Janka/Janice Noga

It's been an amazing experience telling my mother's Holocaust story. We've touched many people who have supported this theatrical experience. We thank all of you for allowing us to take this journey.
Janka Festinger Speace was from Sighet, Romania. This play that I've written, which is performed by my wife, Janice Noga, tells the story of how Janka was taken with her family and the Jews of Sighet to Auschwitz and to slave labor in Germany.
We've been invited to do a command performance of "Janka" at Radio Hall in Sighet, Romania, by Johnny Popescu, a Romanian journalist and member of Asociatia Nordica. It will be a journey of reconciliation, and it makes me wonder what my mother would think if she were alive today -- that her son and daughter-in-law are making this trip to her hometown.
We've been touring "Janka" since 2003. We've performed the show all over the country to audiences that have been receptive and moved beyond words. It's been a long journey of love and discovery.
At the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, in December, the temperature outside was close to freezing when the performance began at 8 p.m. When we left the theater at 10:30 p.m. it was 5 degrees above zero. We had an audience of 450 people on that cold night.
In Centralia, Washington, we had terrific press the day before the performance. Centralia College told us that they usually had about 50 people attend this type of event. We had to hold the curtain for 25 minutes while 125 chairs were added to the small black-box theater. It became theater in the round. The audience was so close, Jan could reach out and touch them. The audience stayed for an hour asking questions about Janka's story.
We've done a number of Holocaust memorial programs. In Brigantine, New Jersey, we performed at the Brigantine Library. Since Janka immigrated to New Jersey after the war, many of our family still live in New Jersey, Philadelphia, New York and Ottawa, Canada. They all came to see the performance. Again, it was an experience beyond description. Sandy, her sole surviving sibling, came to see the performance. He was moved beyond measure.
And in Fresno -- even though it was 115 degrees outside -- we did four performances at Second Space to sold out audiences. Dan Pessano, we can't thank you enough for your support.
This enabled us to perform at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland. We met a couple from London who had attended the festival every year for more than 20 years. They told us that Janka was the best show that they'd seen in those 20 years. They'd seen more than 100 Edinburgh Fringe Festival shows.
This wonderful couple, who as children had survived the London blitz, felt an intimate connection with Janka's story.
Many of you in Fresno and the Central Valley have been on this journey with us. We've performed at the Fresno Art Museum, Second Space, Wilson Theater, Valley Public Television, Fresno State, Fresno Pacific University, Temple Theater in Hanford, Front Row Theater in Oakhurst and The Studio in North Fork as well as numerous high schools.
Your support for this project has been overwhelming and both Jan and I thank you for allowing us to tell Janka's story.
"Janka" and The Janka Project are a partnership of The Fresno Arts Council. Your contribution will help us to continue to tell Janka's story. The Fresno Arts Council is located at 1245 Van Ness Avenue, Fresno, CA 93721.
- The Fresno Bee

Janka's powerful story of Holocaust survival and family is returning to Centralia College

Janice Noga stars in the Oscar Speace play about his mother's Holocaust experience.

(Fresno, May 2, 2008) - Janka is the intimate story of Janka Festinger, a Holocaust survivor, and how, near the end of her life, she struggles to tell her son about the "camps." Her struggle demonstrates the humanity that we all share. Janice Noga, Janka's daughter-in-law, brings Janka back to life in a moving performance. Janka passed away in 1994.
Oscar Speace is Janka's son and the playwright. "I wanted to tell her story in the truest sense, but because she could barely talk about her experiences it was difficult to understand what the truth was. When she passed away I thought her story died with her until we found a letter she had written in 1945 that told what she had endured at the hands of the Nazis. It's a miracle that it survived. Her letter has enabled us to share her remarkable story with the world.
Three years ago we performed at Centralia College to a capacity theatre. It was an extraordinary experience, not only for the audience, but for Janice and me. “Janka” has been on the road for three years since then to places like Edinburgh, Scotland and London. The show has evolved and we hope Janka’s story will once again touch the hearts of the students and citizens of Centralia.”
Janka will be performed, Thursday, May 22, 2008 at 7PM at the Wickstrom Studio Theatre, 600 Centralia College Blvd, Centralia, WA. The pogram is free to the public.
For more information about Janka visit www.JankaProject.com.

