Performances set for this weekend at Plymouth Church
The chilling lessons of the Holocaust as told through the eyes of a budding young artist in a Nazi transition camp provides the basis for the one-act play “I Never Saw Another Butterfly,” which will be performed in Burlington this weekend.
Jennifer Eisenbart is directing the show that is made possible through sponsorship by Plymouth Congregational Church and Thrivent Financial, along with assistance from The Hope Walk of Burlington, Chocolate Expressions, The Haylofters and PM&L Theatre in Antioch, Ill.
Public performances are scheduled for Saturday, April 26, and Sunday, April 27, at Plymouth Congregational Church with both shows at 7 p.m. A remembrance ceremony will be held following Sunday’s performance.
The cast and crew are also taking the show to Karcher Middle School for a pair of educational performances on Friday.
Eisenbart said the Rev. Bob Wang, pastor of Plymouth Church and co-director for the play, suggested taking it to the schools to turn it into a learning opportunity.
“The idea of showing this to seventh and eighth graders is really appealing to me, as those students are old enough to understand what happened … and mature enough to appreciate the various emotions of the show,” Eisenbart said.
Eisenbart said Wang was instrumental in bringing the show to fruition,
“I couldn’t have done this without his help – literally,” Eisenbart said. “I was looking for a way to stage this show, and took it to him as a possibility to coincide with Holocaust Remembrance Week (this year April 27 through May 4).”
The play, by Celeste Raspanti, is written from interviews, documentaries and journals done by Raja Englanderova – one of the few children to have survived Terezin.
Terezin was what the Germans termed a “transit” camp, vs. a death camp such as Auschwitz. Jews were transported there, and then later taken to other camps – mainly Auschwitz, where many were killed immediately by being sent to the gas chambers, Eisenbart said.
Englanderova was an aspiring artist when she was sent to Terezin as a 13 year old. Her artwork was among a collection in a book bearing the same name as the play that inspired Raspanti to write the play.
The cast is led by Burlington High School senior Hannah Anderson, who plays Englanderova.
“Hannah has done so many shows up at BHS, including everything from Shakespeare’s ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ to playing Velma this spring in ‘Chicago,’” Eisenbart said. “She is so talented. She just becomes the character she is playing in whatever she does, which includes Raja. She is at the heart of the performance, and she’s just so believable as Raja”
Raja is the main character, but the audience also meets her first love – a young man by the name of Honza – and the schoolteacher who helped her survive her time in the camp, Irena Synkova.
Other cast members are:
• Chris Heilgast, of Kenosha, as Mother
• Bob Wang as Father
• Landen Brown, a junior at BHS, as Honza
• Cain Gann, another BHS student, as Pavel
• Jamie Ellingstad, a Burlington resident, as Irca
• Kylara Horner as Irena Synkova, the teacher
• Children are Micah Gebel, Katherine Picazzo, Grace Keller, Olin Ellingstad and Soren Ellingstad.
• Jim Burd as the Rabbi
“Why do stories about the Holocaust?” Eisenbart asked. “It’s because so many people are dedicated to make sure something like the Holocaust never happens again. I’d like to think that, with the Internet and a 24-7 news cycle, there will never again be a way to hide what the Nazis hid.”
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