{"id":35482,"date":"2023-01-25T16:14:10","date_gmt":"2023-01-25T21:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/?p=35482"},"modified":"2023-01-25T16:14:12","modified_gmt":"2023-01-25T21:14:12","slug":"art-confronts-the-horrors-of-the-holocaust-in-an-upcoming-sinclair-theatre-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2023\/01\/25\/art-confronts-the-horrors-of-the-holocaust-in-an-upcoming-sinclair-theatre-production\/","title":{"rendered":"Art Confronts The Horrors of the Holocaust In An Upcoming Sinclair Theatre Production"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sinclair Theatre has announced several performances of the tragic real-life story of the Terezin
Concentration Camp scheduled later this month. I Never Saw A Butterfly promises to do its
source material justice by telling the heart-wrenching tale of children using art to survive the
Nazi occupation of their country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The play is based on the book of the same name and is set between 1942-1945 in what was then
Czechoslovakia. Thousands of children would be forced into the Terezin camp during that time.
Spurred by the ingenuity of educators, they would turn to poetry and art to survive. Creations by
those children formed the bulk of the critically acclaimed book and take centerstage during the
play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kimberly Borst, Professor of Theatre and Dance at Sinclair, will star as art teacher Ilena
Synkova in the upcoming production. She told The Clarion of the play\u2019s importance, challenges
members of her team have faced, and how privileged they are to be telling such an important
story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Sinclair Theatre Dept. practicing for the play. Photo credit: Dion Johnson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a topic we believe is important to keep our students educated about. It is a dark chapter
in human history we need to keep alive so that the horrors Jewish people and other
disenfranchised communities in Europe experienced do not fade from public memory,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Portraying characters enduring such inhumane and horrific abuse was a major challenge as an
actor, Borst explained. Thespians, who are tasked with embodying their characters, faced the
difficult task of portraying the lived experience of people who suffered the most severe human
rights violations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is really moving but also very difficult once you let it in as an actor. We need to have courage
to absorb what these people experienced so that our performance can be effective. As actors, we
play the hope as well as the despair. In this case, it was really gut wrenching at times.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Sinclair Theatre practicing for the play. Photo credit: Dion Johnson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

According to Borst, the poems and paintings made in the camp had a profound effect. Members
of the audience will have a chance to experience them for themselves during the play.
Projections will display some of the paintings preserved after the camp\u2019s liberation while actors
will recite some of the poems made by the children of Terezin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tough to realize how cruel people can be to each other, but then you also see how strong
these children remained in the middle of this hell they were living,\u201d said Borst. \u201cI hope people
come away with an appreciation for the spirits of those children.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related article: Holocaust Remembrance<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sinclair Theatre is perfectly placed to host such a production, which is being held as part of its
FREE EXPRESSIONS series. Alongside other performances this year, the series promises to
showcase the power of theatre and stagecraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is something so powerful about not having the filter of a screen or sound system, where
you are forced to be in the space. To sit there, watch a human recite these words, see it in their
eyes, and sharing the air so to speak makes it ten times more powerful than watching a movie. It
gets into your body and can be so much more profound,\u201d said Borst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three performances of I Never Saw Another Butterfly have been scheduled. The play will open
on Jan. 26 at noon, followed by a second performance at 7 p.m. . The last
performance will be held at noon on Friday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ismael Mujahid<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reporter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sinclair Theatre has announced several performances of the tragic real-life story of the TerezinConcentration Camp scheduled later this month. I Never Saw A Butterfly promises to do itssource material justice by telling the heart-wrenching tale of children using art to survive theNazi occupation of their country. The play is based on the book of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10416,"featured_media":35555,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2102,3613,3,2160],"tags":[2199,420,5302,1548],"class_list":["post-35482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-life","category-culture","category-tartan-news","category-theatre","tag-art-2","tag-holocaust","tag-ismael-mujahid","tag-sinclair-theatre"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/butterfly-barbed-wire-fence-e1674680543517.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-9ei","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10416"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35482"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35562,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35482\/revisions\/35562"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}