HAVERTOWN— On Wednesday, February 26, a selection of Haverford High School students were transported back in time when actors and actresses from the Wolf Performing Arts Center took the stage to perform "The Butterfly Project", a play based on the poems and artwork of children confined in the Terezin Concentration Camp during WWII. Of the thousands of children that passed under the ominous sign reading "Arbeit Macht Frei," work makes one free, only about 100 children survived. While in the camp, children painted and wrote when they could, and their work was hidden away from the SS guards that controlled the camp. When their work was discovered after the camp was liberated, it published in the book I Never Saw Another Butterfly. It is this book that inspired Celeste Raspanti to write a play based on one child in particular, Raja, who she noticed was one of the few children published who survived Terezin.
Not only did Haverford High School students have the opportunity to view this production, but following the play, they also had the chance to ask questions of the actors and actresses. It was during this talk-back session that the audience learned the group would be traveling to Prague in April to both visit the camp and meet with Holocaust survivor Raja Engländerova on whom the play is based. For Haverford ninth grader Chloe Datner this hold special significance as she plays the role of young Raja in the production. Tara Huff, also a ninth grade student at Haverford, has been performing with the Wolf Performing Arts Center for quite a while and performed the role of Child 1 in Wednesday's production. These young women along with a rotating cast of young people between the ages of 10-18 have had the opportunity to present this play at a variety of schools, theaters, synagogues, as well as at the Kimmel Center.
