Swift shot: I know, I don’t normally review theatre – I am more a theater guy – still, when I was given the opportunity to watch these young actors perform, I just couldn’t say no. Being a performer, on any level, is not easy, to some it comes naturally, and others have to work at their craft. Some scripts are easier than others, some roles fit you better, and some you have to force yourself into. But, Diego De La Espriella was incredible, is incredible, and will stay incredible – and he is only in the eighth grade! He delivers the final scene as Otto Frank with such power, it was almost surreal. This was seventh-grader Rachel Rose Capo’s first lead role with Broadway Kids Studio, and she performed admirably as the passionate, chaotic, enduring, and endearing Anne Frank.
When I prepared for this invitation, I didn’t know what to expect. This was my first time even hearing about the Broadway Kids Studio, and when I did a little research I saw that they had their own “Black Box Studio” – I had no idea how intimate that space would become. To set this portrayal of the end of hope in such a dark, small, claustrophobic space was probably more convenience than genius, but it was an incredibly powerful venue nonetheless. It trapped you in with the characters, you weren’t watching from the comfort of your seat a few rows back. They were mere inches away, these actors, these children couldn’t call out for a line or feign interest if not the center of focus. There was no escaping us anymore than they could escape the Nazis. To call these “kids” anything less than professional would be an insult.
We all know the horrible story, the true story of the final years of a group of people forced to live in squalor while enduring the worst kind of fear imaginable. The only thing they had was each other, and in the production’s final act, we are reminded that when Anne Frank met her sad end . . . she was alone, naked, petrified . . . alone. As parents sat in the audience, when those words were spoken aloud, to think of your child meeting their fate with such cruel abandon – knowing you couldn’t be there to protect them, to shelter them, or even just to die with them, was something that an eighth-grader conveyed with a maturity some aged actors still can’t master.
All of these “kids” at some point in the show became their characters. Each one of them had a moment where the scene was all about them, and they didn’t fail to impress. When Sergio De La Espriella as Mr. Van Daan shouted down his wife for wanting to keep her fur coat, you felt his powerful desperation. When Edith Frank, Anne’s mother, played by Rachel Harrison finally connected with her rebellious daughter, she wasn’t a “kid” anymore. She conveyed true empathy and understanding, and in that moment, she was a mother to a girl who finally cared for her mother. The two, understood one another and accepted love. When Griffin Marthe, who portrayed Mr. Dussel, had a few comedic moments, it was like the darkness in the box had abated some, and you could almost see the stars twinkling through a window that wasn’t there . . . only in a dream. But before the nightmare of reality shrieked out, before that sad end, the play captured the joy of others, the hell of others, but also the overall enduring strength of togetherness.
Finally, when all was at its bleakest, in a crescendo of pain and sadness, there was one loud explosion of hope, as we learned the invasion had started. As hope, which seemed like a four letter word earlier, became a pragmatic possibility. But, sadly, this was a true story, no knights in shining armor would came to save the Franks or their friends. In the end it was the Gestapo – they were betrayed by a faceless coward. Regardless of the setting, the time, the heroes, or even the villains, this story always serves as a stark reminder that freedom is not something that should ever be taken for granted. The next time you find yourself bored or miserable, think of the final two years of Anne Frank, a girl who would never become a woman, a writer whose only prose was in her youth, with such potential, cut down, wasted, lost forever.
In the end, we will all wind up in a box, alone, but with the grace of friends, family, and faith, we can endure as people and we can remember that humanity is only defined by us, what we choose to leave behind as a legacy of good or evil is our choice. I think that was what the last entry of the diary really captured, Anne was surrounded by fear and misery, yet she still saw the good in the world, she still believed that people were inherently good and worth loving. I hope we always are.
