the Center's past: Jacob's Room
A Champer Opera in One Act
Performed February 2-3, 1994
Composed by Morton Subotnick
Directed by Herbert Blau

In conjunction with the Sesquicentennial Celebration of the Jewish Community in Milwaukee, the Center and the Rubenstein Center for 20th Century Jewry of Congregation Emanu-El B'ne Jeshurun presented Jacob's Room, written by Morton Subotnick and directed by Herbert Blau. The performance featured Joan La Barbara (soprano), Erika Duke-Kirkpatrick (cello) and Thomas Buckner (baritone).

Jacob's Room was an hour-long multimedia chamber opera that was also a memorial to the Holocaust. The opera took place in Jacob's mind, filled with memories of unpurgeable horror, as he attempted to deny the pain of losing his family and the guilt for having survived.

Photographs of the reception at the Hefter Center were taken by
Bill Tennessen

1968: The Founding of the Center for 20th Century Studies

The 1970s: From Film, Performance and Language to Technology

The 1980s: A Decade of Exploration in Feminism, Modernism, and Culture

The 1990s: A Representational Decade of Culture, Aesthetics, Aging and Animals

The Center for 21st Century Studies: 2000 to present

Center for 21st Century Studies

Merry Wiesner-Hanks
Interim Director