Sunday Conversations
The performance ends. The conversations begin.
Anthony Acevedo’s story raises questions that cannot end with the final curtain. Following each Sunday performance of Undesirable Secrets, audiences are invited to remain for a conversation with artists, scholars, journalists, veterans, survivors, educators, and advocates.
Together, they will explore not only what happened, but why this history matters today—and what remembering asks of us.
Together, they will explore not only what happened, but why this history matters today—and what remembering asks of us.
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Host and Moderator
Cindy Teniente is a New York–based Mexican American actress, U.S. Army veteran, and graduate of the Stella Adler Studio of Acting. Having deployed to Afghanistan, she brings the perspectives of both an artist and a veteran to conversations about war, trauma, memory, identity, and the power of storytelling. |
All conversations will take place at the historic Actors Temple Theatre immediately following Sunday performances of Undesirable Secrets.
Additional participants and program information will be announced as the series develops.
Additional participants and program information will be announced as the series develops.
Sunday, February 28, 2027
Theatre as an Instrument for Social Awareness and Change
Theatre as an Instrument for Social Awareness and Change
How can theatre bring overlooked histories and difficult social issues into public consciousness? What responsibilities do artists assume when transforming testimony and historical research into performance?
Beginning with Undesirable Secrets, this conversation will examine theatre as more than representation. It can preserve memory, deepen empathy, amplify voices too often unheard, and connect audiences with people and organizations already creating meaningful change.
Confirmed Participants
Dr. Edna Nahshon — Professor of Jewish Theater and Drama at The Jewish Theological Seminary and an internationally recognized scholar of Jewishness, theatre, and performance. She curated the acclaimed exhibition New York’s Yiddish Theater: From the Bowery to Broadway for the Museum of the City of New York, whose accompanying book received the 2016 George Freedley Award Special Jury Prize.
David L. Robbins — New York Times bestselling historical novelist, advanced creative writing instructor at Virginia Commonwealth University, and founder of the Mighty Pen Project. Through Mighty Pen and its War in Pieces theatrical productions, he helps veterans and military families transform their experiences into stories for the page and stage.
Robin Long -- Robin is an attorney and Program Coordinator with the Holocaust Memorial Museum of San Antonio, where she also serves as a docent. Her work brings Holocaust history into public conversation through education and the arts. In 2026, she helped bring the Children’s Chorus of San Antonio’s performance of Brundibár to the museum’s gala, connecting young performers and audiences with the memory of children who performed the opera at Terezín during the Holocaust. She also helped bring an early reading of Undesirable Secrets to San Antonio.
Dr. William M. Doll — Director and production consultant for Undesirable Secrets and Professor Emeritus of Theatre at Angelo State University. A respected director, educator, playwright, and dramaturg, he holds a PhD in Fine Arts/Theatre from Texas Tech University and an MA in Drama from Texas Woman’s University.
Beginning with Undesirable Secrets, this conversation will examine theatre as more than representation. It can preserve memory, deepen empathy, amplify voices too often unheard, and connect audiences with people and organizations already creating meaningful change.
Confirmed Participants
Dr. Edna Nahshon — Professor of Jewish Theater and Drama at The Jewish Theological Seminary and an internationally recognized scholar of Jewishness, theatre, and performance. She curated the acclaimed exhibition New York’s Yiddish Theater: From the Bowery to Broadway for the Museum of the City of New York, whose accompanying book received the 2016 George Freedley Award Special Jury Prize.
David L. Robbins — New York Times bestselling historical novelist, advanced creative writing instructor at Virginia Commonwealth University, and founder of the Mighty Pen Project. Through Mighty Pen and its War in Pieces theatrical productions, he helps veterans and military families transform their experiences into stories for the page and stage.
Robin Long -- Robin is an attorney and Program Coordinator with the Holocaust Memorial Museum of San Antonio, where she also serves as a docent. Her work brings Holocaust history into public conversation through education and the arts. In 2026, she helped bring the Children’s Chorus of San Antonio’s performance of Brundibár to the museum’s gala, connecting young performers and audiences with the memory of children who performed the opera at Terezín during the Holocaust. She also helped bring an early reading of Undesirable Secrets to San Antonio.
Dr. William M. Doll — Director and production consultant for Undesirable Secrets and Professor Emeritus of Theatre at Angelo State University. A respected director, educator, playwright, and dramaturg, he holds a PhD in Fine Arts/Theatre from Texas Tech University and an MA in Drama from Texas Woman’s University.
Sunday, March 7, 2027
The Last Witnesses: Who Will Tell Their Stories When They’re Gone?
The Last Witnesses: Who Will Tell Their Stories When They’re Gone?
As Holocaust survivors and World War II veterans pass away, the responsibility for preserving their testimony moves increasingly to their families, historians, journalists, educators, museums, foundations, and artists.
This conversation will explore how personal testimony is carried forward without losing the individual humanity at its center—and how diaries, books, journalism, museums, educational programs, and theatre can ensure that these histories continue to reach new generations.
