THEATER: The Survivor

The State College Community Theatre opened THE SURVIVOR this week at Boal Barn. The time of the play is 1940 to 1943 and the place is the Warsaw Ghetto. A group of Jewish teenagers are living with the constant threat of death by the Nazis. They start by banding together to smuggle food into the Ghetto and end by forming the nucleus of the resistance movement.

Photos courtesy of Drew Frank
Meadow Lane Photography

Thanks to a cast that felt the desperate drama that these young people must have lived through, it was worth braving the heat to spend an evening at The Boal Barn Playhouse. I was amazed when I read how young this cast is. They captured a time and circumstances that, thankfully, they have not experienced.

Each member of the cast was surprisingly good, but special credit has to go to Jesse Tyler Moore who played Jacek, the survivor. His passion remained intense throughout the play climaxing with a powerful closing speech. The audience was utterly still at the end of the play, the best compliment an actor can receive.

Deb Gilmore as Jacek’s little sister, Hela, gets a chance to show growth in her character. Olivia Lusk and Kaitlyn Warner as Mala and Halina, the Jewish girls living out of the Ghetto and passing as Christians, showed how frustrating it is to live as someone you aren’t.

Photos courtesy of Drew Frank
Meadow Lane Photography

The brave rebels were played by Max Hults, Jeremy Edelstein, Joshua Miller-Day, and Michael O’Neill. Each man showed the acting talents of much more experienced actors. Again, the passion for their characters was very believable--and touching. Each actor had a moment to shine in his or her “death monologue”. These moments were particularly poignant.

At times, the only wrong note for me was the character of Rubenstein played by Rick Gilmore. Mr. Gilmore did a fine job, but I am not sure how much “comic relief” the show needed.

Chris Gallagher was Markowsky, the man who helped the Nazis to round up the Jews to the cattle cars. He was a good balance to show how far a man will go to protect his own family.

Photos courtesy of Drew Frank
Meadow Lane Photography

The sets by Nicki Duvall were well thought out; making it always clear if the action was in the Ghetto or the streets of Warsaw. All in all, the play was well done, from Anne Simon’s directing, to the important lighting design of Celine O. Graae and the costumes of Diane Twomley.

With some countries saying that they are going to stop teaching about the Holocaust for fear of offending someone and with the swastika still showing up, we need to be reminded of this time in history. It is dangerous to forget.


THE SURVIVOR will run until July the 31st. Into the Woods, the musical by Stephen Sondheim, will open on August the 9th.