Auditions for "I Never Saw Another Butterfly"
Directed by Michele Koehler
Auditions for "I Never Saw Another Butterfly" are Monday August 26 and Tuesday August 27 at 6:30pm at California Stage, 2509 R Street. Please bring a resume and headshot if you have them. You will be asked to fill out a form with your rehearsal availability. The audition will consist of readings from the script.
There are roles for seven females, four males, and four children, with additional minor roles. Some actors may play two or more roles. The play runs about 75 minutes without intermission.
Performance dates
October 11 through November 10 at California Stage, 2509 R Street, Fridays and Saturdays at 7pm and Sundays at 2pm.
About the play
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. The most famous symbol of hope was a yellow butterfly from a poem written by Pavel Friedman.
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.
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.
Roles available
As the play is written as a series of flashbacks, the age of male and female actors can vary from young adult to 30s.
- The female roles are Raja Englanderova, Mother, Vera, Erika, Irena Synkova, Renka, Irca.
- The male roles are Father, Pavel, Honza, and the Rabbi (who can be played by an older adult).
- Four young actors are needed to play the four Children of Terezin.
- Loudspeaker is a voice-only role of either gender.
TENTATIVE rehearsal schedule
Monday through Thursday, Sept. 3 through Oct. 9, 6:30-9:30 pm.
Tech rehearsal: Sat. Oct 5 or Sun. Oct 6, time tba between 10 am-9 pm.
Preview performance: Thursday Oct 10 at 7 pm.
NOTE: rehearsal dates and times will be scheduled to best accommodate the cast's availability.
Play synopsis
The play opens with Raja stepping into a surrealist landscape, a representation of her memory and the stories of the lost children who didn't make it out of Terezin. She introduces herself before an otherworldly voice begins to list the children at Terezin, who all perished at Auschwitz - all, that is, except Raja.
We are transported back in time to Raja's arrival at Terezin when she was twelve years old. Irena, a woman who secretly teaches the children of the camp after losing her own daughter, helps Raja heal from her trauma, allowing Raja to speak and live again. During the healing process, Raja remembers her journey, including the last Sabbath day she spent at home with her family before being forced to move into the ghetto at Terezin.
After Raja reclaims her speech, she begins writing stories with Irena and the other children: we learn about this, as well as the atrocities committed against the children and their families, in an expressive sequence in which the children recite their writings together. As time goes on in the ghetto, Raja's brother Pavel's number is soon called to be transferred. He decides he must hastily marry his beloved fiance, Irca, so they can stay together. The couple is married in a makeshift traditional Jewish ceremony in the camp that same day.
Raja ages inside the camp, losing her Mother, Father, Aunt, Brother, and Sister-in-Law by the time she is sixteen. Now all alone, Raja meets Honza, a boy around her age who is a leader in the boys' home. They take comfort in one another, and start a newspaper for the camp, which they publish and post around the barracks. Their partnership grows into a friendship, which eventually buds into a romance, until Honza's number is called, and he is taken away to Auschwitz. Soon after, Irena is also taken away, leaving Raja with only her grief and a pile of children's drawings and stories to be buried.
Raja is still alive when the camp is liberated, and eventually returns to Prague. But she is
left forever with the memory of her time at Terezin, and of all the people she lost along the way.
Mailing Address: R25 Theater Group, 1713 25th Street, Sacramento, CA 95816
R25 Theater Group is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization