Scholar helps launch Jewish theater in Austria

Robert Skloot, professor of theatre and drama and a leading scholar of Holocaust theater, has just returned home after a tour of Austria to help prepare for the opening of a new Jewish theater next year.

Skloot presented two lectures in advance of the launch of the new Jewish Theater of Austria in March. While in the country, he spoke in Vienna, Innsbruck and of Graz, where the new theater will be based. One lecture dealt with American playwright Arthur Miller; the other, the Theater of the Holocaust. The lectures were co-sponsored by the American Embassy and coincided with the dedication of a new synagogue in Graz.

Skloot also is a member of the Jewish Theater of Austria’s international advisory committee. When it opens, the theater will produce Arthur Miller’s 1964 drama, “Incident at Vichy.” Skloot says it will have a great deal to say to contemporary audiences.

“The play questions the role and moral responsibility of the individual in shaping the course of society,” Skloot says. “It also examines our unfortunate tendency to pretend ignorance about the plight of others — and even ourselves when called upon for sacrifice and courage. I’m sure Austrian audiences will understand the relevance to their past history and current situations.”