Universal themes of identity, memory tapped in Hillel’s Jewish Theater Project production

When Rachel Seltzer began work on “Kindertransport,” the Jewish Theater Project’s spring production, it jogged memories of what it was like to be the only Jew on her residence hall floor during freshman year.

“I’m from Westport, Conn., where half the population is Jewish,” she says now, two years later. “It was really strange for me to have to explain and answer questions about Hanukkah and bat mitzvahs when I came here. For many of the girls on my floor, I was the first Jew they had ever met.”

Eva, the main character in “Kindertransport,” encounters a similar situation in the play, based on actual events. In the summer of 1939, Eva is spirited out of Germany and away from her family to escape the Nazis.

“She’s sent to live with an English family and loses her Jewish identity,” says Seltzer, a sophomore majoring in English.

Unlike Eva, Seltzer has retained her Jewishness in part because of her involvement with Hillel, the Jewish student center on campus, she says.

Serving as stage manager/technical director, she is one of about 30 UW–Madison students, actors, business people and technical hands working on the production.

“I’ve done a lot of technical theater in the past — I’ve built sets for the UW Opera, and worked on “Tablesettings,’ Hillel’s Jewish Theater Project production last fall,” she says. “Theater doesn’t directly pertain to my major, but being in charge of the technical aspect of the show requires me to develop leadership skills. I also find I have to be really conscientious about time management, and negotiate the challenging task for working with other people who may not have the ideas or interpretations of the script that I have.”

Anna Kacyn, a freshman majoring in theatre and drama and international studies, faces a different hurdle as she tackles the role of Lil, Eva’s adoptive mother, in “Kindertransport.”

“I’ve been acting all my life, getting relatively serious about it in high school. Playing an 80-year-old woman in “Kindertransport’ is definitely a challenge,” she says, adding that the six additional decades she has assumed for the play have given her quite a different perspective, and also some insight.

“Memory is one of the few things we have that is truly ours. I hope “Kindertransport’ jogs the memories of older people in the audience so that they appreciate every moment and recollection,” she says. “Reflection is crucial — no matter what your age — and it’s almost impossible not to reflect on this show and its deeper meanings. I want members of our audiences to question how true to themselves they really are, or want to become.”

After she had been accepted into the cast, Kacyn, like Seltzer, found parallels with the play in her own life. Her grandfather told her that he knew a number of people who had been part of the Kindertransport.

“Before, I had been totally unaware that there even was a Kindertransport,” she says.

Matthew Canter, Hillel’s staff adviser to the Jewish Theater Project, says that the play should compellingly illuminate this little-known aspect of Jewish history to cast, crew and audiences.

“This production provides an intimate portrait of an aspect of the Holocaust tragedy. The message of the play — that in war we are forever changed — is universal,” he says.

“Kindertransport” will be presented at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday-Thursday, April 29-May 1, in the Bartell Community Theatre, 113 E. Mifflin St. Tickets, $5 general and $3 students, are available at Hillel, 611 Langdon St. For information, visit Hillel’s Web site: http://www.uwhillel.org/ or call 256-8361.