Text Box: Dear Naava, Thank you for one of the most memorable pieces of theatre I've seen. Beautifully crafted and performed, you walk the fine line between comedy and tragedy with composite skill. Never allowing your audience to wallow and always gently challenging and questioning. Your work is given credence by your personal connection with the material and your performance is both a remarkable testimony as well as being a truly entertaining evening. I know that I will be referencing this piece of theatre for years to come in my work with students. I only wish it were possible to make this compulsory viewing for every student of drama (or any other subject come to think of it!) Helen Grime, Associate Lecturer, University of Winchester 2005 Dear Naava, Having visited the Edinburgh Fringe/International Festival for the past three summers looking for interesting work by women theatre artists, your work stood out as being one of the simplest, yet most extraordinary and moving performances I have seen in recent years. I was thrilled that you were able to come and perform for our students. It was absolutely worth the year it took to arrange. Several of my students, particularly the female students, have commented that Better Don’t Talk was the best performance they have seen here during their time at University. Your work speaks volumes in the way it connects personal narrative with world history and the atrocity that was the Holocaust. I wish you continued success in performing Better Don’t Talk. It is an important piece of theatre which deserves recognition. Marianne Sharp, Lecturer in Drama, University of Winchester Dear Jon Meyer, Flanzer Jewish Community Center, Sarasota, Florida, I would like to commend your organization for letting Naava Piatka perform for our high school students here at North Point High School. Her one woman show “ Better Don’t Talk” was such an inspiration to not only myself, but my students as well. The performance helped my students learn the realities of the Holocaust and its impact on future generations. Not only did my students enjoy the story, we were also able to apply it into my American History curriculum with the lesson suggestions provided by Ms Piatka. It gave students a real life experience of the Holocaust and its effects. Please tell Ms Piatka she should continue to do her show, especially to young people in an educational setting. Thank you again for such a wonderful opportunity. Colleen LaVallee, Social Science Teacher, North Point High School, North Point, Florida. Dear Naava, Your performance and story was the best show I saw at Edinburgh this year. I am very english no jewish blood at all but was moved to tears and my thoughts have been with you and all those who suffered ever since I saw you on stage,both at your own show and the “Pick of the Show “which encouraged me and any others to come along. Hilary Waitt, England Oh, my class enjoyed your mother’s story! The humor mixed with the sadness made it a story to remember. Thank you again for a wonderful educational, entertaining, thought provoking morning. Ruth K, Teacher at Quest R 111, New York Thank you, Ms Piatka for a blessed performance. It reminded me of things, thoughts, and feelings. You know, some people just don’t want to remember forgotten thourhg and feelings. They say keep them dead and buried. I’m a young person who in this day and age like to know answers and reasons why this and that happened. I was brought to tears many times. Not at the sad words, but by the inner strength that you and your family possessed. You know, Naava it takes some people a life time to get that. I hold my emotions in deep because you see, I come from a family who parents and grandparents kept secrets and didn’t speak of such things. Only recently I got a little information about my family history. To me knowledge is the key, Naava. Knowledge is the key and when you get the key, open the odor and get all your answers. Some you like and some you won’t, like yours. Truly an appreciative student. Gail M. Questar, NY Naava's performance was beautifully fluid. Her characterisation and physicality were very strong and she dominated the stage with real confidence and a natural presence. Limited use of props that could sometimes hinder other performances allowed us in this one to concentrate on each significant move and every well constructed sentence. Naava knew where her strengths lay, creating a vastly convincing character so that at times it seemed like there were actually two people on stage and then blowing the audience away with a voice that left us in no doubt that she was her mother's daughter - a born performer. Every detail about the story seemed to have been specifically chosen to make the whole piece gripping from start to finish. Naava's sincerity when playing herself, her open and frank approach to her mother, her past and her mothers terrible past, to name but a few areas, caused the audience to reflect on their own past and their own loved ones. This inside story of such a horrific moment in history is unique but so important. Naava managed to show an imperative counter narrative, a voice from the largely marginalised group of people that we class as victims in today's history lesson. Although this is obviously true, and the holocaust was an event that never ever should have happened, Naava shows sides of the dark history that no text book will ever bother to focus on- the heroism of certain inhabitants of the camps, the glimpses of light and the comraderie, the moments of joy, even, that were shared in a terrifying place and above all the story of a hugely successful survivor......... When such a group of people as 'the Jews in WW2 