For their recent SEED speaker, RKYHS and JKHA eighth graders welcomed Amy Langer and David Schwartz, the producers of the musical RUTKA. RUTKA is a bold, new coming-of-age musical based on the internationally-acclaimed book, Rutka’s Notebook—the visceral diary hidden by teenage Rutka Laskier in the Bedzin Ghetto of Poland in 1943, brought to life in this gripping and unforgettable production. The producers discussed locating Rutka’s diary, which had been hidden for over 40 years and how they wanted to bring her personal diary and its messages of hope, love, resistance, empathy and combating hate to the stage, making it relevant and contemporary for a wide audience. They showed clips from the performance and detailed the process of developing it into a script along with creating an innovative indie-rock musical score. They discussed how they cast teens into the roles and the impact performing in a play on this subject matter had on the actor teens. Students asked many insightful questions to the producers, further learning about the experience of bringing a play, especially one with these messages, from conception to completion.