CRESTVIEW — For Riley Williames and Allie Howe, tackling a stage role based on a historic figure is tough enough.
Adding to the pressure — that much of the action takes place in German World War II labor camps — makes it even more intense.
But knowing the play’s subject, a camp survivor, is aware of their production raises the emotional impact even more.
The girls star as Sala Garncarz, the title character, in Crestview High School Theatre’s production “Letters to Sala,” running tomorrow through Saturday night in the Pearl Tyner Auditorium.
Riley performs Sala as a girl sent to a German labor camp from her home in occupied Poland. Allie is the older Sala, now settled in New York with a daughter and two granddaughters.
'MORE REAL NOW'
“It’s cool because we just found out she’s still alive,” Allie said during an Oct. 14 rehearsal. “Now I’m playing more than a historic figure who was a brave survivor in a camp. She’s someone more real now.”
“It’s really different than what I imagined it would be before I knew more about her,” Riley said. “The dynamics between different members of the camp are exciting. You think they’re alone, but they meet up with other people during the war and become friends.”
While researching Sala’s background, CHS drama teacher and director Annette Gebhardt discovered the Holocaust survivor is 91 years old and still lives in New York with her husband, Sidney Kirschner, a World War II veteran. Cody Aultman plays her husband in the CHS production.
Kirschner’s U.S. Army unit helped restore a German synagogue vandalized during anti-Jewish riots. He met Sala there during post-war Sabbath services.
WORD FROM SALA’S FAMILY
Gebhardt wrote to Ann Kirschner, Sala’s daughter — whom Meagan Keifer plays in the CHS production — and, to her surprise, received an email back.
“I hope the performances are gratifying to the hard-working team at Crestview,” Kirschner said. “I will share your note with the playwright and, of course, with Sala!”
Kirschner’s book, “Sala’s Story: My Mother’s Holocaust Story,” was the basis for Arlene Hutton's play.
During Crestview High's production, reproductions of some of the mail Sala received while a camp laborer — now part of the New York Public Library Dorot Jewish Division — will be displayed outside the auditorium.
Photos of Sala and the family members and friends who wrote to her will be projected above the stage during the production.
“It’s going to be powerful,” Gebhardt said. “I’m real proud of how these kids are handling it.”
What: “Letters to Sala," Arlene Hutton’s drama based on “Sala’s Gift: My Mother’s Holocaust Story” by Ann Kirschner
When: 7 p.m. Oct. 22, 23 and 24
Where: Pearl Tyner Auditorium, Crestview High School
Cost: $5 per person
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SALA’S LETTERS
Sala Garncarz was taken from her home in Poland at 16 years old and survived five years in seven Nazi forced labor camps.
While held captive, she received letters from friends and family, and she risked her life to preserve the letters.
Garncarz, liberated in 1945, came to the United States as U.S. Army Corp. Sidney Kirschner's war bride, and hid her papers in a closet, until one day in 1991 when she revealed the more than 300 letters, photographs and documents to her daughter, Ann.
Ann Kirschner published Garncarz's letters in 2006 as “Sala’s Gift: My Mother’s Holocaust Story.” Arlene Hutton adapted the work into a stage drama.
Source: New York Public Library Dorot Jewish Division
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This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview High School production on the Holocaust opens Oct. 22 (VIDEO)