- The Janka Project

Janka's powerful story of Holocaust survival and family is coming to the Robinson Theater in the Ruth B. Shannon Center for the Performing Arts at Whittier College as part of Diverse Identities Week.

Janice Noga stars in the Oscar Speace play about his mother's Holocaust
experience and finding the American Dream.

(Fresno, December 20, 2007) - "Janka" is the intimate story of Janka Festinger, a Holocaust survivor, and how, near the end of her life, she struggles to tell her son about the “camps.” Her struggle demonstrates the humanity that we all share.
Janice Noga, Janka's daughter-in-law, brings Janka back to life in a moving
performance. Janka passed away in 1994.

Oscar Speace is Janka's son and the playwright. “I wanted to tell her story in the truest sense but she could barely talk about her experiences. When she passed away I thought her story died with her until we found a letter she had written in 1945 that told what she had endured at the hands of the Nazis. It's a miracle that
it survived. Her letter has enabled me to share her remarkable story with you and the Whittier College community.”

"Janka" will run for one performance, Tuesday, March 25, 2008 at 7PM at Robinson Theater in the Ruth B. Shannon Center, Whittier College, 13406 Philadelphia, Whittier, CA. For reservations or more information call Joy Hoffman at 562-907-4963.

For more information about Janka visit www.JankaProject.com.
- The Janka Project

Janka's powerful story of Holocaust survival and family is coming to the Robinson Theater in the Ruth B. Shannon Center for the Performing Arts at Whittier College as part of Diverse Identities Week.

Janice Noga stars in the Oscar Speace play about his mother's Holocaust
experience and finding the American Dream.

(Fresno, December 20, 2007) - "Janka" is the intimate story of Janka Festinger, a Holocaust survivor, and how, near the end of her life, she struggles to tell her son about the “camps.” Her struggle demonstrates the humanity that we all share.
Janice Noga, Janka's daughter-in-law, brings Janka back to life in a moving
performance. Janka passed away in 1994.

Oscar Speace is Janka's son and the playwright. “I wanted to tell her story in the truest sense but she could barely talk about her experiences. When she passed away I thought her story died with her until we found a letter she had written in 1945 that told what she had endured at the hands of the Nazis. It's a miracle that
it survived. Her letter has enabled me to share her remarkable story with you and the Whittier College community.”

"Janka" will run for one performance, Tuesday, March 25, 2008 at 7PM at Robinson Theater in the Ruth B. Shannon Center, Whittier College, 13406 Philadelphia, Whittier, CA. For reservations or more information call Joy Hoffman at 562-907-4963.

For more information about Janka visit www.JankaProject.com.
- The Janka Project

Janka's powerful story of Holocaust survival and family will be part of the 11th Annual Brigantine Holocaust Memorial Program.

Janice Noga stars in the Oscar Speace play about his mother's Holocaust experience and finding the American Dream.

(Fresno, February 7, 2008) - Janka is the intimate story of Janka Festinger, a Holocaust survivor, and how, near the end of her life, she struggles to tell her son about the "camps." Her struggle demonstrates the humanity that we all share. Janice Noga, Janka's daughter-in-law, brings Janka back to life in a moving performance. Janka passed away in 1994.
Oscar Speace is Janka's son and the playwright. "I wanted to tell her story in the truest sense, but because she could barely talk about her experiences it was difficult to understand what the truth was. When she passed away I thought her story died with her until we found a letter she had written in 1945 that told what she had endured at the hands of the Nazis. It's a miracle that it survived. Her letter has enabled us to share her remarkable story with the world.
The Brigantine Holocaust Memorial Program grew from an idea initiated by Brigantine Councilman Jim Frugoli in 1996. He believed that Holocaust education in the state should also encompass a permanent monument. In 1994 teaching about the Holocaust in New Jersey public schools was mandated.
In 1997 a committee of Brigantine religious and civic leaders put forth the idea of a permanent monument dedicated to the eleven million people of all denominations who perished in the Holocaust. Fund raising efforts were so successful there was still money left over, so Holocaust education materials were purchased for the library, and it was decided that a program would be offered to the public free of charge.
Janka’s story will be the 11th presentation of the Holocaust Memorial Program at the Brigantine Library. Janka had immigrated to America in 1946 to start a new life and eventually settled in South Jersey. She loved the Jersey shore and spent many holidays walking its beaches. So, it’s fitting that her story is told in Brigantine.
Janka will run for two performances, Wednesday and Thursday, June 18-19, 2008 at 7PM at the Brigantine Library, 201 15th Street, Brigantine, NJ. The performances are free but due to limited seating reservations are required. Please call the library at 609-266-0110.
For more information about Janka visit www.JankaProject.com.
- The Janka Project

