The Diary of Anne Frank--Book Closed

                                                                  

Another show has ended.  Exhausted, hot, still the cleaning up and out to do and Purlie Productions will move forward.  I’m glad the work is over but there is always the letdown and the questioning.  Did it work?  What did people really think?  And most importantly, was the message delivered?

I know there are people in our community who would never really receive the message; they are probably not the ones in our audience.  I learned there was one gentleman whose Christian sensibilities were outraged by the G-D phrase uttered by an angry character in the play; obviously he was the one that didn’t get it.  I know the play was a great experience for the cast, most of whom had not tackled this type of performance before.

Was it worth it?  Financially, it’s doubtful—although at least we didn’t lose money!  Emotionally, physically?  That, of course, is an individual decision.  Every play has its moments of irritability, impatience, and embarrassment (the dropped lines, the lost cat, the mistaken appearance of the cat, the empty cognac bottle……) but it really doesn’t matter in the end.  We will learn from our past mistakes—and make new ones in the future. 

Tonight I feel like I will never again have the energy to tackle a production and continue to question the effort it takes.  However, in all likelihood I will do it again.  I truly believe that change is possible like the eating the elephant joke, one bite at a time. 

The Thank Yous are numerous:  Our Board:  Judy and Lionel Bryan, Mary Lewis, Jimmie Burke, Lamar Deal and Blake Kildow (also our Director); Our Cast:  Tom Strait, Emily Beck, Chris Jeffords, Amara Grace Jeffords, Kenny O’Bara, Joey Timmons, Kim Beck, Julianna Lacefield and Lamar Deal; Our Crews:  Kaytie Jeffords, Sara Setzer, Jerilyn Sweat, Aaron Carver.  Our creative expert/seamstress/prop master Teresa Beck.  Of course, a big thank you to the Okefenokee Heritage Center and Director Sam Ganas for allowing us to live there for the past 6 weeks.

There’s a wide gap between “Wow, this is truly enormous accomplishment!” and “Why do we even bother?” Hopefully I’ll settle down somewhere in the positive middle range.  Feel free to tell us our blood, sweat and tears are worth it!

 

NAZIS AMONG US or Anne Frank Lives!

I know it’s because we are in the middle of rehearsing for “The Diary of Anne Frank” that I probably have a heightened sense of paranoia, but I’m convinced that the threat of extreme right wing power is alive and well within our borders.  Even within the borders of Waresboro, Georgia where I live in what looks like pastoral peace. 

There has always been a Confederate flag or two, and the incident of our Obama campaign sign being defaced, but today we almost felt like the invasion had started.  As we returned from grocery shopping and prepared to turn into our driveway, we had to wait while a convoy of vehicles passed in front of us.  There were at least 6 or 7 vehicles, each one festooned with numerous confederate flags and white power symbols.  Our road dead ends and I really don’t know our neighbors—obviously.  I’m guessing they don’t want to know us either.  There was obviously some sort of event at the end of the road—some scary, large, white power event.  Are we in danger?

As I said, I may be just a little paranoid.  I randomly turned to a TV channel while I was ironing this afternoon and watched a show on the History Channel called “Aliens Among Us”.  This particular episode was regarding scientific experiments by Nazis at the tail end of the war trying to develop weapons of mass destruction—and develop time travel.  Suddenly it hit me how not so far away and distant the threat of Nazi-like power is.

Whenever I express thoughts like these, people are inclined to think I’m being ridiculous, exaggerating, and of course, the ever popular “it could never happen here”.  But when you begin to live the life of the Frank family, hiding in fear in an attic, it seems different.  Mrs. Frank, the role I am playing, is very much like me.  Worrying unnecessarily perhaps, fearful for the well-being of her family, dealing with the everyday chores and annoyances of life.  With the exception of Mr. Frank, every Jewish person in this play died in a concentration camp, shortly before the camps were liberated.  Excuse me if I tend to take that personally.

I know Confederate flags have been removed from positions of prominence in our country; I know discrimination is illegal.   But believe me my friends, the Confederacy is alive and well in Waresboro, Georgia.  We have numerous elected representatives whose views are at odds with our country’s advances and ideals.  There are many more waiting in the wings to have their chance at instituting laws and policies that enforce discrimination against genders that aren’t traditional male or female, immigrants, and other races and ethnicities.  We have law enforcement officers scattered throughout the country who are pre-emptively taking action against the dark faces they feel are threatening them, precipitating out of control violence in the streets.  It’s time to re-visit the history of pre-war Germany and track the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party.

There are those who say the Holocaust never happened; there are those who say Anne Frank’s story in her diary is fictitious.   I’d suggest that those of you who do know the truth and fear our potential future get busy and realize the importance of using the rights we still have.  In other words, not only use your vote but try to convince others to do the same!