A theater performance called “…und der Regen rinnt” was staged by the Jugendmusiktheaterprojekt from the German city of Kassel in the former Magdeburg Barracks in Terezín on June 17, 2023. Emma Töppler, a member of the ensemble, who worked as a volunteer sent by the ASF organization in the Terezín Memorial in the season 2022-2023, wrote about the performance and about her own work in the Memorial …
”I spent a one-year volunteer service in the Terezín Memorial from September 2022 until August 2023. I am immensely grateful for all the experience I could gain during my work there, and also throughout my stay in the Czech Republic. One exceptional event happened this year and I would like to single it out: namely the performance in Terezín staged by the ensemble Jugendmusiktheater- projekt, whose member I am. The production was directed by Marie Radzikhovskiy.
We presented our theater performance “…und der Regen rinnt” in the former Magdeburg Barracks on June 17, 2023. As a matter of fact, we have been staging this performance about the ghetto in Terezín in my native town of Kassel and in its vicinity since 2019. When it turned out that I´d spend my one-year volunteering service in the Terezín Memorial we began planning our performance also in Terezín.
Our children´s ensemble of the Kassel State Theater performed the children´s opera Brundibár in 2019 and we, as its youth group, provided an accompanying program that describes, in a theatrical form, the history of the Terezín Ghetto. The gist of the performance is formed by the stories of the four female figures who had been imprisoned in Terezín: namely Sara Nussbaum, Ilse Weber, Helga Hošková-Weissová and Greta Klinsberg. The presentation of their life stories as well as the music and poems from Terezín during our performance is intended to help audiences in better understanding the past history.
For me personally the staging of our drama performance particularly in Terezín proved to be quite an extraordinary experience. Not only myself but also other members of the ensemble were deeply emotionally affected, having been overpowered by the past atmosphere of this place; as a result it was more difficult than usual for us to stay in our roles. We were very much enjoying the opportunity to tell the story of the wrongs suffered by the inmates directly on the “crime scene”, so to say.
We played to a full house on the stage in the attic of the Magdeburg Barracks. During the performance I could watch the faces of an engrossed and often moved audience, with Mrs. Michaela Vidláková, a survivor of the Terezín Ghetto, sitting in the front row. Again and again during the performance I kept looking at her face that showed just how our narrative, poems and music conjured up her own past experience and memories. We talked together after the play and the next day we received her e-mail message which said: “That lovely performance staged yesterday is still reverberating inside me. It was a truly profound experience… Many thanks for what I not only saw but also experienced and felt yesterday.”
This performance in Terezín also proved to be tremendously important for all of us, and it was primarily our contact with Mrs. Michaela Vidláková that has reinforced our resolve to keep staging our performance in the future. We have already received offers to play in many German towns and in Switzerland. As a result, we will keep in touch with Terezín at least remotely through our drama performances as well as through different exhibitions and the film (trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AyF7V99WLQ) that we shot back in 2021. I definitely plan to return to Terezín sometimes in the future and I am already looking forward to seeing you.
Emma Töppler
Translation from German to Czech: Jana Sumičová
