PLAYS by Cindy Cooper
"Silence Not, A Love Story"
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Silence Not, A Love Story
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Published: Gihon River Press
SILENCE NOT, A Love Story
by Cynthia L. Cooper
 
a full length play
 
published by Gihon River Press
 
with an introduction by Elizabeth Holtzman; Afterword by Dr. Marilyn Frost; an essay on the World of the Play by Cynthia L. Cooper; Bibliography; Timeline; Photographs.
 
 
For production information: cyncooperwriter.net

"Everyone loves a love story, especially one with a happy ending, and award-winning playwright and journalist Cynthia L. Cooper’s latest play, a forty-four scene two-act, is a whopper. Silence Not, A Love Story tells the improbable tale — based on a true story....(As a prologue explains) their very humanity lay in their acts of resisting evil. They could no more remain passive, removed, and quiescent than they could stop breathing… Without those who stand up for justice, where would the rest of us be?”

Eleanor Bader -- Read more at Feminist Review

 
"Cooper’s story is a story of courage, for all ages, all sexes, all cultures – reminding us, that courage sees no boundaries.”
Janis F. Kearney, former Personal Diarist to President William J. Clinton, author, Cotton Field of Dreams: A Memoir.
"This powerful play recreates in moving drama the (anti-Nazi) struggles and the desperate attempt of good people to remain moral in the most immoral of societies. Powerful, poignant and penetrating, it will move those who read it and cause them to ponder the sources of courage and resistance."
 
Michael Berenbaum, Professor of Jewish Studies and Director of the Sigi Zieirng Institute: Exploring the Ethical and Religious Implications of the Holocaust, American Jewish University.
 
“Cynthia Cooper is a powerful playwrightSilence Not, A Love Story will spark a fabulous discussion on resistance today.  Gisa and Paul have incredible moral courage and a lifelong love that sustains them through a terrible period in history when society failed.  Each of us needs to consider our character at every moment – are we perpetrator, victim, helper, bystander, or resister?  Every high school student should read this play.”
Maureen McNeil, Director of Education, The Anne Frank Center USA
 
“Rooted in early twentieth century Europe and strikingly similar to contemporary struggles all over the globe, Cynthia Cooper’s Silence Not, A Love Story offers readers and audiences the always necessary integration of art and politics.  She’s a skillful playwright who uses history, with its relentless examination of our lives, as a rich source for theater.”
 
Judith Arcana: poet, writer and scholar.  She is the author of  "hat if your mother,"as well as "4th Period English,"and "Grace Paley’s Life Stories, A Literary Biography."  

Sample Articles:
  • "Book Review: Silence Not, A Love Story" by Eleanor Bader, Feminist Review, Sept 2009
  • New Play About German Resistance, Monroe Library, October 2009
  • "Publisher Shares Stories of Courage and Genocide" by Wayne Witkowski, Pocono Record, November 2009

EVENTS:
  • Oct 2009. Talk, Eastern Monroe Public Library, Stroudsburg, PA.  Click to read MORE.
  • May 2009. Book Expo, Gihon River Press, NYC.
  • Feb 2009. at The Anne Frank Center USA in NYC, directed by Joanne Edelmann.
  • Feb 2009. Reading at the Anne Simley Theatre, Hamline University, MN, directed by Carolyn Levy.
  • April 2008. Geraldine Page Center for the Arts, NYC, coordinated by Angelica Torn.

About 'Silence Not, A Love Story':

 

A young Jewish woman and Catholic man find love and courage as they engage in resistance to the rise of Nazism in Germany in the early 1930s.  In standing up for their ideals despite the dangers, they discover the importance of self-respect, the inspiration of art and the good of humanity, managing to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles to carry forward their beliefs. 

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Gisa Peiper Konopka

Silence Not is based on the true story of Dr. Gisela Peiper Konopka (1910-2003) and her husband, Paul Konopka. Dr. Konopka was a professor, author and international expert in child welfare and group social work, known for her abiding sense of justice.  In her honor, the University of Minnesota established The Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health in 1998.  

 

Gisa later wrote: “(Human beings) carry in them the seeds of destruction as well as great love and giving.  It will depend on us, each person within each generation at all times, what we help to bring forth.  This is an unending task.”   

 

Read excerpts here: What's In The Book, Gihon River Press

Some pictures connected to the play ...
 
See more photos at Gihon River Press.

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Gisa Konopka

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Hamburg Train Station

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kathe Kollwitz

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Kathe Kollwitz drawing

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Book burning, Germany 1930s

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German resisters prepare a leaflet

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Tools: Typewriter and Gestetner

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1930s kiosk, recreated by German Resistance Memorial Center

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Resisters in woods

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From a poster at the German Resistance Memorial Center

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Sculpture by Paul Konopka