Phoenix Theatre Ensemble Will Present a Benefit Reading For Rockland Holocaust Museum

Phoenix Theatre Ensemble, a New York based repertory company that is expanding its outreach to Nyack, announces a special staged reading of "I Never Saw Another Butterfly" by Cleste Raspanti at the Nyack Library on Wednesday, May 1st at 7:30 pm. This reading by Phoenix Theatre Ensemble is a part of the Fifth Annual National Jewish Theater Foundation Holocaust Theater International Initiative - Remembrance Readings and the Phoenix reading will benefit the Rockland Holocaust Museum and Center for Tolerance and Education.

From 1942 to 1945 over 15,000 Jewish children passed through Terezin, a former military garrison set up as a ghetto. It soon became a station, a stopping-off place, for hundreds of thousands on their way to the gas chambers of Auschwitz. When Terezin was liberated in May, 1945, only about one hundred children were alive to return to what was left of their lives, their homes, and families. The phrase "I Never Saw Another Butterfly" comes from a poem written by a young man named Pavel Friedman. Before the war ended his poem and other artwork and poetry were buried so it would not be discovered and destroyed by the Nazis. At the war's end Willy Groag, a former Terezin prisoner, was appointed coordinator of the children and youth department at the ghetto. His responsibilities included the rapid repatriation of the ghetto's young population.

He was given two suitcases of children's drawings and poems which he gave to the Prague Jewish Community. Authorities initially showed little interest in the poems and drawings, but after collecting dust for 10 years they were rediscovered and exhibited. The story of those years at Terezin remains in drawings and poems collected in I Never Saw Another Butterfly adapted by Celeste Raspanti into a moving play of remembrance and hope.

The cast will include members of Rockland County's Children's Shakespeare Company including Josie Rothman, Wiley June, Jasper Macri, Cooper Rosen, Julia Sciorra, and adult members of the cast will be Katie Elevitch and Elise Stone. The running time is approximately 60 minutes and will be followed by a talkback and Q&A.

Tickets are $30 and 80% of proceeds will be a direct donation to Rockland Holocaust Museum& Center for Tolerance and Education whose mission to educate it community about the lessons and legacies of the Holocaust, genocide, and human rights. The center strives to do this work with authenticity, dignity, and compassion so that all people are engaged to create a society of mutual respect and understanding - devoid of past hatred. Beyond education, the Museum will serve as a community memorial space, committed to paying tribute to all victims of Nazi persecution, as well as our local survivors and liberators. The museum is located at Rockland Community College, Library Media Center Room 4110, 145 College Rd, Suffern, NY 10901

Tickets: $30 (80% of proceeds to benefit Rockland Holocaust Museum & Center for Tolerance and Education)

Reservations: 212-352-3101 or NyackTheater.com