Personal Reflections

I was quite pleased the way the workshop went as it seemed to flow the way I wanted it to.  Some general notes that might interest some.  I consciously did not want to take an active role in coaching the participants through the scene.  The reasoning was I didn't want them to be wrapped up in the solaced facts of the event.  In this case the war.  I wanted them to draw upon their own experiences.  Even when the participants were in Germany, a place that I know many had no idea how to act or behave because they had no prior knowledge of the situation.  For the purposes of that exercise I wanted them to draw upon their experiences and narrative of their own loved one as inspiration.  The hope was that some realization would be recognized that it can be the same sort of situation from another point of view.

I am a huge fan of technical aspects and uses of multimedia to enhance a situation and in history I believe it is vital.  Therefore I think I should explain my choices of sounds and music.


I decided at the beginning to use the theme from the movie The American President because it sounded very dignifying and regal.  I wanted that to represent the child they remembered and the moments so that while they were thinking about their loved one, they looked back at them with dignity.  I moved then to the March of the British Grenadiers, which was used by the British Army to march their soldiers into battle in the early days of imperialism.  Here I was reminded of when I was a kid and how some kids wanted to be soldiers.  This was to symbolize that assumption.  The beginning of the journey starts with them enlisting.  To set the mood of both America and Germany I drew upon radio broadcasts and music to heighten the tone or feeling or the moment.  In America it was to be a happy time as the war was far away.  Until the participants are hit with the realization that the war will soon hit home.  In Germany I wanted a stark contrast.  Therefore I included Hitler's inspirational speeches and military marches of the time because they injected notions of pride and nostalgia.  In particular was the song from Cabaret - Tomorrow Belongs to Me which happens to be the song of the Hitler Youth.  The reason I put this in was because last year when I went to see Cabaret, that song echoed throughout my head not only through the show, but through the year and even when I began constructing this workshop.  In D-Day, I used the haunting end theme from the video game Metal Gear Solid because it was eerie and again it set the mood for the situation.  The final piece of music was the track from the movie The Last of the Mohicans, which to me conveyed a darkness but also a possibility that amongst this darkness can be realization or even celebration.

one regret I have is that I did not provide enough places to "vent" or write how you felt.  It was present in the D-DAY scene but I never allowed a continuous place to write feelings down.  What I should have done was keep that area open so that at any time if there was anything that needed to be said or drawn or written it can be done in there on the chart paper.

Participants Comments and Questions

Renee asked:
"Could you adapt this workshop for a high school classroom? As is I think it
may be a little too powerful and risky to do in a classroom".

Absolutely yes I think this can be adapted for a classroom.  I think that if it is too powerful or risky, then there are elements that can be "toned down" - like instead of using the clips from the movie, don't show it perhaps and instead use another sound device - in this case say machine guns in the distance.  Or here is a question, "How much more powerful can the experience be by just receiving the letter?"
However, I think that I had this in mind when I designed the workshop.  I wanted to "shock" people and gain a better understanding of history.  I want to make it come alive and unfortunately, because it is war, it has to come alive in this manner.  If it reaches the message that war is wrong, it is horrible and senseless then maybe my hope was fulfilled

"I really liked your idea of worlds but I did find it difficult to change
worlds so quickly - I did not want to leave the world where I lost my loved
one".

I 'm kind of glad you felt this way because as I said after the workshop I wanted some people to feel this way, and come to a different realization.  The questions of "Why don't you want to leave?"  and "Why do you feel this way?" and "Why is it so hard to leave?", all have their place into coming to the same realization later on.  That the experience can be universal.  I think though that this sequence of events - "changing worlds" could be spread over a couple of days so that it is easier on the psyche.  But also, it may allow the students some time to do some preliminary research if you as the teacher want them to have some background.

Laurie wrote:
"I was confused when we were asked to imagine this person had been sent to war.  The people in my group decided that we would just adjust the ages of our loved ones to 19".

Yes thank you.  That is one thing I should have done was make it clear some how that it was time for the loved ones to grow up and be around that age it was time to go to war.  Although many went as young as 15, 16 even though they had to be at least 18 to enlist.  I was thinking about that after too.  Perhaps in the future, because I love incorporating music, there should be a journey towards say the child's graduation.  I was thinking as this journey was going playing Pomp and Circumstance, and then launching into war.  I think that another extension could have been to write about your father or husband, etc. as opposed to a loved one.

"Back into the world, I fell out again when I saw Tom Hanks on the screen.  I worked to ignore this and found the use of video very powerful.  I felt like I could relate to what it was like to be there".

One of the tricky parts about incorporating video, and in this case "famous video" is what you experienced.  The hope for me was that even though it was there and he was on screen and we all know who he is, the situation and the experience of what happened just before you watched that scene will take over.  For example, if you view the very scene we watched in the movie theatre, during the movie, it would be to you, an attempt to set the backdrop for the rest of the movie.  In the context of the situation you just encountered, after receiving the death letter and then being informed that you will see you're loved ones for the very last time, that same scene takes on a different meaning.  It becomes a window into another world.  What it might have been like, not for Tom Hanks, but for your loved one.

"As an extension the dramatic scenes around Rolf could be written from the points of view of the various characters".

An excellent point.  If there were more time, as a teacher would could then take on the personas of the people in the scene to see how they would react, what their life was like during the war.  How would it be different to those in America at the same time?  This could also be an avenue to begin research in preparation for another dramatic experience.

Any other comments or questions are much appreciated and very welcome!!

What some participants wrote during the workshop during the D-Day Scene

"How can I hate you? But I do.  You stole my life and it wasn't even your fault.  But you pulled the trigger and now I cry".

"I want to see you suffer".

"Will your mother feel as I do?  You born of a woman, to be mourned by one".

"You  just killed me too".

"Numb"

"Disgusted"

"You have taken away the most important thing to me".

"He's playing God!"

"Why my son?"

"Shock"

"Speechless"

"Anger"

"He had a name.  He was a person, not a target".

"Rip off your head and spit down your throat".

"How do you feel when you go to bed at night?"