Pictures of skinned bodies and piles of bones were projected on the walls to the gasps of the audience of Degenerate Art (DA), a Paly presentation of the Holocaust and how it affected Jews.

DA shows ran throughout the week of May 23. The presentation was entirely student run, with head director senior Robin McNulty and sphomore co-directors Kate Carey and Mitch Gardner.

The audience was lead through a dark tunnel into an open area lit with a deep red light. Besides the words “exhibit of 1937” on the wall, everything was black. A Nazi introduced the scene and the speakers. Throughout the presentation, a spotlight shifted among the eight actors who played Jewish concentration camp survivors.

“They did a good job, better than I had expected,” McNulty said regarding the actors and the overall performance. According to McNulty they had only been able to do one rehearsal in the actual setting before the final performance.

The script was originally put together by students from previous years and consisted entirely of quotations from actual survivors. The speakers talked about their experiences in different concentration camps and were accompanied by music and pictures from a slide show displaying disturbing images.

"It was really hard to imagine that we were representing actual people," said Sasha Woznick, a freshman actress in DA . "It was hard to imagine that these were real stories of actual holocaust survivors. We had a lot of responsibility saying their lines because they were not just lines."

The audience was told about life in Nazi concentration camps. A narrative illustrated how Jews were packed into trucks going to concentration camps, going without food or water for days. Among the narratives, one described Nazis skinning Jewish people and being forced into a chamber and burned alive. Another told about how prisoners were put to work burying the dead. All were supplemented with slides.

"The first time I saw the slides I cried," freshman actress Kat Robertson said. Gas chambers, famished children, and pictures of crematoriums were among the slides displayed. “The pictures really brought it to life and made it vivid," freshman Ariana Hoyt said. "I cried when I saw the image of the skeletal men," freshman Hannah McGovern said.

Actors were chosen by TEAM history teacher Mike McGovern after they expressed an interest. The crew of eight was given the script one week before spring break, and most of the participants had previous acting experience. "It was hard to memorize the lines and learning how to say them correctly," freshman actress Kelly McPharlyn said.

"It [DA] was more like seeing a play, not a reenactment, but it was still worthwhile and powerful," junior Alice Badger said. DA was described by freshman actress Tess Christy as more of a “presentation.” "It was smaller than a reenactment," Christy said. "The audience wasn’t as involved in it [as they are in a reenactment]."

Reenactments along with presentations are a large time commitment according to McPharlyn . Students stayed Monday through Thursday after school until 5:30 p.m. for eight weeks preparing for DA. The days before the final performance, actors stayed at Paly until 10:30 p.m. rehearsing. McPharlyn said that most of the practices were spent learning how to say the lines and practicing appropriate gestures. Christy said that although it was a large time commitment, it was fun working with the other actors.

According to Greer Stone, a sophomore who saw DA, even though it was not as involving and exciting as a reenactment, it was still good, and gave a new and different perspective on the holocaust. "It was more emotional that a reenactment," freshman Mathew Nguyen said. "It was deep and more serious."

Contributor: Richie Ferber