The Newtown High School Drama program presented Letters to Sala on November 14-17th.
Letters To Sala is a play about a young girl surviving the horrors of the Holocaust. The drama program presented five shows throughout the four days of showing, and the freshmen at NHS had the opportunity to see a showing of the play on November 15th during the school day.
This production was student directed by co-directors and NHS seniors Sadie Baimel and Parker Mauri. Newtown High School theater teacher Janice Gabriel served as the student advisor.
“Co-directing the show was awesome. Me and Sadie are very good friends, and are willing to vocally disagree with each other. It was honestly amazing because I could trust Sadie to block things and run a rehearsal when I wasn't there. We ended up always thinking similar things, and this experience really brought us together. I also think that it would be mostly impossible to direct the show by myself. I loved always having another opinion to make sure what I'm doing was good,” NHS senior Parker Mauri said.
Letters to Sala is a true story about a young Jewish girl’s survival during World War II in Germany. The play is adapted from the book Sala’s Gift, written by Ann Kirshner, the daughter of Sala. The play itself was created by Arlene Hutton.
Ann Kirshner's idea for the book originated when her mother, Sala Garncarz, handed over to her 350 paper letters, postcards and photographs that she received when she was in 7 different Nazi forced labor camps from the ages of 16 to 21 years old.
Sala explained to her daughter that she had to hide all the correspondence she received during her time at the labor camps as keeping the letters was strictly prohibited. Ann studied and translated into English the 40 year old letters her mother had accumulated during the 5 years at the labor camps and used them to write the book Sala’s Gift.
The play itself is performed on two sides of the stage with each side of the stage representing a distinct time period. The left side of the stage represents Poland during 1941 and the other side represents New York in 2005. New York 2005 is represented to illustrate the beginnings of older Sala giving the letters to her daughter, Ann, alongside Ann’s two daughters Caroline and Elisabeth. Poland 1941 is represented on the left side of the stage to show the start of the war conflict which includes young Sala played by Ella Renak, and Sala’s sisters, Raizel played by Olivia Grasso, Chana played by Maddie Britton, and Blima played by Victoria Rausch.
Throughout the play the two different time periods are represented side by side to illustrate both comparisons and foreshadowing throughout. At times during the play, characters from both time periods interact with one another to show the deeper meaning behind the play itself.
During certain parts of the play, younger Sala and older Sala gaze at each other as older Sala reads through all the letters she received 40 years ago. While reading the letters the memories from the labor camps flood back to her as she fondly looks on at the version of her younger self. Another example of the interaction between the two time periods occurs when young Raizel gazes at her nieces Caroline and Elizabeth as they talk about the letters Raizel once wrote to her sister Sala.
Mauri reflected upon the meaningful experience of co-directing the play.
“It was amazing for me when I realized that everything was going well. I didn't get to really see the show without any distractions until opening night, and it made me immediately cry. It was such a relief for me, but for the cast as well. I always knew they were good, but now we got proof that I was right. It made me realize that everything had finally paid off, and that we did a good job,” Mauri said.
Overall, most who were part of the play felt it was a good experience.
“The experience overall was really good, all of the cast was really supportive and the directors were really nice. They tackled everything with sensitivity and made sure all mental health was good because it was such a difficult subject matter,” NHS freshman Lia Battaglia said.
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