by Alan C. Breindel
directed by Leslie Kincaid Burby
Through the Darkness recounts the unimaginable journeys and true stories of four courageous men and women who left everything behind, including their loved ones, so that they might stay one step ahead of the Holocaust. Three of the four characters managed to avoid the horrors of the concentration camps and remained free, even if freedom was no more than the right to die on their own terms. Chaos was inescapable, freedom was motion, and the only safe place was anyplace other than where they were. Each of the characters repeatedly come face to face with seemingly insurmountable obstacles to daily survival and show us that when life is vastly different, life is still livable.
'“Through the Darkness” is a beautiful, moving, inspiring play about survival, prejudice, inhumanity, and acts of kindness—small and large. Leslie Kincaid Burby, the director, orchestrates the powerful production with a flawless ease.' -- NYC Splash Review
Thursday, March 9 - 7pm
Friday, March 10 - 8pm
Saturday, March 11 - 8pm
Sunday, March 12 - 3pm
Thursday, March 16 - 7pm
Friday, March 17 - 8pm
Saturday, March 18 - 8pm
Sunday, March 19 - 3pm (TB w/ Breindel)
Thursday, March 23 - 7pm (TB w/Audrey Unger Reich, bio below)
Friday, March 24 - 8pm
Saturday, March 25 - 8pm (TB w/ Roger Peltzman, bio below)
Sunday, March 26 - 3pm (TB w/ Breindel)
Wednesday, March 29 - 7pm
Thursday, March 30 - 7pm
Friday, March 31 - 8pm
Saturday, April 1 - 8pm
Runtime: 95 minutes
Cast:
Jed Dickson*
Robert Meksin*
Tracy Newirth*
Emily Zacharias*
Alex Dmitriev*
*Member, Actors' Equity Association
Audrey Unger Reich
Audrey Unger Reich with her father Ron Unger
Audrey’s father, Ron (Romek) Unger, grew up in the southern Polish town of Tarnow. His life changed abruptly at age 11, when the Nazis invaded Poland in September 1939. He lived under ever-increasing restrictions and brutality until he was deported to Plaszow, the first of three concentration camps he was sent to during the War. He was liberated from Ebensee (a satellite camp to Mauthausen) on May 6, 1945, only months after his father died of infection and malnutrition. Ron’s mother was murdered at Auschwitz. Ron spent more than three years in a displaced persons camp in Italy until emigrating to the United States in December 1948.
Audrey visited Poland in 2014 and 2016 and was able to find her father’s home in Tarnow, as well as the building where his family’s business had been. She also visited Zbylitowska Gora, a forest outside of Tarnow, where, in June 1942, 6,000 Tarnow Jews, including 800 children, were shot by German soldiers and then buried in mass graves.
Audrey is an artist and educator, who tells her father’s Holocaust story, and has created artwork inspired by it. Ron participates in the “Adopt-a-Survivor” program on Long Island. They hope to ensure that the horrors of the Holocaust, and the personal stories of the survivors, will never be forgotten.
Audrey is a member of Generations Forward, a group of second and third generation individuals sponsored by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center of White Plains, New York.
Roger Peltzman
Beatrice Peltzman in 1944.
In 2014 Roger released a CD, Dedication: Roger Peltzman Plays Chopin (Astre Records), which was recorded at the famed Brussels Conservatory of Music and hailed by Gramophone Magazine. This is the same venue where his Uncle Norbert Stern performed and won several piano competitions while he was a student at the school. Tragically, Norbert died at age 21 in Auschwitz. The recording is not just a document of Roger’s interpretations of works by Chopin but also an act of remembrance for his Uncle. The CD has gotten much airplay on WQXR - FM, WFUV - FM, Radio France, and has received praise from publications in both the U.S and Europe.