'Edelweiss' Depicts Senselessness Of Nazi Philosophies
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By David [email protected]
Warsaw Community High School’s Select Theatre class will present its final play of the year, “Edelweiss” by Craig Sodaro, April 24 and 25 at 7:30 p.m. in the black box theater room.
Each year theater teacher Dana McAfee’s class does a show in the black box and gives all of the money to a charity that the students choose. This year, McAfee said the class is working with the Greater Warsaw Ministerial Association and giving the money to Honor and Remember, a service that honors and helps veterans.
The Honor and Remember fund of the GWMA is established to support and honor veterans through activities and events that remind everyone of their service and sacrifice to the nation. The fund also may directly help veterans who are honorably discharged and their families with financial assistance.
Tickets are $5 and all proceeds benefit Honor and Remember. Extra donations will be accepted at the play.
“The play is set in World War II in a (German) girls school,” McAfee said.
The school has a new teacher, Dorchen Werth, who doesn’t buy into the Nazi philosophies. She teaches her students about freedom and thinking for themselves.
For different reasons, some of the students are taken away throughout the course of the play.
“It doesn’t get into all of the atrocities of the time, but the senselessness of the thinking of the time and how easily people were swayed by what Hitler said,” McAfee said.
The synopsis of the play, according to histage.com, is “As the Nazi noose tightens around the neck of the common German, the effects are felt even in a classroom at the Scholoss Strasse School for Girls. Dorchen Werth, a young teacher just beginning her career, sees her students as a microcosm of society. Eleanore is in love with the local Hitler Youth leader; Hilde is a hard worker who strives to protect her young sister, Gertrude; Lilli is desperate to find a man who will show her affection; Paula has aspirations to attend the university; Renita is afraid because of her heritage; Annabelle is torn by divided loyalties; Edith is frightened of everything; and Marte is afraid of nothing.”
Hoping to create a place of safety and free thought, Dorchen convinces the girls to sign a pact that no one will repeat the conversations that occur in the classroom. But suspicions rise about what is being taught as acts of liberation and retribution are traced back to the classroom and we find that one girl has betrayed her teacher and her classmates to the SS, according to the website.
The cast of “Edelweiss” includes: Kendra Housel as Lilli; Gianna Burkholder, Gertrude; Maegan McFarland, Paula; Madison Hart, Edith; Casey Helser, Annabelle; Emma Lemon, Renita; Cailin Clay, Eleanore; Annie Wray, Marte; Karly Poyner, Hilde; Kirstin Davis, Frau Decker; Elizabeth Brown, Dorchen Werth; Wyatt Slone, Kurt Holbein; Jordan Fredericks, Julius Werth; Haleigh Randall, Emma Werth; Nicholas DiVaccaro, Herr Reidl; and Jacob Cauhorn, Zach Dodson and Gus Gigous as guards. Gigous also is the assistant director and stage manager.
The website for the GWMA, P.O. Box 1797, Warsaw, is www.gwma.info[[In-content Ad]]
Warsaw Community High School’s Select Theatre class will present its final play of the year, “Edelweiss” by Craig Sodaro, April 24 and 25 at 7:30 p.m. in the black box theater room.
Each year theater teacher Dana McAfee’s class does a show in the black box and gives all of the money to a charity that the students choose. This year, McAfee said the class is working with the Greater Warsaw Ministerial Association and giving the money to Honor and Remember, a service that honors and helps veterans.
The Honor and Remember fund of the GWMA is established to support and honor veterans through activities and events that remind everyone of their service and sacrifice to the nation. The fund also may directly help veterans who are honorably discharged and their families with financial assistance.
Tickets are $5 and all proceeds benefit Honor and Remember. Extra donations will be accepted at the play.
“The play is set in World War II in a (German) girls school,” McAfee said.
The school has a new teacher, Dorchen Werth, who doesn’t buy into the Nazi philosophies. She teaches her students about freedom and thinking for themselves.
For different reasons, some of the students are taken away throughout the course of the play.
“It doesn’t get into all of the atrocities of the time, but the senselessness of the thinking of the time and how easily people were swayed by what Hitler said,” McAfee said.
The synopsis of the play, according to histage.com, is “As the Nazi noose tightens around the neck of the common German, the effects are felt even in a classroom at the Scholoss Strasse School for Girls. Dorchen Werth, a young teacher just beginning her career, sees her students as a microcosm of society. Eleanore is in love with the local Hitler Youth leader; Hilde is a hard worker who strives to protect her young sister, Gertrude; Lilli is desperate to find a man who will show her affection; Paula has aspirations to attend the university; Renita is afraid because of her heritage; Annabelle is torn by divided loyalties; Edith is frightened of everything; and Marte is afraid of nothing.”
Hoping to create a place of safety and free thought, Dorchen convinces the girls to sign a pact that no one will repeat the conversations that occur in the classroom. But suspicions rise about what is being taught as acts of liberation and retribution are traced back to the classroom and we find that one girl has betrayed her teacher and her classmates to the SS, according to the website.
The cast of “Edelweiss” includes: Kendra Housel as Lilli; Gianna Burkholder, Gertrude; Maegan McFarland, Paula; Madison Hart, Edith; Casey Helser, Annabelle; Emma Lemon, Renita; Cailin Clay, Eleanore; Annie Wray, Marte; Karly Poyner, Hilde; Kirstin Davis, Frau Decker; Elizabeth Brown, Dorchen Werth; Wyatt Slone, Kurt Holbein; Jordan Fredericks, Julius Werth; Haleigh Randall, Emma Werth; Nicholas DiVaccaro, Herr Reidl; and Jacob Cauhorn, Zach Dodson and Gus Gigous as guards. Gigous also is the assistant director and stage manager.
The website for the GWMA, P.O. Box 1797, Warsaw, is www.gwma.info[[In-content Ad]]
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