The Bauhaus Project

Open Fist Theatre Company premieres The Bauhaus Project by Tom Jacobson, a world premiere theatrical event presented in two binge-worthy parts (Part 1: Bauhaus Weimer and Part 2: Bauhaus Dessau and Bauhaus Berlin) highlighting the rise of fascism and anti-Semitism in Germany and its effect on the arts. In this provocative play-within-a-play, five Southern California art students re-enact the history of the famous Bauhaus School, using their respective disciplines of environmental design, music, fine art, graphic design and theater to recreate the dramatic history in real time. Each of the students portrays multiple historic Bauhaus figures, many of whom later fled to the U.S. or died in concentration camps, including architect and Bauhaus founding director Walter Gropius and his successors, architects Hannes Meyer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe; painters Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Oskar Schlemmer and Lyonel Feininger; textile artists Gunta Stolzl, Maria Kipp and Otti Berger; furniture designer Marcel Breuer; photographer Laszlo Moholy-Nagy; graphic designer Herbert Bayer; composers Arnold Schönberg and Alma Mahler; and architects Ludwig Hilberseimer and Fritz Ertl — the latter of whom would go on to design buildings at Auschwitz.

Part I, which focuses on the school’s founding and early years in the city of Weimar, will run Fridays at 8 p.m. and Saturdays at 4 p.m., while Part 2, which looks at the school’s moves, first to Dessau, then to Berlin, in the face of increasing Nazi scrutiny, will play on Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 4 p.m. Audience members can choose to view the entire Bauhaus Project over the course of two evenings (any Friday and any Saturday at 8 p.m.); two matinees (any Saturday and any Sunday at 4 p.m.); or on a single Saturday, at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. (The history is sequential, so it is not advised to view the parts out of order.) July 19 – Aug. 25; Open Fist Theatre Company @ Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90039; Part 1 and Part 2 (combination ticket): $50; Part 1 or Part 2 (individual ticket): $35; students receive $5 off either price; www.openfist.org

July 19—August 25:

• Fridays at 8 p.m.: Part 1 (Bauhaus Weimar)
• Saturdays at 4 p.m.: Part 1 (Bauhaus Weimar)
• Saturdays at 8 p.m.: Part 2 (Bauhaus Dessau & Bauhaus Berlin)
• Sundays at 4 p.m.: Part 2 (Bauhaus Dessau & Bauhaus Berlin)

Audience members can choose to view the entire Bauhaus Project over the course of two evenings (any Friday and any Saturday at 8 p.m.); two matinees (any Saturday and any Sunday at 4 p.m.); or on a single Saturday, at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. (The history is sequential, so it is not advised to view the parts out of order.)