THE GHOSTS OF RAVENSBRÜCK

Deadline to express interest: August 3rd.

This fall…

Come share your hauntings this fall to help Nikki Kendra Davis craft a new play about the Nazis’ only concentration camp built explicitly for women. To Ravensbrück were sent approx. 139,000 women (mostly non-Jews) who either did not meet or who actively threatened the Nazi’s composition of womanhood. Initially, these women were associated with or were themselves communists and social democrats; scholars, artists, and journalists; Jehovah Witnesses; and “asocials.” From 1939-1945, Ravensbrück served as a large women’s prison, a slave labor camp, a laboratory for biological warfare, and eventually an extermination camp. Gender-based violence and experiments aimed at helping the Aryan race procreate were common. But also common were small but mighty acts of solidarity, resistance, and perseverance.

As the war progressed, to Ravensbrück were sent thousands of women who had fought in the Resistance, mostly non-Jewish women who refused to stand by while their neighbors were disappeared and their countries were taken over by Nazis. Ravensbrück became a nexus humming with the memories, actions, love, and courage of women who had chosen to put their lives on the line to fight fascism.

What might the ghosts of Ravensbrück have to teach us today in the US? Local playwright Nikki Kendra Davis would say “A LOT!” Nikki (she/her) is a multidisciplinary theatre artist, haunted historian, and the creator of “Theatre of the Ghostly Feminine,” a feminist, political, history-adjacent performance praxis for reckoning with ghosts of erased and exploited feminized beings and reimagining their stories.

If you are interested in participating, click below for more info and terms of participation.

Ember Women’s Theatre will produce Nikki’s new play about Ravensbrück in 2027.

The workshops will be held at:

MadLab Theatre: 227 N. 3rd Street, Columbus, Ohio