Viktor Frankl Symposium: An Immersive Theatrical Experience Featuring the writer and actor Christopher Domig

Man’s Search for Meaning: A Symposium on Viktor Frankl 

“Man’s Search for Meaning,” an immersive theatrical experience featuring the writer and actor Christopher Domig

This symposium will explore the life, ideas, and continued relevance of the oft-overlooked Jewish intellectual and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl. Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, borne out of his experience of the Holocaust, has had a profound yet underappreciated influence on a wide variety of disciplines and on generations of readers.  The symposium, in the spirit of the Jesuit ideal of cura personalis, encourages the Fairfield community to reflect upon their search for meaning in a disorienting time of rapid technological, societal and political change. Through lectures, performance, and conversation, this symposium will bring scholars, medical practitioners, religious leaders, artists and others together through interdisciplinary and interfaith dialogue.

Blending Frankl's harrowing journey through Nazi concentration camps with Domig’s own reflections and interactive moments with the audience, the play becomes a powerful exploration of resilience, love, and the search for meaning in the face of suffering. Through raw storytelling and audience engagement, Man's Search for Meaning challenges us to reflect on our own lives and choices, offering a profound reminder of the human spirit's capacity to endure and find purpose, even in the darkest times. CHRISTOPHER J. DOMIG (Performer, Co-Writer and Co-Creator) is an actor, writer, collaborator, and the Artistic Director of NYC’s award-winning Sea Dog Theater.

"MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING- the immersive, theatrical experience is devised by Brandt Adams, Chris Domig, Guy De Lancey, Erwin Maas

For more information visit: https://www.seadogtheater.org/theviktorfranklproject

BRANDT ADAMS (WRITER) is a Brooklyn-based theater artist. This is his second project with Sea Dog Theater; the first, Not From Here, was performed to sold-out audiences at The Ace Hotel in 2018. His play Dispatches from (A)mended America (co-written with Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr.) was produced Off-Broadway by Epic Theatre Ensemble and later published by NoPassport Press. He is currently developing a series of one-acts about anthropomorphic animals navigating a rapidly changing world. www.brandtadams.com

ERWIN MAAS (DIRECTOR) is a New York–based theatermaker, curator, and educator from the Netherlands, with extensive international experience across performance and community contexts. He directs Off-Broadway, site-specific, and interdisciplinary work spanning plays, devised projects, music theater, and dance. Maas is Co-Executive Director of the Pan-African Creative Exchange (PACE) and Adjunct Professor at CUNY Brooklyn College’s MFA Performance & Interactive Media Arts Program. He is also a core member of Theater Without Borders and serves on several international arts advisory boards. www.erwinmaas.com

CHRISTOPHER DOMIG (WRITER + PERFORMER) Chris Domig is an Austrian-American actor, writer, and theater artist, and the Artistic Director of Sea Dog Theater in New York City. His work as an actor has been recognized with three nominations for the New York Innovative Theatre Award for Best Actor and the NYC Fringe Festival Award for Best Actor. His practice emphasizes actor-driven, text-centered performance, often in site-specific and nontraditional spaces.

As Artistic Director, Domig has led Sea Dog Theater for nearly a decade, overseeing productions that have received significant critical recognition, including the New York Innovative Theatre Award for Best Revival (Danny and the Deep Blue Sea), the Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best Revival (Tuesdays with Morrie), and Clifford Odets’ Awake and Sing!, named one of the ten best theatrical productions of 2025. His research-creation work examines questions of meaning, alienation, reconciliation, moral responsibility, and community formation. He has spent over a decade developing a theatrical adaptation of Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning and co-hosts The Frankl Project podcast, which examines Frankl’s work across psychology, theology, and the arts.. www.christopherdomig.com

GUY DE LANCEY (DESIGNER) is a multidisciplinary artist working across theater, film, and immersive media. He is Associate Director of the Movement Laboratory at Barnard College, Columbia University, and has created large-scale performance and design work internationally. His recent projects include scenography and projection design for Breaking Bricks with Tulsa Ballet and design work for A Kid Like Rishi in New York. His work has been exhibited at Signs and Symbols Gallery (NYC) and the Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art (Austria).

Hosted by the Humanities Institute, Bennett Center for Judaic Studies, Kanarek Center for Palliative Care and Nursing Education, and the Dean of Meditz College of Arts and Sciences. The organizers are grateful to Robin Bennett Kanarek for her generous support.

Monday, March 2nd 7:30 pm  
Media Center, Studio A.