A Special Performance of Irena Gut: Only a Girl

Moving between narration and poetic form, this 50-minute solo performance by Ms. Janet Rodgers is based on In My Hands, the autobiography of Irena Gut Opdyke who, as a young, Catholic Polish girl, who saved the lives of twelve young Jewish professionals from extermination by the Nazis during WW II. Later, at the end of the war when Poland was taken over by the Soviets, these twelve Jewish men and women saved her. It is a story of love, compassion, courage, and human respect. Janet Rodgers is a world-traveled theatre artist and writer currently living on Cape Cod.  She taught theatre at the Boston Conservatory of Music, Dance and Drama and most recently retired as Professor Emerita from 25 years of teaching theatre, voice, and speech at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA.  During the 1970s and early 1980s, she was a classical actress with the Lyric Stage Company of Boston and the Boston Shakespeare Company where she played many leading roles. Ms. Rodgers received her BA in Theatre Arts and Speech from Mount Holyoke College, her MFA in Theatre Arts from Brandeis University and did further study at The American Center for the Performing Arts, London’s National Theatre and Harvard’s American Repertory Theatre.  She was a Fulbright Scholar to Romania where she taught at two universities while coaching actors at the Radu Stanca National Theatre in Sibiu. In Serbia she has worked extensively with the DAH Theatre of Belgrade. Tickets are $10. For reservations, visit www.cultural-center.org or call 508-394-7100. Cultural Center of Cape Cod, 307 Old Main St., South Yarmouth.