"Janka" - critically-acclaimed one-woman play starring Janice Noga, was performed at Second Space during the month of July. The sometimes chilling, sometimes inspirational account of a Holocaust survivor who immigrated to the United States raises important questions about identity and personalizes the experience of genocide, a tragedy too frequently reduced to mere numbers.
Responsible for the show's creation is Oscar Speace, an Emmy-winning producer, director and writer, and the son to the title character, Janka Speace. Based upon his mother's own written account of her time imprisoned in Auschwitz, one of the Nazi's most notorious concentration camps, the story revolves around one woman's lifelong struggle to overcome the almost total destruction of her old life.
Noga gives an especially brilliant performance, effectively conveying the psychological consequences of such a traumatic experience. Interspersing joyful memories of family life with horrific details of years spent under Nazi control, Noga makes it clear that no matter how far she moved away, no matter how profound the love for her husband and sons, Janka was never able to fully escape her past.
The need to relive the tragedy takes on an even greater level of importance as many of the younger Holocaust survivors are beginning to die of old age. Following arguably the worst crime perpetrated against a single group of people in history, the international community came to quick consensus that a catastrophe of such magnitude could never happen again. Now, only a little more than six decades since Hitler's armies were resoundly defeated, one may question whether the lessons learned during World War II continue to be heeded. After virtually no response to the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, and the world's current policy of collective indifference towards conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan, national interests seems to be again marked by a surprising disregard for human suffering.
"Janka" is so significant not only because it preserves the memory of an individual struggle, but because it serves as a reminder that the Holocaust affected real people with real emotions. There's no realistic chance that the attempted destruction of the European Jewish community will ever be forgotten, but such recollection is futile without consciousness of how life was transformed on a personal level.
chucka ugwu-oju - Fresno Magazine

"Janka" - critically-acclaimed one-woman play starring Janice Noga, was performed at Second Space during the month of July. The sometimes chilling, sometimes inspirational account of a Holocaust survivor who immigrated to the United States raises important questions about identity and personalizes the experience of genocide, a tragedy too frequently reduced to mere numbers.
Responsible for the show's creation is Oscar Speace, an Emmy-winning producer, director and writer, and the son to the title character, Janka Speace. Based upon his mother's own written account of her time imprisoned in Auschwitz, one of the Nazi's most notorious concentration camps, the story revolves around one woman's lifelong struggle to overcome the almost total destruction of her old life.
Noga gives an especially brilliant performance, effectively conveying the psychological consequences of such a traumatic experience. Interspersing joyful memories of family life with horrific details of years spent under Nazi control, Noga makes it clear that no matter how far she moved away, no matter how profound the love for her husband and sons, Janka was never able to fully escape her past.
The need to relive the tragedy takes on an even greater level of importance as many of the younger Holocaust survivors are beginning to die of old age. Following arguably the worst crime perpetrated against a single group of people in history, the international community came to quick consensus that a catastrophe of such magnitude could never happen again. Now, only a little more than six decades since Hitler's armies were resoundly defeated, one may question whether the lessons learned during World War II continue to be heeded. After virtually no response to the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, and the world's current policy of collective indifference towards conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan, national interests seems to be again marked by a surprising disregard for human suffering.
"Janka" is so significant not only because it preserves the memory of an individual struggle, but because it serves as a reminder that the Holocaust affected real people with real emotions. There's no realistic chance that the attempted destruction of the European Jewish community will ever be forgotten, but such recollection is futile without consciousness of how life was transformed on a personal level.
chucka ugwu-oju - Fresno Magazine

A Tale of Survival
One-Woman Play Tells the Horrors of the Holocaust

By Donald Munro, The Fresno Bee


(Fresno, CA) April 14, 2005 – Like most wives dealing with their mothers-in-law, Janice Noga and Janka Speace didn't always see eye to eye.

