The company says on its website that the show, entitled Irena, is "a tale of heroism, incredible courage, and unfading hope, as well as a tribute to history, to Irena Sendler and all those thanks to whom the impossible became possible."
The English-language libretto was written by Piotr Piwowarczyk and Mary Skinner, and translated into Polish by Piotr Piwowarczyk and Lesław Haliński. The music is by Poland’s Grammy-winning jazz pianist and composer Włodek Pawlik, with songs written by Mark Campbell.
The show will be directed by Brian Kite, dean of the School of Theater, Film and Television at the University of California in Los Angeles, and the choreography is in the hands of Dana Solimando, whose credits include several Broadway productions.
Irena is due to be premiered in Poznań on August 7. February 15 marked the 112th anniversary of Sendler’s birth.
As an employee of the Social Welfare Department of the City of Warsaw during the war, Sendler had a special permit to enter the Warsaw ghetto to check for signs of typhus. Thanks to this, she was able to smuggle Jewish children out of the ghetto and find Christian families and monasteries to take care of them.
Irena Sendler, pictured in 1944. Photo: PAP/Paul Fearn/Alamy Stock Photo
In 1943, Sendler was arrested by the Gestapo, the Nazi German secret police, tortured and sentenced to death. She was eventually saved from the execution.
Sendler died on May 12, 2008, aged 98. She held the Righteous Among Nations title from the Yad Vashem Remembrance Institute in Jerusalem and honorary citizenship of Israel.
Her honours also included the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest state distinction.
Sendler’s story was rediscovered in 1999 by three American high school girls, who wrote and produced a documentary play about her entitled Life in a Jar.
(mk/gs)