‘Most wonderful story of resilience’: Lake City Playhouse gives child’s take on Terezin concentration camp for ‘I Never Saw Another Butterfly’

Pavel Friedmann’s poem “The Butterfly” begins with a description of the “dazzlingly yellow” wings of a butterfly he watched fly away.

It continues with “For seven weeks I’ve lived in here / Penned up inside this ghetto. / But I have found what I love here. / The dandelions call to me / And the white chestnut branches in the court / Only I never saw another butterfly.

That butterfly was the last one. / Butterflies don’t live here, / in the ghetto.”

Friedmann was one of the 15,000 children ages 15 and younger held in the Terezin concentration camp. His poem is featured in “I Never Saw Another Butterfly: Children’s Drawings and Poems from Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942-1944,” a collection of artwork and poems created and written by Jewish children held at the concentration camp in Terezin, Czech Republic.

According to the Penguin Random House page about the collection, of the 15,000 children in the camp, only 100 survived.

The pieces in the collection were created during secret art classes taught by Austrian artist and educator Friedl Dicker-Brandeis. Following World War II, Hana Volavková, the only curator of the Jewish Museum in Prague to survive the Holocaust, compiled the pieces into “I Never Saw Another Butterfly.”

Writer Celeste Raspanti based her play on the collection, fictionalizing the account of a survivor named Raja Englanderova, whom she interviewed before writing the show, and her interactions with friends, family and classmates during her time in Terezin.

Audiences meet Raja as her family is forced out of their home for being Jewish. We then see Raja in the concentration camp where she stands alone, having lost her family to the gas chambers.

Along with heartbreaking lows, Raja (Scarlet Hunt) has moments of joy in the camp, like when she’s mentored by teacher Irena Synkova (Emily Christopherson) and finds love with a boy named Honza (Preston Dunn).

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the Terezin concentration camp liberation. In honor of this date, Lake City Playhouse will produce “I Never Saw Another Butterfly” from Friday through March 30.

“I Never Saw Another Butterfly” also stars Michael Dunn (Father), Joann Latimer (Mother), Wendy Crispin (Aunt Vera), Connor Heim (Pavel), Addison Gilliland (Erika), Samantha Bajorek (Renka), Hannah James (Irca) and Devan Renz (Rabbi).

The play also features Aislynn Preston, Annabelle Pereira, Cal McDevitt, Carissa Hober, Charlotte Dunn, Francesca Drake, Hailey Hober, Jakobi Jameson, Ronan Granier and Stormy Christopherson as people of Terezin.

The show is directed by Jessica Peterson and stage managed by Destanie Dunbar.

While 80 years might seem far off, Peterson stressed the Holocaust and the experiences of those forced into concentration camps are not ancient history.

One of her grandparents was in the military and liberated a concentration camp, and the great-grandmother of one of the actors in “I Never Saw Another Butterfly” was a survivor of the Terezin concentration camp that inspired the play. That actor’s great-grandfather was a survivor of Auschwitz.

Peterson has been in contact with another Terezin survivor and is hoping to connect him with the cast, or at least share messages between the two.

“I don’t think people understand how relevant the subject matter still is,” she said. “With what is happening all over the world right now, you’re going to watch the show and you’re going to be like ‘Wow, this is sounding familiar.’ ”

Though ripples from the Holocaust still make waves, Peterson realized that some of her younger actors might not be familiar with the history. She required parents of those who signed up to audition to have a conversation about the Holocaust with their children, and after casting the play, she had age-appropriate conversations with the cast about the story they were telling.

Actors were also asked to create a backstory of sorts for themselves that included whether they believed their character would have survived.

“The fact that they have taken it so seriously and really done the research and care so much about the story being told has been the best experience for me,” Peterson said.

Through her research, Peterson learned that the SS called Terezin a ghetto and marketed it as a retirement community for older Jewish people. They allowed those forced into the camp to bring up to 120 pounds of their own things. Those in the camps then were able to wear their own clothing, not the prisoner uniform seen in many photos from the Holocaust.

With that in mind, Peterson kept the costumes for “I Never Saw Another Butterfly” appropriate for the late-1930s and early 1940s. She also asked each actor to bring a personal item in for their character that they believe could have been sneaked past the SS, who went through what people brought in search of valuables.

“Anything that they think could have gotten by the SS, they’re allowed to bring on stage,” Peterson said. “Some of the girls have their dolls. Some kids have their journals. I have a kid who has a pair of dice. Like I said, these kids have really leaned into it and are taking it so seriously.”

Terezin was also atypical in comparison to other camps because of the large population of artists who were held there. As such, the camp performed a children’s opera called “Brundibár” several times. In “I Never Saw Another Butterfly,” Respanti changed that performance to a piece called “Ludvik the Carpenter.”

The script gives little guidance on how “Ludvik the Carpenter” sounds, saying simply “These words can go over a folk song.” Initially overwhelmed by the options, Peterson’s problem was solved when actor Emily Christopherson’s mother, Diane Nichols, offered to compose a piece of folk music for the scene.

Peterson also created a pre-show playlist featuring works from musicians who were held in Terezin and whose music was banned by the Nazis. Because the work these composers, writers and artists created while inside the concentration camps survived, theaters like Lake City Playhouse are able to tell their story.

“This is the most wonderful story of resilience,” Peterson said about the play. “The last line is, ‘I am not afraid. I am Raja Englanderova. I survived Terezin. Not afraid and not alone.’ How impactful that statement is, it’s wild.”