Stripping Away Our Masks: Finding Our Common Humanity Through Film with Gabriele Schafer
Gabriele Schafer was born in Germany and from the age of eleven grew up in America. Being “different” at that age was painful; she didn’t fit in, wasn’t accepted by her peers, and longed to return to Germany - and then fate intervened. She was cast as Lady MacDuff in a reading of Macbeth in junior high school.
The warm encouragement she received put her on a life’s path toward acting; Yale Drama School and the co-founding (with her husband) of a socially engaged theatre company, Thieves Theatre (now International Culture Lab).
Through her many years of dedication to acting in film and theatre, her co-directing of ICL, and an immersion in Butoh (a Japanese Dance Form) her motivating force has always been “to communicate and transform by stripping away all the masks to find our common humanity; to leap into the radical acceptance of yourself and the world, to discover that you are enough, just as you are.”
Meet This Episode's Guest
Gabriele Schafer
Gabriele was born and raised in Germany, educated and trained in theater in the US. She is an actor, producer and translator committed to political and social engagement for over 40 years. Since 1980, she has been co-artistic director with her husband Nick Fracaro of International Culture Lab, dedicated to providing opportunities for artists from across the world to explore contemporary issues through jointly created projects. She holds and MFA from the Yale School of Drama and a BA in Criminal Justice from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Find out more about Gabriele from her website: gabrieleschafer.com
And don't forget to check out her theatre company: intlculturelab.org
