The East Texas Performing Arts theatre troupe is making their debut in Marshall next month, planning to bring the play Anne Frank to Memorial City Hall in Marshall July 1-3.
The troupe performed the play previously in Jefferson, according to Director and organization founder Sara Whitaker, and plans to bring the same energy and power of their previous performance to their Marshall audience.
The play will run July 1 at 7:30 p.m., July 2 at 2 p.m. and again at 7:30 p.m., and July 3 at 2 p.m. All tickets are available at www.opnsco.com/tickets.
On Sunday, July3 all students K through college age are able to attend the play at Memorial City Hall free of charge.
Whitaker said that the cast of the planned Marshall performances is largely made up of the original cast of the play, which was performed in Jefferson.
“We had a wonderful cast last time, and they really had an amazing chemistry that I felt really did for this play something special,” Whitaker said.
Atticus Upton Lewis, 16, plays the main character of Peter Van Dann with 15-year-old actor Emma Pierce playing Anne Frank.
The two have known each other since kindergarten and have performed together previously, including in the East Texas Performing Arts previous showing of Our Town.
“They really have a great chemistry together, and I think both of them being the right ages and already having that friendship like Anne and Peter really elevates the characters,” Whitaker said.
Pierce said that through her performance as Anne Frank she tries encapsulate both the light-hearted elements of a teenage girl, while also conveying the serious nature of the play with the respect that it deserves.
“It really is challenging, because on the one hand she is a 13-year-old-girl, so she’s joyous and silly at times, it’s important to me to portray that in a way that allows her to keep her dignity, and gives the play the respect it deserves,” Pierce said.
Upton Lewis said he also works to find a balance in his performance of Peter Van Dann, working to understand the feelings of turmoil and chaos that surround the two families as they try to make it through day by day.
“There is a lot of pressure to portray these roles right,” Upton Lewis said, “These are real people and they went through a horrible situation and we all want to do them justice.”
Karl Frederickson is also a performer with the company, taking on the role of Otto Frank in the production.
He stated that the play is a story of choices, choices between turning towards good or turning towards evil, when the worst of humanity is in turmoil around you.
Whitaker said that in preparation of the role the whole cast took a trip to the Dallas Holocaust Museum, to be sure to have the knowledge of the history of the incidents they are portraying fresh in their minds as they prepare for the roles.
“We were definitely not going to go into this blind and unaware of the real history of what happened and the people who were affected by this genocide,” Whitaker said.
Anne Frank is based off of the book “The Diary of a Young Girl” by Anne Frank, a first person account of a Jewish family during the events of the Holocaust.
The play follows Frank for nearly two years as she is joined by her family and the Van Daan family to hide in a secret annex space above an office in Amsterdam, as the Nazis searched for and deported Jewish citizens to their deaths.
Frederickson said that this play is just as relevant today as it was when it was originally written; emphasizing that history does repeat itself when we refuse to learn from it.
“It’s an important story that is a mix between Anne’s story into adulthood, as well as simultaneously, the worlds journey into madness,” Frederickson said, “It’s a story that’s full of choices, and the audience has a choice too. We can choose to identify with Anne and her family, or we can choose to identify with a world that’s going mad.”
Whitaker echoed his sentiments, stating that anyone of any age is able to watch this play and learn something from the experience.
Fredrickson also stated that there is a very interested juxtaposition in the play between the happiness of a loving family spending time together over two years, and the horrible events taking place in the outside world all around them.
“I think it’s about an appreciation of life, and not taking it for granted.” Whitaker said.