In the 2013 Spring Semester, Aurora Held read Klauzal Square in class. Having networked with the guest professor, Held met the playwright in New York City and ultimately procured the rights to direct the first ever staging of the play.
Because the play is premiering in an educational setting as Held’s style project — the required production for second-year graduate directors — Held said it is not technically Klauzal Square’s world premiere. However, the feeling hasn’t changed for the actors.
“It’s a different experience going into a play and realizing I get to make the rules, that we make the rules of this world and that is how the audience will see the play for the first time,” said Emily Auwaerter, who plays Klara and is a senior studying theater performance.
Klauzal Square follows the lives of five preteen girls in modern day Budapest as they deal with bullying, religion, anti-Semitism and history. Held said the choice to have all the main characters be 12 years old heavily influences the way the issues are handled in the play.
“They’re almost unbiased in their views,” said Held, the director of the show. “Their thoughts on Judaism and Christianity are so pure that through the eyes of someone younger, we can understand it a lot clearer. ... It’s their frame of mind that’s important.”
Going hand in hand with the characters’ ages is the theme of finding oneself and figuring out what beliefs he or she will hold, an idea Held said is a perfect topic for a college audience.
“In college, it’s the first time you’re given liberty to evaluate everything you know,” she said. “You really decide who you are, why you are that way and what you want to hold on to from the way you’ve been raised. ... Do we let history dominate who we are or do we use history to change who we are?”
The historical aspect of the play involves the Holocaust and the major ideas surrounding that event — power and hatred.
“It looks at ‘What is hatred?,” said Rachel Weekley, who plays Ildiko and is a senior studying theater performance. “How does one person justify treating another person so abominably? ... How do you have power over someone? Who decides you get the power? ... It’s the thinking being examined and not the Holocaust itself.”
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If You Go:
What: Klauzal Square by Sarah Gancher
When: 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 2 p.m. Saturday
Where: The Forum Theater, Radio and Television Building
Admission: Free; make reservations by emailing a given date and number of tickets to free@ohio.edu; total capacity is limited to 69 seats each night; an open forum for discussion will take place after the show on Thursday
