why are they stuck there? What does it mean to be disoriented? What does it mean for a people to be connected to the land?
In addition to the mainstage play, resident director Annie Levy created a theatre making clinic for a small group of campers to participate in, working with the company for two weeks. The clinic culminated with each participant creating and producing a 10 minute piece and sharing their work with camp.
The clinic’s aim was to be a fun and completely participatory exploration of creating theatre. It focused on playwriting, using a variety of practices to generate writing and focusing on the tenets of what makes a good play -- including creating believable conflict and honoring giving circumstances in the world of the play. The clinic also explored physical and movement based approaches to making theatre, including Viewpointing and Compositions. Lastly, the clinic also explored issues of adaptation, creating plays out of non-dramatic text both sacred and secular (as the company has done over the past six years of existence) and specifically focused on Chapter 2: Mishna 5 of Pirkei Avot:
Do not separate from the community. And do not trust yourself until the day of your death. And don't judge your friend until you are in his place. And don't say something is impossible to hear because it will be heard in the end. And do not say that when I have time available I will study, lest no time will be availed.
Past Northwoods Ramah Theater presentations included:
2005 - The Underwater Palace – An ensemble created piece based on a kabalistic folktale
2006 - The Jewbird - An ensemble created piece based on the short story by Bernard Malamud
2007 - The Hero of Kabul by Marc Goldsmith
The Jewish Wife by Bertolt Brecht
2008 – Garden. Walk. Wonder – Ensemble created dramatization of works by three Jewish poets:
Ra’hel, Shel Silverstein and Charles Reznikoff
2009 – An adaptation of Hayyim Bialik's story, Knight of Onion and Knight of Garlic
Harvest -- an ensemble created piece built around the mythology of Bob Dylan
2010 – Sharon Is My Name - a retelling of and meditation on The Merchant of Venice,
by Daniel Kelly
The Sonnet Piece – a guided tour of Shakespeare Sonnets with Amelia Bassano Lanyer