Auschwitz Lullaby a powerful story based on inmates’ diaries presented Feb. 3 at Renaissance Center

Release Date: 12/19/2006. Expired: 1/22/2007

The Mind Enriching Theatre series at The Renaissance Center presents Auschwitz Lullaby, a powerful drama based on actual events from inmate diaries, for field trips in spring 2007 and in one special public performance on Saturday, Feb. 3.

Tickets for the 7 p.m. Feb. 3 public performance are $7 for adults and $5 for seniors and children under 13. The performance is not recommended for small children and infants.

In conjunction with the play, The Renaissance Center will present Living On, a traveling exhibition of photographic portraits of Holocaust survivors and liberators now living in Tennessee. An opening reception for the exhibit will be 6-7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 3, immediately prior to the performance.

Auschwitz Lullaby is available for school field trips Tuesday-Friday, Jan. 30-April 13, and is recommended for grades 6-12.

Written by James C. Wall and winner of the Julie Harris Playwright Award from the Beverly Hills Theatre Guild, Auschwitz Lullaby tells the story of Dr. Isaac Jonah, a Hungarian Jew who, along with his wife and daughter, is interred at Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944 and forced to work in the laboratory of sadistic Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele. Jonah searches for strength when he is asked to help in the escape of Lena, a young girl who has miraculously survived the concentration camp’s gas chamber that killed her entire family.

He must weigh the safety of his own family against the life of this innocent girl. The nearly successful attempt leads Jonah to perform the most courageous act of his life as he goes against everything his religion and his medical degree have taught him.

Wall is an actor, writer and teacher who is the only three-time winner in the playwriting competition sponsored by the National Writers Association South Florida Chapter. In addition to Auschwitz Lullaby, Wall won the competition with Peanut Butter & Jelly and Sanctuary. He teaches English at St. Francis High School in Wheaton, Ill. Wall received his Bachelor of Arts in English from Loyola University in 1970 and earned a master’s degree in English and History from Roosevelt University in Chicago.

“This is our second production that has been based on real events relating to the Holocaust. We experienced tremendously positive feedback when we presented And Then They Came for Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank,” said Hal Partlow, managing director of the Mind Enriching Theatre series and director of Auschwitz Lullaby. “With more than 6 million lives lost to the atrocities of the Holocaust, there is no comparable period of history that exemplifies the results of hatred and prejudice. Only by remembering the human cost and honoring the men, women and children who lived through such horror will we be able to prevent such events from repeating.”

For more information on scheduling a field trip performance of Auschwitz Lullaby, call (615) 740-5533.

To purchase tickets for the Saturday, Feb. 3, public performance, call (615) 740-5570.

The Renaissance Center is a fine arts education and performing arts center at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 miles west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172. For more information on programs at The Renaissance Center, call (615) 740-5600 or visit www.rcenter.org.

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