There are many stories from the Holocaust, some better known than others. One of the lesser-known stories is that of the Jewish partisans who formed the resistance movement in the Vilna ghetto in Lithuania.
The partisans and their fight against the Nazis are the focus of the new musical "Vilna: A Resistance Story,” which will have a limited run at The Lewis and Shirley White Theatre from April 22 to 30.
“Vilna” centers around the real-life figure of 19-year-old Vitka Kempner, who fled the Nazi invasion in her hometown and made her way to Vilna to warn people about what was coming. She’s eager to start a resistance movement with the writers of “Young Vilna,” but they dismiss her warnings until they find themselves confined to the ghetto.
Confronted by obstacles at every turn, Vitka and the group ultimately learn that resistance means much more than guns and bombs.
"I think one of the things that makes the story really important is that it’s a Holocaust story that’s not been heard,” said Kevin Cloud, one of the writers and creative team members behind “Vilna.” “This is a town that rose up and fought and resisted and did some heroic things."
“Vilna” began taking shape back in 2017 when Cloud, Director of New Works Projects at The Culture House here in Kansas City, was looking for his next project. He happened to come across an article titled "A song so powerful it beat the Nazis." It was about Hirsh Glick, a young Jewish songwriter who wrote a song in the Vilna ghetto that became an anthem for the partisans.
"I was grabbed by this idea of this young artist that was in these horrific circumstances who was still creating, still writing...," Cloud said.
He began researching and writing a musical based on what he learned about Vilna, with his wife, Allison, eventually joining in the efforts.
Lisa Kenner Grissom, a playwright and screenwriter in Los Angeles, also stumbled across the story of Vilna as she was looking for her next project back in 2019. On her last day of a cultural fellowship in eastern Europe, she ended up sitting across from a 90-year-old woman who had been a partisan in the Vilna ghetto and was moved by her story. When the pandemic hit and the world went into lockdown, Grissom wrote several fictional pieces based on the woman’s story.
Eventually, through the mutual connection of David Winitsky, who is directing “Vilna,” the Clouds and Grissom were introduced and began working together on the musical.
“We’ve been saying it’s sort of bashert [meant to be]," Grissom said. "We met and hit it off right away and started working."
The Clouds, who are not Jewish, knew long-term that they wanted a Jewish creative team. The collaboration between them, Winitsky and Grissom helped fulfill that.
When Grissom came on board, the Clouds had an initial version of the script but the story wasn’t quite coming together the way they wanted it to.
“The great thing was… they had a nice blueprint for me to come into,” Grissom said. “We talked about this early on; we really wanted to develop the characters, flesh out the characters and make them real people that people could relate to.”
A story of hope
Vilna is not a sad Holocaust story, Kevin Cloud said, but rather an uplifting one.
"One of the actors, during a reading, said, ‘This is a story about life and choosing to live and choosing hope,’ and I think that’s reflected in the music," he said. "We wanted to write a modern-day score, and music that would relate to modern and younger audiences, so we’ve written a score that’s kind of ‘poppy.’ We’ve tried to blend pop music with Jewish influences."
“Vilna's” limited run at the White Theatre is a workshop production, meaning that it is still a work in progress. New shows always go through multiple workshops to help fine-tune them, Cloud said, and “Vilna” will have several iterations before it's ready to officially premiere.
The performances at the White Theatre will "look like a real production," he said, and will be fully staged with costumes and sets. But the creative team will continue to make changes to the script and other aspects of the show.
Cloud said one of the biggest goals for this run of “Vilna” is to learn as much as they can from the audiences.
"This is just an incredible opportunity to put this work on its feet, and after this limited run, we’ll see where we are and [where] we want it to go," Grissom said.
The next staging of “Vilna” will be this fall in New York City for an industry reading. Broadway actors will perform the show for producers and potential investors.
“Every musical that makes it big on Broadway starts like this," Cloud said. "We think this show has a real shot of becoming something like that."
The second in The White Theatre's "New Works" Initiative, “Vilna: A Resistance Story,” is co-produced by the White Theatre at The J and The Culture House. The show will be performed on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays from April 22-30. Tickets are available at thewhitetheatre.org.