Grand Marais Playhouse presents: Community play read for Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 80th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz
Jan 27, 2025 09:43AM ● By Content Editor
Photo: Thomas Bormans on Unsplash.com
From the Grand Marais Playhouse - January 16, 2025
The Grand Marais Playhouse will host a special event as part of Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 80th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz. A community play read of I Never Saw Another Butterfly by Celeste Raspanti will take place on January 27, 2025, at 6:30 pm at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts.
Admission is free, and no reservations are required.
The playwright based the play on a book of poetry and drawings made by the children of Terezín by Hana Volavková (full synopsis of the play below). The evening will also include a presentation of some of this work. Theresienstadt, or Terezin as it was also known, was a transit and holding camp for thousands of Jews, particularly Czech Jews, during the Holocaust. One hundred and forty thousand Jews were deported to Theresienstadt, including 15,000 children. It is estimated that only about 132 children survived. Thousands of the children's drawings were saved from Nazi efforts to destroy evidence of their crimes. I Never Saw Another Butterfly is a dramatic retelling of the efforts inside Terezín to educate children and to maintain their hope in a time and place of persecution, suffering, and death.
This event is being coordinated by Alexys Hillman and Sue Hennessy. The actors/readers will be Beth Farone, Ben Fitzgerald Wells, Amanda Hand, Alyssa Hedstrom, Betsy Jorgenson, Gary Latz, Sandra Leonard, Aliya Marxen, Jeffrey Shockly, and KathyAnn Travis.
Full synopsis: I Never Saw Another Butterfly
Over 15,000 children passed through the gates of Terezin, a concentration camp 30 miles north of Prague. Fewer than 100 survived. I Never Saw Another Butterfly, tells the story of the children of Terezin through the eyes of Raja Englandrova. Raja narrates and tells their story in flashbacks as she learns from Irena Synkova, a teacher who gives the children hope when there is no hope left and gives them the courage to write and draw about their experiences. We see the world of Terezin through their eyes, a world of laughter, of flowers, and of butterflies. From behind the barbed wire fences, teachers and students were able to show defiance; by learning even when it was forbidden, by drawing pictures of life as well as of death, and by writing poems about something bright and colorful they may have caught a glimpse of. The most famous symbol of hope was a yellow butterfly from a poem written by Pavel Friedman. Based on the book, I Never Saw Another Butterfly: Children’s Poems and Drawings from Terezin Concentration Camp 1942 - 1944 that was originally published in 1964, Celeste Raspanti creates a beautiful tribute to the children whose lives were stolen from them during the terrors of the Holocaust.
From the Grand Marais Playhouse - January 16, 2025
The Grand Marais Playhouse will host a special event as part of Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 80th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz. A community play read of I Never Saw Another Butterfly by Celeste Raspanti will take place on January 27, 2025, at 6:30 pm at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts.
Admission is free, and no reservations are required.
The playwright based the play on a book of poetry and drawings made by the children of Terezín by Hana Volavková (full synopsis of the play below). The evening will also include a presentation of some of this work. Theresienstadt, or Terezin as it was also known, was a transit and holding camp for thousands of Jews, particularly Czech Jews, during the Holocaust. One hundred and forty thousand Jews were deported to Theresienstadt, including 15,000 children. It is estimated that only about 132 children survived. Thousands of the children's drawings were saved from Nazi efforts to destroy evidence of their crimes. I Never Saw Another Butterfly is a dramatic retelling of the efforts inside Terezín to educate children and to maintain their hope in a time and place of persecution, suffering, and death.
This event is being coordinated by Alexys Hillman and Sue Hennessy. The actors/readers will be Beth Farone, Ben Fitzgerald Wells, Amanda Hand, Alyssa Hedstrom, Betsy Jorgenson, Gary Latz, Sandra Leonard, Aliya Marxen, Jeffrey Shockly, and KathyAnn Travis.
Image: Grand Marais Playhouse
Full synopsis: I Never Saw Another Butterfly
Over 15,000 children passed through the gates of Terezin, a concentration camp 30 miles north of Prague. Fewer than 100 survived. I Never Saw Another Butterfly, tells the story of the children of Terezin through the eyes of Raja Englandrova. Raja narrates and tells their story in flashbacks as she learns from Irena Synkova, a teacher who gives the children hope when there is no hope left and gives them the courage to write and draw about their experiences. We see the world of Terezin through their eyes, a world of laughter, of flowers, and of butterflies. From behind the barbed wire fences, teachers and students were able to show defiance; by learning even when it was forbidden, by drawing pictures of life as well as of death, and by writing poems about something bright and colorful they may have caught a glimpse of. The most famous symbol of hope was a yellow butterfly from a poem written by Pavel Friedman. Based on the book, I Never Saw Another Butterfly: Children’s Poems and Drawings from Terezin Concentration Camp 1942 - 1944 that was originally published in 1964, Celeste Raspanti creates a beautiful tribute to the children whose lives were stolen from them during the terrors of the Holocaust.
