App. LD: ArtsEnduring Meaning

1 or 2 Credits · Level: Graduate

In this course, LDT students will collaborate with Georgetown’s Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics to explore a unique design challenge at the Lab: how might we enhance our learning experiences with the arts to foster deeper and enduring meanings for our audiences? This project is an opportunity for students to apply theories of learning design, experiential learning, and museum education alongside a collaborator and their stakeholders. As an original theatrical production by the Lab, Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski starring Oscar-Nominated actor David Strathairn explores the contemporary resonance of Holocaust witness, Polish World War II hero, spy, diplomat, and Georgetown professor Jan Karski. Drawing from Karski’s life and teachings, the play is anchored in the themes of bearing witness to history, empathy, confronting injustices, and the role of the individual in fostering change. Students in the class will ideate and design prototypes to extend a learner’s—or audience member’s—experience with the production beyond a single viewing of the play. Students will also be able to present their final designs / prototypes / learning engagements to the Karski production team. Additionally, students in this course will have the opportunity to attend a performance of Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski, explore its corresponding web-based platform, meet the playwrights and other members of the Karski production team, conduct site visits, and engage with undergraduate students encountering the performance for the first time through IDST 107: Bearing Witness: The Legacy of Jan Karski Today.