enGAGE Program
enGage Program Description: Through the power of Theatre and Partnerships, Prime Stage Theatre and the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh will engage the world in education, understanding, and actions against the atrocities of genocide.
2025 enGAGE Performance
I Never Saw Another Butterfly and The Terezin Promise
By Celeste Raspanti
Directed by Wayne Brinda
Playbill: Link to Butterfly Playbill (Flipbook)
Reviews Pittsburgh Owlscribe - Prime Stage Brings An Inspirational Drama to the New Hazlett Stage onStage Pittsburgh - Historical Relevance and Powerful Performances Make Prime Stage’s ‘I Never Saw Another Butterfly and The Terezin Promise’ a Must-See Show Interviews SLB Radio Productions - Interview: I Never Saw Another Butterfly and the Terezin Promise WQED: Voice of the Arts - The Terezin Promise and More At Prime Stage Theatre Articles Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle - Prime Stage Theatre presents ‘I Never Saw Another Butterly and The Terezin Promise’ Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - WWII veteran's daughter relays his experiences of the horrors of the Holocaust In the Terezin concentration camp, Austrian artist Friedl Dicker-Brandeis teaches Jewish children to make poems and drawings in secret art classes. Witness her passion, the children’s creativity, and the irrepressible power of Art to bring hope and healing into the darkest hours of the Holocaust. Feb. 28 - March 9, 2025 Run time is approximately 80 minutes with one 15-minute intermission.
Friday, February 28th is Preview with Pay What You Can
Opening Night Post-Show Discussion with Patty Partington
Patty is the daughter of WWII veteran Guy Prestia. She worked for 42 years at Ellwood City Hospital as a unit secretary and patient care tech. Patty volunteered to be her father’s secretary - she helped arrange speaking engagements and interviews and accompanied him to Army reunions.
WORLD WAR II AND THE LIBERATION OF THE CONCENTRATION CAMPS
Guy Prestia Sgt US Army 157th Infantry Regiment 45th Infantry Division. Liberation of Dachau Concentration Camp April 29, 1945. For over 25 years he spoke to schools, rotary clubs, churches, and basically anyone who would listen to him about WWII and the horrors of the Holocaust. We must never forget!
One of the most profound experiences in Prestia’s military career was the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp in Germany. As part of the 45th Division, Prestia was among the first Allied soldiers to enter the camp, where they were confronted with the horrifying evidence of the Holocaust. The soldiers found over 31,000 surviving prisoners and thousands of dead bodies, a scene that deeply affected Prestia and his comrades. The liberation of Dachau was a turning point for many soldiers, who, up until that moment, had not fully understood the atrocities committed by the Nazis. For Prestia, this experience underscored the importance of the war and the fight against tyranny
Saturday, March 1st is Opening Night with our Post-Show Discussion
Production Photos
Cast
More Information
Summary and what you will see -
I Never Saw Another Butterfly is an uplifting and inspiring story about the use of art in times of tragedy. The story centers around Raja, a young Czech teenager who is forced into Terezin, or Theresienstadt, a Jewish ghetto that was used as a stopping point for transport to the death camps in the east, Auschwitz in particular. While many Jewish artists, filmmakers, and other people of cultural or political prominence were sent there, the ghetto itself was still a miserable place to live. Disease was everywhere, and starvation was the norm.
We are Honoring the 80 Anniversary of the end of War World II and the Liberation of the Concentration Camps.
Of the more than 15,000 children who passed through Terezin, only 141 are known to have survived. Many drawings, poems, and other works of art that Raja and her friends smuggled out of Terezin have been shared with the world, and through them, these 15,000 children live on.
Through the eyes of the children who lived in this camp, we see how art helped them not only survive their time in the ghetto, but also how it helped them cope. The play uses poetry from the book by the same name, a collection of artwork and poetry by the children of the Terezin Concentration Camp,1942-1944
This collection of works is by children who were imprisoned in the Terezin ghetto during the Holocaust
https://www.holocaustcenterseattle.org/images/
Education/I%20Never%20Saw%20Another%20Butterfly%20Packet%20of%20Readings.pdf
This poem written by Pavel Friedmann, at Theresienstadt concentration camp on 4 June 1942.
https://www.hmd.org.uk/resource/the-butterfly-by-pavel-friedmann/
I Never Saw Another Butterfly: Children's Drawings and Poems from the Terezin Concentration Camp books and resources from US Holocaust Memorial Museum
https://shop.ushmm.org/products/i-never-saw-another-butterfly-childrens-drawings-and-poems-from-the-terezin-concentration-camp-1942-1944
The Theresienstadt "camp-ghetto"
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/theresienstadt
Information from Yad Vashem
https://www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/about/ghettos/theresienstadt.html
Inside Theresienstadt
https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/the-camps/theresienstadt-a-case-study/conditions-within-theresienstadt/
Liberators – From US Holocaust Memorial Museum
https://hmh.org/library/research/liberators-guide/#:~:text=From%201944%2D1945%2C%20Allied%20troops,and%20relief%20to%20Jewish%20prisoners
Liberators: The U.S. Army and the Concentration Camps of World War II Army Heritage Museum
https://www.armyheritage.org/soldier-stories/liberators/
Liberator Sgt. Thomas Sweeney, 71st Infantry Division
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/liberator-sgt-thomas-sweeney-71st-infantry-division
Liberation of Concentration Camps
National World War II Museum
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/topics/liberation-concentration-camps
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2023/2024 enGAGE Performance
Perseverance
April 24, 2023 - May 7, 2023
The world premiere of Perseverance brings to the stage a powerful memoir of healing and renewal. Few visitors to the G&S Jewelry Store in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood during the 1960s and ’70s were aware that the cheerful proprietor, Melvin Goldman, had spent his teens enduring the horrors of Auschwitz before arriving as a penniless refugee in postwar Pittsburgh intent on reshaping his family’s destiny. Adapted for the stage by L.E. McCullough from the book by Melvin Goldman and Lee Goldman Kikel, Perseverance: A Holocaust Survivor’s Journey from Poland to America depicts Goldman’s irrepressible spirituality, unflagging love for humanity, and perseverance as he worked to replace Darkness with Light, one shop patron at a time.
2022 enGage Performance
The White Rose
World Premiere
By James DeVita
Directed by Art DeConciliis
College students, Sophie Scholl and her brother Hans led their anti-Nazi resistance group to speak out against Adolf Hitler and his regime. The White Rose a true story of courage, of principle, of honor telling the story of its members as they spread The White Rose leaflets denouncing the regime. "It was time", the essay said, "for Germans to rise up and resist the tyranny of their own government." Beginning in the summer of 1942, they wrote and distributed leaflets calling for opposition to the National Socialist dictatorship and an end to the war all over Munich. The efforts of The White Rose, referred to once as "quite possibly the single most heroic feat in European history," are an inspiring tribute to the goodness of humanity shining even in the darkest moments of history.
2021 enGage Performance
Miracle in Rwanda
Written by Leslie Malika Lewis and Edward Vilga
A true story and uplifting message of forgiveness and compassion, Miracle in Rwanda is based on the life of New York Times Bestselling author of Left To Tell, Immaculée Ilibagiza. Miracle in Rwanda chronicles Immaculée’s dramatic experience of survival during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. The message is one of personal empowerment, of overcoming all obstacles through the power of faith, and ultimately finding peace of mind amidst unbelievable hardship.
Based on the true story of Immaculée Ilibagiza - Left to Tell, Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust
