Lorraine Kimsa EDUCATION PARTNERS Theatre for Young People ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Allen MacInnis MANAGING DIRECTOR Nancy J. Webster Written by Emil Sher Based on the book Hana’s Suitcase by Karen Levine, published by Second Story Press Directed by Allen MacInnis Sept. 30 to Oct. 19, 2006 Study Guide by Nancy Guertin and Aida Jordão with contributions from Belarie Zatzman and her students from “Theatre and the Holocaust”, Faculty of Fine Arts, York University C. Adelstein, M. Jones, D. Katz, R. Lefort, L. Macdonald, J. Marcus, A. Millo, J. Moneta, D. Nearing, B. O’Brian, J. Paikin, A. Roy, I. Shomrony, G. Shpilt, L. Steinberg, M. Woodland Table of Contents Seeing it Live THE PLAY As members of the audience, you play an Cast................................................................................................................ 1 important part in the success of a theatrical Creative Team.............................................................................................. 1 performance. Please review the following Synopsis........................................................................................................ 1 theatre rules with your students prior to Playwright’s Note........................................................................................ 2 your LKTYP visit. An Interview with George Brady........................................................... 2 • Food, drinks, candy and gum are not permitted in the theatre. THE INTERPRETATION • LKTYP is a nut-free zone. Many children Director’s Note.......................................................................................... 3 have severe life-threatening allergies; Designer’s Note.......................................................................................... 4 NO PEANUTS or NUT products may be brought to our theatre. BACKGROUND • No electronic devices are permitted Historical Context..................................................................................... 6 in the theatre because they affect our Theresienstadt............................................................................................ 7-8 sound system. Photography, audio and Biographies.................................................................................................. 9 video recording during a performance is prohibited by the Canadian Theatre Timeline....................................................................................................... 10-11 Agreement. Japan in WWII.............................................................................................. 11 • Students are not permitted to leave the theatre unless they are accompanied by PRE-SHOW ACTIVITIES an adult. Glossary....................................................................................................... 12 Locations in the Play.................................................................................. 12 Live theatre is an active experience. Restrictions.................................................................................................. 13 Theatre is a two-way exchange. Actors are VISUAL ART ACTIVITIES......................................................................... 14 thrilled when the audience is engaged and responsive. We want you to laugh, cheer, clap and really enjoy your time at the DRAMA ACTIVITIES................................................................................. 15-16 theatre. However, please be considerate audience members. Talking, whispering LANGUAGE ART ACTIVITIES................................................................ 17 and excessive movement during a live performance is distracting for the actors, SUITCASE ACTIVITIES............................................................................. 18-19 and disruptive for other audience members. RESOURCES............................................................................................... 20-21 Enhance your visit by encouraging your students to look at different aspects of the production. Before the show, identify tasks for your class. Have one group of students looking at the set, another listening for the SEASON PARTNERS music and sound effects, a third watching the lighting and a fourth, the costumes. Compare notes after the show about what they observed. Your students will be more informed and they’ll be surprised by EDUCATION PARTNERS how much they noticed. Ask them to be prepared with one question for the actors after the show. Brainstorm with them about possible topics to get the most out of the experience! PRODUCTION SPONSOR The Play Cast RICHARD BINSLEY......................Kurt Kotouc, Victor Rott, Uncle Ludvik, Ensemble ELLA CHAN..................................................................................................................Maiko JO CHIM........................................................................................................Fumiko Ishioka PAUL DUNN...................................................................Young George Brady, Ensemble JESSICA GREENBERG......................................................................................Hana Brady HELEN TAYLOR...........................Marketa Brady, Ludmila, Michaela, Friedl, Ensemble ERIC TRASK.........................................................Karel Brady, George Brady, Ensemble DALE YIM.......................................................................................................................Akira Creative Team EMIL SHER..............................................................Playwright NANCY GUERTIN........................Production Dramaturg ALLEN MACINNIS..................................................Director STEPHEN COLELLA...............................Script Dramaturg STEWART ARNOTT..............................Assistant Director DANIELE GUEVARA...................Projection Coordinator TERESA PRZYBYLSKI............Costume and Set Designer MICHAEL SINCLAIR....................................Stage Manager JOHN GZOWSKI.......................................Sound Designer TRINA SOOKHAI.......................Assistant Stage Manager ANDREA LUNDY.....................................Lighting Designer Synopsis It is March, 2000. A child’s suitcase arrives from Fumiko brings the painful story of Hana to Maiko and Auschwitz for an exhibit at the tiny Children’s Akira. They start a children’s club, the Small Wings, to Holocaust Education Resource Centre in Tokyo, Japan. remember the children of the Holocaust. Spurred on by Maiko and Akira, children at the Centre, Fumiko Ishioka, curator and teacher, begins to search The second act tells the story of Hana and her family. for more information about the life of Hana Brady. Hana’s childhood in the Czech town of Nove Mesto Hana’s name, birthdate and designation (Waisenkind is shattered when her mother and father are taken or orphan), painted on the side of the suitcase, are prisoner by the Nazis. Hana and George are protected the only clues. The relentless search by Fumiko, leads by a Christian uncle, but are eventually taken to her across Europe and North America until she the concentration camp of Theresienstadt. Hana is uncovers the fate of Hana and the remarkable survival separated from George and the two children have of Hana’s only brother, George, who lives in Toronto. radically different fates at the hands of the Nazis. Jessica Greenberg and cast Photo: Daniel Alexander 1 The Play Playwright’s Note I had not yet finished readingHana’s Suitcase when my ing with colleagues -- a director, a dramaturg -- who offer mind began to spin with the possibilities of turning a feedback and insights as the play takes shape from draft to beautiful story into a powerful play. As I read certain pas- draft to draft. A world of its own emerges, a world with sages I pictured them on stage and knew I could use all its own rules and rituals. In the world of this play, the past the tools theatre has to offer: sets, costumes, music, slides, and present are braided but never blend: Akira and Maiko masks, even silence. A well-timed pause can speak volumes imagine Hana’s story as it unfolds but cannot affect it; and tell us more about a character or situation than any unable to change the past, they unearth their potential to amount of dialogue. shape the future. From the very start, I knew bringing Hana’s Suitcase to And so a play about the Holocaust ends on a positive note: life on stage would present certain challenges, and many the last image of the play is of a Japanese girl pretending rewards. How far into the darkness of the Holocaust do she is a Jew in Czechoslovakia. It is a small but hopeful you go, knowing young children will be watching the play? gesture that reminds us of the power of theatre to scatter How do you condense layered lives into ninety minutes on seeds, seeds that all of us -- on stage and behind the scenes stage? How much of the book do you preserve, and what -- have to believe will take root. gets left behind? Emil Sher Process is as important as production when creating a play, especially an adaptation. That process includes work- An Interview with George Brady LKTYP: How do you feel about the adaptation of your story it is worth it. Our story teaches kids. After reading the to the stage? book, children suddenly realize they have parents, siblings, freedom. This can change their lives. They understand GEORGE BRADY: Every new step is a surprise to me. It that they have to respect each other, that it is about started with the CBC radio