History comes alive with Living Voices performances at SLT schools

What was it like for Anne Frank and other young people during the Holocaust? Or for families getting off the boat in New York and making their way through Ellis Island? Who were the women who led the fight for the right to vote?

These stories were told to students in South Lake Tahoe this week through the Living Voices program presented at South Tahoe and Mt. Tallac High Schools and South Tahoe Middle School.

Tahoe Arts Project (TAP) brought the Living Voices company from Seattle to present their unique combination of theater, video and live interaction to the local students. For the past ten years, through the generosity of South Shore resident Robert Chester, TAP has been able to bring the program into the eighth and ninth grade classrooms. Chester and his late wife Annetta have been long time supporters of Tahoe Arts Project.

Rachel McClinton, Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Living Voices, did all of the programs this week.

Through the Eyes of a Friend: The eighth graders experienced Anne Frank, her friends and family during the Holocaust with a video running, sounds of voices and war, and with McClinton's acting, sharing Frank's story from the voice of her "best friend." It was a poignant portrait of friendship and survival.

Hear My Voice: The ninth graders at South Tahoe High experienced McClinton's portrayal of Jessie, the daughter of a political columnist from Tennessee, growing up in Washington, DC during the early 1900s. Jessie has dreams of being as important to her father as her younger brother is. Jessie soon becomes deeply involved in the suffrage movement.

Island of Hope: Mt. Tallac students were transported back in history as 10-year-old Russian Jewish girl Leah experiences the struggle to escape oppression with her family as they make their way through Ell is Island during ts busiest years.