This paper will examine Applied Theatre as a form of public pedagogy for exploring the Shoah. It will focus on a project entitled "Triangulation", an aesthetic form of representation with which to explore contemporary resonances of the Holocaust. The materiality of the triangles that marked the Nazi classification system served as the initial touchstone for developing this project. I was also guided by Canada's new National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa (2017), designed by Daniel Libeskind, and entitled Landscape of Loss, Memory and Survival. The monument uses the form of a deconstructed Star of David –elongated triangles- to create the shape for this Canadian site of public memory. I have conceptualized "Triangulation" as a threefold public pedagogy framework for responding to the Holocaust (Langer). "Triangulation" offers three different sources for participatory performances; each source invites interaction with the Shoah from the present, just after this 75th anniversary of the liberation. The paper asks: how might Applied Theatre help shape our encounter with history as a performative and pedagogical practice? How can Applied Theatre help to animate monuments through relational acts of critical engagement (Salverson)? My hope is that "Triangulation" will help create a foundation for participants to be positioned not just as receivers of historical content but as co-creators. This is the promise and challenge of Applied Theatre-it offers us the possibility of interacting with history, beyond passively consuming historiographic narratives (Magelssen; Jackson and Kidd). "Triangulation" was accepted for installation at Liberation75, the largest international event that had been organized to mark this anniversary (May-June 2020).
