If you’ve asked yourself how such a civilized, educated, esteemed culture, like that of Weimar Germany (1930’s), could turn on a fellow human being, and propagate such destruction and chaos as the Holocaust, you’ve answered the question about Holocaust interest … Continue reading
With each passing year, actually remembering the Holocaust becomes increasingly difficult. First hand accounts are rare, and stories become deluded through generations. My grandfather, a Holocaust survivor, is no longer around to tell his stories, but my mother and I … Continue reading
Now the hard part. I have to read my revision of The Idealist. I scheduled the time for Saturday, May 7th. But I didn't do it. I was uncertain as to how it turned out. At 4pm Sunday I knew … Continue reading
SIXTY YEARS AGO
A voice emerged:
Anne Frank: The Diary of A Young Girl
A Radio Play by Meyer Levin
Broadcast on Rosh Hashanah Eve, 1952, CBS Radio.
Anne Frank: The Diary of A Young Girl
The Radio Play by Meyer Levin,
Broadcast on Rosh Hashanah Eve, 2012, ONLINE.
Mark your calendars.
The 60th anniversay performance of the original radio play dramatization.
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Thanks to all who attended our benefit reading February 23, 2011 at The Times Center in NYC and those who donated to view our live webcast of the reading. All net proceeds benefit Anne Frank-Fonds (Anne Frank Foundation) in Switzerland to support the fight against intolerance.
The reading starred Alison Pill (The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) and Tony Roberts (Annie Hall, Sunday in the Park) and featured Brandon Ladd Burkey, Lauren English, Clancy O'Connor, Andy Prosky, and Samantha Soule and was directed by Lee Sankowich.
THE IDEALIST, a new play by J. Maria Sanchez, is a fact-based account of Meyer Levin's infamous struggle to bring The Diary of Anne Frank to the stage. The play seeks to humanize Levin and his saga, looking beyond the now standard stereotype of the author as an obsessed madman, and, in doing so, explores the interplay between universalism, assimilation, and personal and group identity. It reveals uncomfortable facts about contemporaries who opposed Levin and his insistence on preserving the Jewishness of Anne Frank's voice and examines charges of anti-Semitism, not only from the larger world, but also from a community of intellectually and culturally prominent Jews in American life during the middle of the last century. In doing so,the play lays bare the balance between universalism and tolerance that societies worldwide continue to grapple with today and addresses the question of how to assimilate into a larger society while being true to one's personal and ethnic uniqueness, a theme the plays out in the lives of individuals everywhere and in every time.
As part of her journey in writing The Idealist, the author made the unprecedented decision to open the official theatrical reading of her work to the public, either in person at The Times Center or live via Internet. Theatrical readings are a part of the process of bringing a work to stage that is normally reserved for industry insiders. But through letting the public participate in this unique experience, Sanchez hopes to highlight the need for tolerance and foster dialogue on hate crimes and other forms of discrimination and injustice.
