Hanukkah

An image from the production "Diary of Anne Frank" came across my facebook feed today. I played Margot, Anne's older sister, in this particular show. The image features the menorah candles and also the music box Anne's father saved and kept for her mother as a gift when they were forced into hiding.

Today is the first day of Hanukkah. I am not Jewish, but there is a small part of me that feels as if I am. Margot became a part of my soul when I was privileged to portray her up in Brighton, Colorado. The hugeness of the story and what happened to the families in this story will never leave my heart.

During our intermissions, the audience as usual was allowed to get up, get a snack, stretch their legs. We, the actors, were not allowed to leave stage. This was hauntingly symbolic of the fact the Franks were not ever allowed to leave the Secret Annexe. The choice to keep us onstage for the entirety of the production was helpful in driving that point home (both to us and to the audience).

Anne and Margot singing for Hannukah

I was also privileged to sing with my stage sister, Sarah, two traditional Hanukkah prayers  (if you've ever heard her sing, you'll know how huge of an honor it was). This became one of my favorite scenes of the whole play. As I rehearsed and then performed the songs/prayers over and over, they too sunk deep into my soul and became part of me. So as I listened to them again today (more than a year after performing them), I got dangerously close to tears. When you play a part onstage (at least in my experience), it is not just "pretending" to be someone else. Who they are absorbs into your heart in a way that is inescapable. They sang these songs together as a family during their Hanukkahs in the Annexe, and we as actors sang them together and became a family of our own.