Theater / Film
A Diary and A Dream: Miami New World Alumni Develop ‘Rutka’ Musical
Lana Schwartz as Rutka in the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park production of the world premiere of “Rutka.” Two Miami natives created and are producers of the project, while the playwright is also originally from Miami. The producers will host “Behind the Scenes of ‘Rutka’ ” at South Florida JCCs throughout November. (Photo by Mikki Schaffner, courtesy of Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park)
Anne Frank’s diary has been synonymous with a true account of what life was like amid the horrors of the Holocaust. But two New World School of the Arts graduates, who came across another teenage diarist from the same era, are hoping to get her voice heard.
Rutka Laskier was living in the Będzin Ghetto in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II, where she documented her experiences in a school notebook, ultimately hiding it beneath a floorboard before she was taken to a gas chamber in Auschwitz.
David Schwartz and Amy Langer, both Miami natives, are the creators and lead producers of “Rutka,” an original musical with a book by another Miamian, playwright Neena Beber, set to an indie-rock score. After its world premiere at the Cincinnati Playhouse, Schwartz and Langer, now living in New York, are hosting a series of events that will offer a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the show, and will feature current students from New World School of the Arts performing selections from the original musical.
Ben Cherry (Yaacov), Lana Schwartz (Rutka), and Bex Odorisio (Dvorah) from the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park world premiere of “Rutka.” (Photo by Mikki Schaffner, courtesy of Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park)
“Behind the Scenes of ‘Rutka’ “events are at Michael-Ann Russell JCC in North Miami on Wednesday, Nov. 5; Alper JCC Miami, on Tuesday, Nov. 18, and the Miami Beach JCC, on Wednesday, Nov. 19. The producers will also be on hand for a discussion and question-and-answer session.
The road to “Rutka” began, Langer recalled, about seven years ago, with a two-year delay due to everything coming to a halt during COVID-19.
With anti-Semitism on the rise, Langer started thinking about finding voices who might resonate with a younger generation.
“I was wondering if there were any other diarists. And I knew there were, but who were they?” And there, after a hunt on Amazon, was the answer: “Rutka’s Notebook: A Voice from the Holocaust.”
The couple was immediately hooked and felt like they were onto something. “As soon as we read it and heard her words, she just sounded like any teenager,” said Langer. “We thought, ‘this could be a way to bring audiences that could connect with a younger generation.’”
Delaney Brown played Stasia, the real-life best friend of Rutka (Lana Schwartz) who retrieved her diaries, in the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park production.
(Photo by Mikki Schaffner, courtesy of Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park)
The notebook, recovered after the war by the only person Laskier confided to about the diary—her childhood best friend, a Polish girl named Stanisława Sapińska – was publicly unveiled in 2007 at Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust museum, and was published in English as “Rutka’s Notebook.” (Sapińska is one of the characters in “Rutka.”)
What struck Langer and Schwartz was the stark contrast within Rutka’s pages—between the everyday worries of a teenage girl and the unimaginable horrors surrounding her. “All of those things were juxtaposed with the horrific events happening around her in the world,” explained Schwartz.
The creators found the composers for “Rutka” after searching for a sound that fit Rutka’s voice. Initially imagining a punk rock style, they spent several days listening to music on Spotify. Langer discovered the band Pearl and the Beard. “I thought that their sound was cinematic and visceral, and it just felt right.”
Schwartz said that after setting their sights on and planning to approach the band, he discovered they had broken up. But an email address he discovered on the defunct band’s website was the ticket.
A meeting was set for a Starbucks in Brooklyn with Jeremy Lloyd-Styles and Jocelyn Mackenzie, the two founders of the band. “They spent two hours with us that day and asked incredibly smart, insightful questions,” said Schwartz. In the end, they said, “We’re in. We want to do this,” she recalled.
Now they needed a writer. Someone already involved in the project recommended looking at Beber’s work. “We did and thought her writing was really insightful and powerful.” She, too, agreed to meet with them. Quickly, the three discovered that they had a connection – Beber, who had recently been a writer and executive producer on the hit television show, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” was a Miami native, too.
