CRY HAVOC is Stephan Wolfert's award winning Off-Broadway show that details Wolfert's struggle with PTSD, addiction, and suicidal ideation, as well as the role of theatre and actor training in equipping him with the skills and support to overcome these challenges. In Cry Havoc, he seamlessly weaves his story, along with the stories of other military veterans, with Shakespeare text so that the suffering of veterans becomes ancient, and Shakespeare becomes modern. It is a personal tale of his revival of humanity followed by an interactive community discussion.
CRY HAVOC!
Join Stephan Wolfert
May 6th at 7pm
After two years of paralysis from a high school sports injury. After six years in the United States Army. After a full blown transition into a classic case of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Stephan Wolfert hopped off an Amtrak train deep in the mountains of Montana. Far from home. Close to the middle of nowhere. And without the first damn clue of what to do for the rest of his life. Until, as Fate would literally have it, he stepped into a local theater and saw a production of William Shakespeare’s Richard III.
Twenty years later, using Shakespeare’s timeless words, and a few of his own, actor/veteran Stephan Wolfert in Cry Havoc! leads us on an interactive journey to meet Shakepeare’s veterans examining both the cost of war and the cost of failing to reintegrate veterans back into their communities.
STEPHAN WOLFERT
Actor/Writer/Director; AEA/SAG member; U.S. Army ’86-’93 – Medic and Infantry Officer. Stephan left a career in the military for a life in the theatre after seeing a production of Shakespeare’s Richard III. Stephan received his Master of Fine Arts degree from Trinity Rep Conservatory in Providence, RI in 2000. On Broadway, Stephan helped to create the military segments for Twyla Tharp and Billy Joel’s Tony Award-winning Movin’ Out. He is a NYC-based, critically-acclaimed, award-winning actor who tours his one-man show Cry Havoc! throughout the United States, Canada The UK, The Netherlands, Australia and Italy.
Stephan created DE-CRUIT®: A program to heal trauma through Shakespeare & science. For his work with Veterans he has multiple awards from the mental health community including The Aaron Stein Award from the American Group Psychotherapy Association and the Max Gabriel Award from the National Alliance for Mental Illness. As a teaching artist, he has taught Shakespeare in performance at Cornell University, Syracuse University, and Antelope Valley College, California. He has also been a guest teacher of Shakespeare, and theater as medicine at over two-dozen universities world wide.
Treating trauma through Shakespeare & Science
Stephan Wolfert talks about about DE-Cruit.
The best way to understand DE-CRUIT is where it came from, and where it came from is my personal story. For about 15 years, I was developing DE-CRUIT. I was using Shakespeare to re-wire my brain. Then, I started working with other veterans. It took 15-16 years to find scientists who could help me actually scientifically evaluate it.
The question I get the most is, ‘Why do we use Shakespeare?’ Shakespeare was surrounded by veterans…
The EEGs show a different brain, from before they begin, and after they’ve taken a mere 20-hour course.
The final part of the DE-CRUIT plan is: to make it a transferable model. That means I can go into Fort Worth, teach the veterans the program, then they teach it, and they teach other vets. And it’s free to all the veterans. So all it requires is a commitment, from the veterans and the community members in that area.”
