The stage play based on the writings of Holocaust victim Anne Frank opens this Friday, April 21 at the Monticello Opera House. The production is just part of an immersive experience focused on a dark chapter of world history.
Play director Jeff Mandel says this performance will include parts of the diary that were left out of earlier versions of the story.
"It was only many years later that we received a full version of the diary. And the second script that we are producing is based on that new, full version."
Along with the play, Barbara Goldstein with the Holocaust Education Resource Council says there will be a special historical display on the ground floor.
"A full exhibit from the Anne Frank Center displayed at the Monticello Opera House. This exhibit features the history behind the story of the 'Diary of Anne Frank' and this play is so profound! For more than 50 years this play has affected so many people and the actors who've performed in it have changed their lives and the people who've seen it have been affected forever."
Goldstein added there will also be a post-play panel discussion about how the pathologies that drove the Holocaust persist in the present day.
"This is such a good opportunity for everybody - students and other people - to learn about the history of that time period and what should never happen again."
