MAYA
LASKER-WALLFISCH
ABOUT MAYA -
Maya Lasker-Wallfisch is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist, author, and educator. She is the daughter of Anita Lasker-Wallfisch who is now 101 years old, and one of a handful of eye witness survivors of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen still alive.
The motivation for Maya’s work is the importance of legacy and responsibility which influenced her decision to live in Modern Germany. She felt that in order to extend the discourse of trauma and displacement (which is the landscape of her own ‘lived experience’) it was necessary to ‘live it’. “Having felt like a refugee my entire life, I had to discover if my stolen life existed”.
Maya is particularly known for her work with second generation perpetrators which is widely known through her Books, Films and Clinical papers. She works closely with the New York Museum Of Jewish Heritage where she provides workshops for students and education for Teachers
Originally an addictions specialist where she worked in a variety of settings including hospitals the voluntary and private sectors, she completed her psychoanalytic studies with the Arbours Association in 1995. She has been in independent Private practice for 30 years working with individuals and couples.
Recent projects include: THE LASKERS FROM BRESLAU (writer/producer); THE COMMANDANTS SHADOW (advisor/participant); THE LAST SURVIVORS, BBC; PLAYING FOR TIME, BBC.
Maya divides her time between Berlin and London where she maintains her Psychotherapy practice and lectures internationally.
STELLA
KAMMEL
ABOUT STELLA -
Stella Kammel is a director/writer/teacher, and founder of the CT group, a growing company of artists in NYC. Stella graduated with a BA (HONS) in acting from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), King’s College.
Stella is drawn to theater which unites, and creates warmth, humor, and restoration within stories which from the outset look starkly cold and lacking in humanity. As the granddaughter of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, it has been healing, and uplifting to reach into the past, and to find the warmth and unity of the Lasker family before it was fractured and displaced. This mother-daughter story of two mismatched puzzle pieces trying to fit together is more universally understood than it should be.
Recent projects include: BACK TO HOGWARTS (director) an immersive experience in Grand Central Station produced by SWAMP and Warner Brothers; STOP KISS (director) Royal Academy of Dramatic Art; SKETCHING DRAGONS (writer) Royal Academy of Dramatic Art; ONE NIGHT OF JOSEPH KAUFMAN (dramaturg), Belka Productions, staged reading at the Vaudeville Theatre; DISULFANIDE (dramaturg) The Royal Society of Chemistry and The Royal Welsh College of Music; THIS WEIRD NORMAL (writer) Royal Academy of Dramatic Art; and PORTRAIT (writer and director) Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.