Germany' have been forever lumped into one such category, we stop seeing them as individuals and start treating them as a mass, sympathising with the situation not the people and consequently just inadvertently continuing the dehumanisation that was started in the 1940's. But in Naava's mother's account our hearts bled for individuals, real wasted lives and talent of which we acknowledge with greater conviction just how much there must have been. Stunning! Debbie Hickman, Third Year BA Honours Drama Student, University of Winchester Naava's performance of 'Better don't talk' was outstanding. I loved the way that it brought tears to my eyes and made me think about my relationship with my mother, constantly questioning what would I do if my mother died today? It was such an emotionally challenging subject to tackle yet she performed it with such passion and determination. I was inspired by what she produced and would recommend it to anyone. Kerry Townsend, 3rd Year Drama Student, University of Winchester I thought the show was inspirational and beautifully done. I happened to go home the next day and I told my family all about it and even urged them to go and see it in London that weekend when you said she was performing there. I had goosebumps throughout and it really brought home the fact that I really don't know that much about my parents life especially when they were younger and raised so many burning questions I was dying to ask. I lost my great nanna recently and being nearly 100 years old I could empathise with Naava as I probably did not know as much about my nanna as I should have done. The performance mixed with songs, humour and careful movement was alive but never at any point lost its underlying message-that we should all make the most of what we have got because we never know when it may be snatched away from us. Elizabeth White, 3rd Year BA Honours Drama, University of Winchester I was an extremely priveleged and grateful viewer of the wonderful one woman play, Better Don’t Talk! by Naava Piatka on Sunday night. Thanks to the support of my history teacher, Rob Devling, myself and 23 other students from St. Paul’s Grammar had the opportunity to view the performance. I noticed that our group were some of very few non-Jewish in the audience. Is it the case that many of the Jewish youth simply don’t want to know about the Holocaust, or view their parents’ culture as “embarrassing” as Naava Piatka herself had early in her life? Do the younger generation shun their history? I felt the line in the play…”and I hear the voices I’d never heard” had quite an importance to me, as a person in no way connected to World War 2, as the play itself made the events and experiences of the Holocaust come to life so vividly. I would like to thank Naava Piatka for this. I believe the play itself deserves a wider audience than simply the Jewish community, as it held so many truths and beliefs that should be shared openly. It would be great to inform a wide and varying audience, to help the population gain a greater understanding of the atrocities of not only the Holocaust but of war itself, so as the human race can strive to learn from past mistakes. Lynne Zeldenryk, Yr 11, St. Paul’s Grammar School, Melbourne, Australia. Dear Naava, I would like to thank you for giving all those people who died during the Holocaust a voice and for never letting us forget that it happened. I hope that some day you will be able to go to different high schools across the nation so that they are able to see the performance. Please continue to tour and some day I hope to see the play again with my family. Kristin Desmarais, North Point High School, Florida Dear Ms. Piatka, I want to thank you for being a strong woman, a survivor and an inspiration to us young people. I would love to recommend of my peers to go see your show anytime or anywhere because it really takes a strong woman out of all to get up in front of people to talk about your past. Thank You. Paulene Raoul, North Point High School, Florida. * These letters came from non-Jewish people with no cultural relationship to the Holocaust. These letters confirm my viewpoint that the Holocaust is not just a Jewish story. The Holocaust was an event of universal magnitude reflecting the extremes of humanity’s capabilities. Its impact affected the morality and spirituality of the Western World and offers enduring lessons to all. On one hand, it represents the basest of humanity —in the propensity for depravity and callous cruelty. It serves to remind us that genocide can occur when responsible nations are hesitant or reluctant to quickly confront and actively oppose unbridled hatred and prejudice. On the other hand, it revealed the finest and noblest of humanity — in those who saved the lives of others at great risk to their own, and those who continued to care, create art and celebrate life in the face of death, loss and destruction. For us, the next generations, Silence is not an option. Neither is Ignorance. It’s Tikkun Olam, Heal the World time. My father, a Holocaust survivor, taught me: Forgive, but don’t forget. In the horrifying face of leaders who deny that the Holocaust ever happened, we better talk. As people and nations, we are too connected and interdependent to tolerate destructive behavior and speech. In listening and giving voice to those who lives were lost and those whose lives were forever damaged by nationally condoned violence, we begin to heal the past and create a new world of informed, conscious individuals who know how critical it is that we stand for peaceful coexistence, in the understanding that we are indeed all one. NAAVA

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