About the Play:

I Never Saw Another Butterfly is a full-length drama by Celeste Raspanti. This play is based on the poetry created in a concentration camp by the Jewish children of Prague during the Holocaust. Perhaps the most famous poem is I Never Saw Another Butterfly. Especially recommended for school and contest use.

I Never Saw Another Butterfly is a moving full-length play that details children’s account of life during the Holocaust. From 1942 to 1945, during WWII, over 15,000 Jewish children passed through Terezin, , a former military garrison set up as a ghetto in Czechoslovakia. It soon became a stopping-off place for hundreds of thousands of Jews on their way to the gas chambers of Auschwitz. When Terezin, was liberated at the end of the war, only a hundred or so children were still alive. I Never Saw Another Butterfly is the story of Raja, a survivor, who tells of the Terezin children and their teacher, Irena Synkova, a woman who gave them hope even when there was none, creating a small pocket of laughter, flowers, and butterflies behind the barbed wire. There were no butterflies at Terezin, of course, but for the children, butterflies became a symbol of defiance, making it possible for them to live on and play happily while waiting to be transported. Based on a true story, this play shows the best and the worst of which the human heart is capable.

I Never Saw Another Butterfly is regularly performed in school and community theatre productions.

Cast: 7 female, 4 male, 4 children, extras

What people say:

"My class thoroughly enjoyed reading, studying and performing this play. The enduring understandings of 'Together we are strong' and 'It takes courage to survive' were lessons well learned by my students in grade 8. All of our lives (students' and audiences') have been changed by this show." — Corey Follett, Alexandra Community School

"This story is powerful. Traveling to senior centers with this play is the best thing we ever did." — Walter Williams, Master Arts Theatre

"It was amazing. This will be the second time I have chosen this play; the first was approximately 12-14 years ago. It is powerful! and with the correct casting will leave a lasting impression. Our students feel awed and honored to be able to perform this historical Beauty of the human spirit." — Jan Kuhn, Crestview High School

"Our cast of 64 young people really got to grips with the emotion and history of this piece." — Jacqui Trent, Weymouth Drama Club (UK)

About the Playwright:

Celeste Raspanti is an American playwright, former nun, and retired college professor She is known for having published and produced several full-length and one-act plays. Her special interest in the Holocaust, as well as her interest in the stories from the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp, led to her writing I Never Saw Another Butterfly.