Now, on stage, Noga tries to see through those eyes.

In "Janka," a one-woman play written by Noga's husband, Oscar Speace, the local actress tackles a role that is tougher and more personal than any in her career. Noga's mother-in-law was an Auschwitz prisoner, one of only three members of an extended family of 66 who survived the Nazi death camps. Liberated in 1945 and married to an American soldier, Robert Speace, the next year, Janka started a new life in the United States.

Hers is a survivor's story told through her own words – her letters — and those of her son. The fact that her daughter-in-law portrays her adds an even more personal touch. Janka's Hungarian accent, her impressive posture, the way she brings her hand up to her mouth when speaking of great sadness – these aren't just historical details. They're memories distilled through someone who was an integral part of her life.

Janka died in 1994.

"As an actress, I've taken everything I remembered about her," Noga says. "The hardest performance I ever did was at the University of Connecticut with family members in the audience — with Janka's other son, David, two nephews and a cousin who was close to her who had never seen the show. They were stunned. They felt that they really saw Janka up there."

"Janka" has played in the Valley several times, including North Fork and the Fresno Art Museum. The show toured college campuses across the country. And it had a three-week run at a small theater in Hollywood.

As director, Oscar Speace, a documentary filmmaker who produces "Valley Press" at KVPT, Channel 18, has been cutting and shaping the show in response to audiences.

Now the project is taking its next big step: a 12-performance run starting Aug. 14 at the famed International Festival Fringe in Edinburgh, Scotland. As a fundraiser, and to give the play one more workout before facing the rough-and-tumble world of the Edinburgh festival's audiences and critics, it opens for four performances Tuesday, Wednesday and July 25-26 at the 2nd Space Theatre.

For Noga, who performs the two-hour show flanked by old photographs of Janka and other family members, it's a complicated experience. She plays a woman who in some ways kept Noga at arm's length when she married her son. Noga isn't Jewish, and even though Janka herself married outside her faith – her husband, who died in 1984, was Episcopalian – it still made Noga something of an outsider.

Yet there was a bond between the two women that Noga didn't fully understand until she started performing in "Janka" more than 10 years after her mother-in-law's death. They shared an important link: husband and son. For much of his life, Oscar Speace wondered about his mother's experience at Auschwitz — something she never wanted to talk about. If he pushed her, she would cry. Janka felt that if she didn't tell how awful it was, she would protect him.

Close to her husband's heart, the story Noga relives has become close to her as well.

"This is his baby," she says. "Because this is his mother."

Many Holocaust survivors were reticent about their memories. Their children often mention today the difficulty in talking to their parents about such horrific times.

"My mother didn't want to talk about it," Speace says.

Born and raised in the Romanian city of Sighet, the setting for Eli Wiesel's "Night," Janka's story was all too common: Her family was warned of the impending danger. But they chose to disregard it. Janka's father was a well-to-do Jewish businessman. It was a comfortable life. To flee would have been an upheaval.

Even when the grim truth of the Nazi "final solution" began to sink in, it was hard for them to grasp the depth of such evil, Noga says.

"They didn't ever believe that the Nazis would come to Sighet. They honestly felt that God wouldn't let that happen to them."

Janka was separated from most of her family members when she arrived at the camp. She was able to remain only with her younger sister.

After the war, Janka got a job working in a Red Cross canteen in Germany. She asked homeward-bound Americans to contact her only living relative, an uncle named Morris Festinger, who had emigrated to Cleveland before the war.

One of those soldiers did contact her uncle, and Janka reconnected with him. While still in Germany, her uncle asked her to write down what had happened to her family. She did so in a 60-page composition book, which was the inspiration for "Janka."

