I Never Saw Another Butterfly

This unique Northern Starz Children's Theatre event will be much more than a play. We have partnered up with The White Bear Center for the Arts, Temple Israel, Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas “Transfer of Memory”, Sabes JCC (Jewish Community Center) and playwright Celeste Raspanti, to bring our young cast the ability to not just perform, but to truly learn the history behind events surrounding the holocaust and the hope that survived. 

Story and Background
Over 15,000 Jewish children passed through Terezin, and only about one hundred were still alive when Terezin was liberated at the end of WWII. These few then went back to the scattered pieces of their lives, their homes and their families. Raja lived through it all at Terezin, teaching the children when there was nothing to teach with, helping to give them hope when there was little reason for hope.  This play is her story. It is history as much as any play can be history, showing the best and the worst of which the human heart is capable.​

The Playwright, Celeste Raspanti
A playwright, former nun, and retired college professor, Celeste Raspanti is known for having published and produced several 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. Her other plays on this topic include No Fading Star and The Terezin Promise. Raspanti’s work has been acclaimed for its firsthand information garnered from visits, oral histories, and interviews with concentration camp survivors. Today, Raspanti lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. ​