Confirmed Participants
Mark Schonwetter — Holocaust survivor, educator, and co-founder of the Mark Schonwetter Holocaust Education Foundation. As a child in Poland, he survived for three years with his mother and sister by hiding in forests, attics, and barns. He now devotes his life to sharing his story and teaching younger generations to choose kindness over hatred.
Ann S. Arnold — Co-founder of the Mark Schonwetter Holocaust Education Foundation and author of Together: A Journey for Survival, which preserves her father’s Holocaust testimony. She also created an accompanying classroom lesson plan and received the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s 2016 Heroes for Tolerance Award.
Isabella S. Fiske — Co-founder of the Mark Schonwetter Holocaust Education Foundation and a member of the New Jersey State Commission on Holocaust Education. She has spoken with students about her father’s survival since 2015 and received the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s 2021 Heroes for Tolerance Award.
Wayne Drash — Wayne is an Emmy Award-winning journalist and author whose reporting helped bring Anthony Acevedo’s story—and the experiences of American POWs imprisoned at Berga—to national attention. His 2008 CNN report, WW II vet held in Nazi slave camp breaks silence: ‘Let it be known,’ produced with Thelma Gutierrez and Sara Weisfeldt, helped prompt public pressure and congressional advocacy that led to the Army’s recognition of the Berga survivors in 2009. His follow-up, ‘You don’t forget’: Medic’s Holocaust diary tells story of hell, documented Anthony’s diary donation to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the soldiers’ long struggle for acknowledgment. Wayne won a 2018 Emmy for his work on CNN’s Separated: Saving the Twins. He brings to “The Last Witnesses” direct experience of how journalism can carry personal testimony into public memory and help recover an overlooked chapter of history.
Leslie Met — Leslie leads the Holocaust Memorial Museum of San Antonio, the only museum of its kind in South Texas. Her work extends Holocaust education beyond the museum through school outreach, educator resources, survivor testimony, exhibitions, and community partnerships. During Texas Holocaust Remembrance Week in 2026, the museum’s off-site presentations alone reached more than 1,200 students, alongside programs welcoming students and educators into the museum. Leslie’s leadership connects historical remembrance with questions of responsibility, moral courage, and the consequences of silence. She has also been instrumental in supporting the San Antonio presentation of Undesirable Secrets, bringing Anthony Acevedo’s story into the museum’s wider educational mission.
This conversation will explore how personal testimony is carried forward without losing the individual humanity at its center—and how diaries, books, journalism, museums, educational programs, and theatre can ensure that these histories continue to reach new generations.
Confirmed Participants
Mark Schonwetter — Holocaust survivor, educator, and co-founder of the Mark Schonwetter Holocaust Education Foundation. As a child in Poland, he survived for three years with his mother and sister by hiding in forests, attics, and barns. He now devotes his life to sharing his story and teaching younger generations to choose kindness over hatred.
Ann S. Arnold — Co-founder of the Mark Schonwetter Holocaust Education Foundation and author of Together: A Journey for Survival, which preserves her father’s Holocaust testimony. She also created an accompanying classroom lesson plan and received the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s 2016 Heroes for Tolerance Award.
Isabella S. Fiske — Co-founder of the Mark Schonwetter Holocaust Education Foundation and a member of the New Jersey State Commission on Holocaust Education. She has spoken with students about her father’s survival since 2015 and received the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s 2021 Heroes for Tolerance Award.
Wayne Drash — Wayne is an Emmy Award-winning journalist and author whose reporting helped bring Anthony Acevedo’s story—and the experiences of American POWs imprisoned at Berga—to national attention. His 2008 CNN report, WW II vet held in Nazi slave camp breaks silence: ‘Let it be known,’ produced with Thelma Gutierrez and Sara Weisfeldt, helped prompt public pressure and congressional advocacy that led to the Army’s recognition of the Berga survivors in 2009. His follow-up, ‘You don’t forget’: Medic’s Holocaust diary tells story of hell, documented Anthony’s diary donation to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the soldiers’ long struggle for acknowledgment. Wayne won a 2018 Emmy for his work on CNN’s Separated: Saving the Twins. He brings to “The Last Witnesses” direct experience of how journalism can carry personal testimony into public memory and help recover an overlooked chapter of history.
Leslie Met — Leslie leads the Holocaust Memorial Museum of San Antonio, the only museum of its kind in South Texas. Her work extends Holocaust education beyond the museum through school outreach, educator resources, survivor testimony, exhibitions, and community partnerships. During Texas Holocaust Remembrance Week in 2026, the museum’s off-site presentations alone reached more than 1,200 students, alongside programs welcoming students and educators into the museum. Leslie’s leadership connects historical remembrance with questions of responsibility, moral courage, and the consequences of silence. She has also been instrumental in supporting the San Antonio presentation of Undesirable Secrets, bringing Anthony Acevedo’s story into the museum’s wider educational mission.
Sunday, March 14, 2027
What Soldiers Carry Home: War, Trauma, and the Silence Afterward
What Soldiers Carry Home: War, Trauma, and the Silence Afterward
War does not always end when a soldier returns home. Its effects can remain in the form of PTSD, survivor’s guilt, moral injury, isolation, and experiences that veterans may struggle—or be unable—to express.
