A Message from Arnold Mittelman After a career in not-for-profit and commercial theater spanning more than 40 years I was honored in 2007 to found the National Jewish Theater / Foundation and in 2010 to assume leadership of its Holocaust Theater International...
Terezín
Author(s): Nicholas Tolkien
Two Jewish girls, Alexi—a brilliant violin player—and Violet are forced to act for their lives in a propaganda film in the Terezín concentration camp. At every turn, the girls face a desperate struggle for survival. Soon Violet mysteriously disappears and Alexi’s musical ability attracts the unwanted attention of the Nazi commandant. He gives Alexi a Faustian bargain: teach him to play the violin and he will reveal Violet’s whereabouts. But how can Alexi trust an evil man, who orders the deportation and extermination of her own people?
Format: Full-length play
Cast Size:11M/5F
Character breakdown:
Alexi
Violet
Eric
Karl Rahm
Kurt Markowitz
Udo Krimmel
Isabella
Stefan
Maurice Rossel
Gonda Redlich
Aaron
Peter
SS-Platoon leader
Mary
Rachel
Dr. Paul Eppstein
Snapshot
Original or Prominent Production:
The Peter Jay Sharp Theater, New York, June to July, 2017.
The Peter Jay Sharp Theater, New York, June to July, 2017.
Original Source Material: The play is based in part on The Terezín Diary of Gonda Redlich. Gonda Redlich was deported to Terezín in December 1941. The council of elders selected him to head the Department of Youth Welfare in the ghetto. In 1944, Gonda Redlich, his son and his wife were deported to Auschwitz, where they perished. In 1967, Czech construction workers found his diary in an attic. The play is written from the children’s perspective. The collections of art work created by children in the camp—who expressed their situation in the form of paintings and poetry, such as I Never Saw Another Butterfly—greatly inspired Tolkien to tell this story.
Nationality of Author: English
Original Language: English
Production Rights Holder:
Nicholas Tolkien. Visit the play website.
HTC Insights
Views, reference and research of interest.
Lifetime Achievement Award
The National Jewish Theater Foundation presented its 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award to Alfred Uhry. The presentation took place as part of the Lincoln Center Library event on January 27th 2025 in commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on the 80th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz
Lifetime Achievement Award
On September 30, 2024, French playwright, Mr. Jean Claude Grumberg received the Lifetime Achievement Award. It was presented by NJTF HTII President, Arnold Mittelman with Dominique Trimbur, PhD-Manager for the History of Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, Teaching of the Holocaust of Fondation Pour La Memoir de la Shoah Project.