Speace and Noga didn't get to read that book while Janka was alive. But two years after her death, in 1996, it surfaced. The letter was written in Hungarian. Speace found a neighbor, Nora DeWitt, who could translate in her spare time. For ni - The Fresno Bee

A Tale of Survival
One-Woman Play Tells the Horrors of the Holocaust

By Donald Munro, The Fresno Bee


(Fresno, CA) April 14, 2005 – Like most wives dealing with their mothers-in-law, Janice Noga and Janka Speace didn't always see eye to eye.

Now, on stage, Noga tries to see through those eyes.

In "Janka," a one-woman play written by Noga's husband, Oscar Speace, the local actress tackles a role that is tougher and more personal than any in her career. Noga's mother-in-law was an Auschwitz prisoner, one of only three members of an extended family of 66 who survived the Nazi death camps. Liberated in 1945 and married to an American soldier, Robert Speace, the next year, Janka started a new life in the United States.

Hers is a survivor's story told through her own words – her letters — and those of her son. The fact that her daughter-in-law portrays her adds an even more personal touch. Janka's Hungarian accent, her impressive posture, the way she brings her hand up to her mouth when speaking of great sadness – these aren't just historical details. They're memories distilled through someone who was an integral part of her life.

Janka died in 1994.

"As an actress, I've taken everything I remembered about her," Noga says. "The hardest performance I ever did was at the University of Connecticut with family members in the audience — with Janka's other son, David, two nephews and a cousin who was close to her who had never seen the show. They were stunned. They felt that they really saw Janka up there."

"Janka" has played in the Valley several times, including North Fork and the Fresno Art Museum. The show toured college campuses across the country. And it had a three-week run at a small theater in Hollywood.

As director, Oscar Speace, a documentary filmmaker who produces "Valley Press" at KVPT, Channel 18, has been cutting and shaping the show in response to audiences.

Now the project is taking its next big step: a 12-performance run starting Aug. 14 at the famed International Festival Fringe in Edinburgh, Scotland. As a fundraiser, and to give the play one more workout before facing the rough-and-tumble world of the Edinburgh festival's audiences and critics, it opens for four performances Tuesday, Wednesday and July 25-26 at the 2nd Space Theatre.

For Noga, who performs the two-hour show flanked by old photographs of Janka and other family members, it's a complicated experience. She plays a woman who in some ways kept Noga at arm's length when she married her son. Noga isn't Jewish, and even though Janka herself married outside her faith – her husband, who died in 1984, was Episcopalian – it still made Noga something of an outsider.

Yet there was a bond between the two women that Noga didn't fully understand until she started performing in "Janka" more than 10 years after her mother-in-law's death. They shared an important link: husband and son. For much of his life, Oscar Speace wondered about his mother's experience at Auschwitz — something she never wanted to talk about. If he pushed her, she would cry. Janka felt that if she didn't tell how awful it was, she would protect him.

Close to her husband's heart, the story Noga relives has become close to her as well.

"This is his baby," she says. "Because this is his mother."

Many Holocaust survivors were reticent about their memories. Their children often mention today the difficulty in talking to their parents about such horrific times.

"My mother didn't want to talk about it," Speace says.

Born and raised in the Romanian city of Sighet, the setting for Eli Wiesel's "Night," Janka's story was all too common: Her family was warned of the impending danger. But they chose to disregard it. Janka's father was a well-to-do Jewish businessman. It was a comfortable life. To flee would have been an upheaval.

Even when the grim truth of the Nazi "final solution" began to sink in, it was hard for them to grasp the depth of such evil, Noga says.

"They didn't ever believe that the Nazis would come to Sighet. They honestly felt that God wouldn't let that happen to them."

Janka was separated from most of her family members when she arrived at the camp. She was able to remain only with her younger sister.

After the war, Janka got a job working in a Red Cross canteen in Germany. She asked homeward-bound Americans to contact her only living relative, an uncle named Morris Festinger, who had emigrated to Cleveland before the war.

One of those soldiers did contact her uncle, and Janka reconnected with him. While still in Germany, her uncle asked her to write down what had happened to her family. She did so in a 60-page composition book, which was the inspiration for "Janka."

Speace and Noga didn't get to read that book while Janka was alive. But two years after her death, in 1996, it surfaced. The letter was written in Hungarian. Speace found a neighbor, Nora DeWitt, who could translate in her spare time. For ni - The Fresno Bee