This conversation will examine the hidden burdens carried by veterans and their families, the importance of mental-health care, and the ways theatre and storytelling can make these often-invisible experiences visible.
Confirmed Participants
Dr. Dawn Goldstein, PhD, RN, PMHNP-BC, FAAN — U.S. Army veteran, psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner, playwright, and Associate Professor and Psychiatric Mental Health Track Coordinator at The University of Toledo. Her play Downrange, presented as part of the Virginia War Memorial’s War in Pieces, explores the experiences of an Army psychiatric nurse helping soldiers from the front lines while confronting the struggles of her own warrior husband.
Cindy Teniente — Cindy is a U.S. Army veteran and actress who served in Afghanistan during a 2012–2013 deployment. Featured in the VA’s Don’t Wait. Reach Out. campaign, she shares more recent experiences with mental health challenges and her decision to seek support, encouraging fellow veterans to reach out before a struggle becomes a crisis. As host and panelist of “What Soldiers Carry Home,” Cindy brings her military experience, work in performance, and willingness to share her own story to a conversation about life after service, the burdens people carry, and the difference seeking help can make.
Additional panelists to be announced.
This conversation will examine the hidden burdens carried by veterans and their families, the importance of mental-health care, and the ways theatre and storytelling can make these often-invisible experiences visible.
Confirmed Participants
Dr. Dawn Goldstein, PhD, RN, PMHNP-BC, FAAN — U.S. Army veteran, psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner, playwright, and Associate Professor and Psychiatric Mental Health Track Coordinator at The University of Toledo. Her play Downrange, presented as part of the Virginia War Memorial’s War in Pieces, explores the experiences of an Army psychiatric nurse helping soldiers from the front lines while confronting the struggles of her own warrior husband.
Cindy Teniente — Cindy is a U.S. Army veteran and actress who served in Afghanistan during a 2012–2013 deployment. Featured in the VA’s Don’t Wait. Reach Out. campaign, she shares more recent experiences with mental health challenges and her decision to seek support, encouraging fellow veterans to reach out before a struggle becomes a crisis. As host and panelist of “What Soldiers Carry Home,” Cindy brings her military experience, work in performance, and willingness to share her own story to a conversation about life after service, the burdens people carry, and the difference seeking help can make.
Additional panelists to be announced.
Sunday, March 21, 2027
“Undesirable”: Who Gets Singled Out, and Who Stands Beside Them?
“Undesirable”: Who Gets Singled Out, and Who Stands Beside Them?
At Berga, Jewish American prisoners of war—and soldiers the Nazis decided “looked Jewish”—were separated from their fellow prisoners and sent to slave labor. Anthony Acevedo, a Mexican American medic, was among them.
His story raises questions that remain urgently relevant: Who is permitted to belong? Who decides who is “American”? What happens when people are reduced to labels based on their religion, ethnicity, nationality, or appearance? And when a group is singled out, who has the courage to stand beside them?
This concluding conversation will explore prejudice, identity, historical erasure, allyship, and the shared humanity that can unite communities against hatred.
Cofirmed Participant
Gaylen Ross — Documentary Filmmaker, GR Films
Gaylen Ross is an award-winning documentary director, producer, writer, and editor whose work brings overlooked histories and questions of justice to audiences worldwide. She co-produced and wrote the Emmy Award-winning Blood Money: Switzerland’s Nazi Gold and directed Killing Kasztner: The Jew Who Dealt With Nazis, an official selection of the Toronto International Film Festival and winner of Best Documentary awards at the Boston and Minneapolis Jewish film festivals.
Her new documentary, Sapiro v. Ford: The Jew Who Sued Henry Ford, tells the story of Jewish attorney Aaron Sapiro’s courageous legal challenge to Henry Ford’s antisemitic publications. Through archival research and cinematic storytelling, Ross makes this historic confrontation immediate, inviting audiences to consider the responsibilities that accompany influence and the courage required to confront prejudice. She brings that perspective to our conversation about identity, belonging, and standing beside those singled out.
Alicia Kaplan — Founder and Producing Artistic Director of Danisarte, a nonprofit bilingual theatre company she established in 1992 to promote cultural understanding and create professional opportunities for Latino, immigrant, and other underrepresented artists. Through original productions, workshops, and mentorship, Danisarte connects communities while helping emerging artists develop their talents.
An actress, director, and producer with more than 260 productions to her credit, Alicia received the 2026 Talia NY “Gilberto Zaldívar Toda Una Vida” Lifetime Achievement Award and SAG-AFTRA’s Joseph C. Riley Service Award for advancing equal opportunity. Under her leadership, Danisarte twice received A.C.E.’s Theatrical Organization of the Year award. Her advocacy includes service on HOLA’s Advocacy Committee and Actors’ Equity’s Committee of Racial Equality. She brings more than three decades of experience expanding artistic opportunity to our conversation about identity, belonging, and standing beside those singled out.
Additional panelists to be announced.