MONROE — Colonel Matt Konop refused to talk about his service in the war.
Yet when he died, his basement yielded a treasure trove of typewritten accounts, photos and rare film footage.
The Monroe Arts Center will show “The Accidental Hero” at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 23. The multi-media one-man show is about Colonel Konop, a World War II American officer who miraculously liberated the Czech villages of his grandparents. It’s a true World War II story of jaw-dropping coincidences, plot twists and triumph written and performed by his grandson, Patrick Dewane.
Dewane brings this archival material to life as a tale of miraculous escapes and astonishing coincidences. This touching show runs from belly laughs to tears as Dewane takes on a dozen different roles, powerfully recounting his grandfather’s journey from Omaha Beach, the Battle of the Bulge and the end of World War II.
Like many of his generation, Konop didn’t talk about the war when he returned. His story vanished with passing time. Back in Czechoslovakia, the Communist coup of 1948 brought an ugly, repressive regime that would last the rest of Konop’s life. The Communists also changed the official history of World War II and eliminated the fact that the U.S. Army had liberated southwestern Czechoslovakia. So, while Konop’s story faded in America, it was illegal to tell it in Czechoslovakia. When Konop died in 1983, his family knew little of his heroics, and the Czechs were forbidden to talk about it. At Konop’s funeral, there was no American flag on the casket and no taps played at his grave.
It seemed his war stories were buried with him.
Twenty years after his death, Colonel Konop’s long-forgotten writings were discovered in a family basement. Along with his war manuscript were reels of color and black and white film he shot during the war on a Kodak 8mm handheld camera. Dewane, became obsessed with what was found and turned the story, film footage and period music into “The Accidental Hero,” which has wowed audiences across the U.S. and Europe.
Konop was born in Stangelville, Wisconsin, 20 miles southeast of Green Bay. His grandparents were peasants who had immigrated to Wisconsin in the late 1860s from the Chodsko region in southern Bohemia, in what is now the Czech Republic. They joined an enclave of other Czech immigrants amidst the patchwork of German, Belgian, Irish and other Western Europeans who were transforming the old growth white pine forest of northeastern Wisconsin into dairy farms. Konop was raised speaking Czech on the family farm, the oldest of 11 children, and graduated in 1924 from Kewaunee High School.
Reserved seat tickets for “The Accidental Hero” may be purchased by calling the Monroe Arts Center at 608-325-5700 or 888-596-1249, in person at the box office, 1315 11th Street, or online at www.monroeartscenter.