Amy Langer and David Schwartz, graduates of New World School of the Arts and Miami natives, are the creators and lead producers of “Rutka,” the musical based on Rutka Laskier’s diaries. (Photo courtesy of Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park)
She also had knowledge of the Holocaust, which the playwright said helped to fill in some of the gaps. Rutka’s diary is only 60 pages long. The producers, who had secured the rights to the book from Rutka’s half-sister, Dr. Zahava Scherz, had been speaking with Holocaust survivors and learning about Bedzin, where Rutka lived. Beber said that she talked to Zahava, describing her as an “amazing woman who discovered, when she was about 14, that her father had another family that had been killed in the Holocaust.”
Insights like those from Zahava and the producers have helped inform the script, while the playwright said she has drawn from her own experiences.
“We are writing a show that isn’t historical journalism, said Beber, “so we’ve had to imagine things. My own story as a Jewish person is (that) I remember my parents talking about it, but they didn’t experience it. But on my husband’s side, both of his parents were Holocaust survivors who came to the U.S. as children as refugees. My children, who are now young adults, know that their great grandmother was killed in Poland by Nazis. So, there are stories, but I think it’s becoming more distant in time.”.
The musical started as a one-week workshop at the Professional Performing Arts High School on West 48th Street in New York.
“It’s sort of the New World analog here where a lot of the professional Broadway teens go to high school. We thought it would be a perfect fit for the show, both because it gave us an opportunity to see how the next generation would connect with the piece and the music and because it gave them an educational opportunity to be part of a professional workshop,” said Schwartz.
The students continued for weeks after the workshop was supposed to be finished. And then there was the offer to do a pair of concerts of the music at the New York Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center in January of 2023.
Hannah Skokan, Zoe Siegel, Sabrina Koss, Lana Schwartz, Julia Ty Goldberg, Dillon Klena, and Ayden Weinstein. in a scene from “Rutka.” (Photo by Mikki Schaffner, courtesy of Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park)
“Those sold out instantly and had long standby lines, and it was the first opportunity for industry professionals to hear the music and get familiar with the piece. And then we quickly got an offer from the Cincinnati Playhouse to present the musical’s world premiere.
It’s not a pie-in-the-sky idea that the musical could end up on New York’s Great White Way and London’s West End. The playhouse has garnered a track record of being a launching pad for musicals, including “Ragtime,” and “The Last Five Years.”
The married collaborators, who met while performing in Miami’s Southwood Junior High/South Center for the Arts production of “The Music Man,” said they are determined to bring this show to as many people as possible.
They want “Rutka” to be a catalyst for community, education, and healing. Langer, who is a teaching artist as well as a performer, said that in talkbacks and workshops with students, “many had never heard of the Holocaust.” Following a student matinee in Cincinnati, kids from parochial schools, public schools, and from diverse backgrounds, wanted to know more: “Where can I read the diary? Where can we learn more? Listen to the music again?” Langer said the cast received fan art and impromptu letters from the students recounting their experiences.
(WATCH: “Rutka” World Premiere)
Beber said she has found immeasurable satisfaction in being part of continuing Rutka’s story and introducing her to a new generation.
“Rutka wanted her story to go on, and she very much wrote, and hid this diary, with the hope that even if she did not live – and this we know from her friend who did survive and who retrieved the diary – that people would learn what had happened to them.”
For Schwartz and Langer, bringing “Rutka” home is a chance for the community to be part of the musical’s next chapter.
“We don’t want it to be just another show; there’s a bigger mission and we would be beyond thrilled to have as many South Floridians be a part of this process and this journey as possible.”
WHAT: “Behind the Scenes of ‘Rutka’’’
WHEN AND WHERE: 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 5, Michael-Ann Russell JCC, 18900 NE 125th St., North Miami. $15, general admission, $10, members, students and seniors; 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 18, Alper JCC Miami, 11155 SW 112 St., Miami, $10 members; 7:30 p.m., Nov. 19, Miami Beach JCC, 4221 Pinetree Drive, Miami Beach, $10 members.
INFORMATION: www.rutkathemusical.com
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