Dear Athens High School Dram Club, Weve be given a truly wonderful honor. As many of you heard me say at warm-ups before our final show, were not just telling this story for ourselves, or to go to states. Personal gratification, praise from others, going to states, all the things that would normally motivate me to do well in a show were all shadowed by the immensity of the towering single reason that this show has been so important to me. Just seven decades ago there was a young girl living in Holland, not just any young girl, a remarkably intelligent, insightful, and talented girl. What she had to offer the world was a knowledge of the human soul and an introspective and contemplative perspective that many never form, if at all, certainly not so young. What was taken from Anne Frank, was taken from the world. She wanted to change the world with her ideas with her mind and that opportunity was stolen from her. Every time I hear of a young person who has been killed tragically, if by some disease, or by some accident, or the one that always hits the hardest, their own hand, the thing that gets to me, the thing that just wont let me keep the tears in, is the missed opportunity. We dont always give credit to how much can be done in a human lifetime. How many things we will do, how many people we will touch and change forever. These are the things that young Anne Frank dreamed of doing and the things that she never could do. Until her father gave the world her story. I dont believe that Otto Frank published his daughters words fro himself, I dont believe that he published them for eighth graders to be tested on, I believe that he published them for us. So that we may tell their story, her story, and with it the story of millions of others. Six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. Thats shocking but not really resonant, nobody really internalizes that. My best guess as to why is that nobody knows six million people. You know? I cant say to you name six million of your closest friends but eight? everyone can name eight of their closest friends. Some people live with more than eight people. Eight is a number we can work with, and you must. That is where one of the strongest powers of this story lies, in that anyone watching our show sees eight of the closest people in their lives up on that stage. Youre not just Annes mother or sister or crush, your the mother, sister, or crush of every audience member, every person whos ever lived in the social position of a thirteen year-old. What was taken from the world with Anne can never be brought back. It is gone, and it will never not be gone. But we are doing our best to fulfill just a fraction of her potential. So when I said this was an honor, I wasnt talking about going to states, dont get me wrong I am over the moon about this news. Mostly though, because it means we get another shot at telling her story. That is where the honor lies. In our being given the opportunity that Anne never was. With respect and love, Daniel Wasserman
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 03:58:41 +0000
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