Don’t be fooled by the title of this show – yes, it does sound like a show for children, but it is equally relevant and important for adults to see too.

Under the direction of Mark Cassidy, this compelling script by Kathy Kacer is brought to life by a group of very talented actors. The re-mount of this show is well worth seeing – make sure you book early as tickets are selling fast!

TE-AMIM MUSIC THEATRE’S THE SECRET OF GABI’S DRESSER OPENS IN VAUGHAN CITY PLAYHOUSE IN NOVEMBER

“Go with the children or even alone!” – Line Boily, CJBC

“Script...possesses considerable resonance for adults as well”– Richard Ouzounian, Toronto Star

Te-Amim Music Theatre restages its acclaimed 2004 children’s Holocaust drama, THE SECRET OF GABI’S DRESSER, by Kathy Kacer. Performances for schoolchildren and families take place in November at the Vaughan City Playhouse, 1000 New Westminster Drive.

School performances, which run twice daily November 10-18 (except Saturday), are sold out.  Two public performance take place Sundays, November 13, at 2 and 7 p.m. ($25 adults, $20 child; family pack $79), and November 20, at 10 a.m. ($20 adults, $15 child).  Preview performances have already sold out. 

For tickets and information, phone 905-882-SHOW (7469) or visit www.cityplayhouse.ca.  More information on Te-Amim is available at www.Te-amim.com.

Following the school performances, Holocaust survivors will participate in a question-and-answer session.   Educational materials will also be available for teachers.

THE SECRET OF GABI’S DRESSER tells the story of a young Jewish girl in Czechoslovakia who hides in a dresser in her mother’s dining room while Nazi soldiers search the house for her.  The play focuses on moral choices that different people makes as the Nazi terror draws closer, and is a story of hope and courage in the face of adversity. 

Most of the cast in the original Equity production are returning:  Jill Morrison as Gabi; Nadine Rabinovitch and Allan Price as the parents, and Alan Lee, Renee Strasfeld and Clyde Whitham.  New to the cast are Amanda Parsons and Matt Bois.

Mark Cassidy returns as director.  Production designers are David and Ann Powell; Elizabeth Asseltine, lighting designer, Niki Poirier, stage manager, and Geoff Bouckley, production manager.

Founded and directed by Helena Fine, Te-Amim Music Theatre specializes in promoting Holocaust education and cross-cultural understanding through the arts.  Te-Amim (Hebrew for “accents”; “amim” also means “nations”) commissioned THE SECRET OF GABI’S DRESSER as its first drama, and Canada’s first Holocaust drama for schoolchildren and families.  The company has also presented the Canadian premieres of two World War II Czech Jewish artistic works – the children’s opera Brundibar, and the song cycle The Flower Horse.

THE SECRET OF GABI’S DRESSER marked the playwriting debut of author Kathy Kacer, who based her script on her award-winning, 1999 children’s story about her mother’s wartime experiences.  Published by Second Story Press, the novel won her both the Jewish Book and Silver Birch Awards, and was shortlisted for others.  Ms. Kacer is nominated for the $10,000 Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children’s Non-Fiction, for another Holocaust-oriented book, The Underground Reporters. The winner will be announced in September.

When Te-Amim Music Theatre premiered GABI’S DRESSER in April 2004, Richard Ouzounian of the Toronto Star remarked that the script “possesses considerable resonance for adults as well,” pointing out that “what makes this particular show so potent is that it’s not just one more riff on the Anne Frank story, putting the major focus on the process of how a Jewish family did (or didn’t) escape from the Nazis.  On the contrary, the entire first half of this play, in fact, is about the slow, insidious and chilling way that racial intolerance spreads through a school, then a community, then a country… This is a story we cannot, must not, allow ourselves to forget.”

CJBC reviewer Line Boily was also struck by the play’s depiction of the incremental progression of hatred and exclusion that led to the Holocaust.  She found the play appealed as much to adults as schoolchildren, and left “with an appetite to know more.  How often do people ask for more?  So it really pleased me.”

The production is presented with the generous support of Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies as part of Series of Tolerance for The York Region District School Board and The York Region Catholic District School Board.