By Madison Butkus
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Needham Council on Aging (COA) members welcomed Anne Frank and Miep Gies to The Center at the Heights (CATH). They were each portrayed by Sheryl Faye, from Sheryl Faye Presents: Historical Women, Making The Past Present. This specific adaptation was titled Anne Frank - “A Life to Remember: A Story of Perseverance, Hope, and Love.”
Despite the rather cloudy and rainy conditions, COA members packed into the CATH, eager to see yet another one of Faye’s amazing performances. Throughout the entirety of the show, Faye acted as both Miep Gies and Anne Frank, using an array of costumes, props, and videos to further enhance her performance.
The story began on July 6, 1942 in the secret Annex from the point of view of Gies. Here, she explained her plan of meeting up with Anne’s sister Margo at a secret location. From there, audience members got a glimpse into what life was like for Anne and her family during World War II and the Holocaust.
Faye’s website went on to state, “By May 1940, the Franks were trapped in Amsterdam by the German occupation of the Netherlands. As the hatred for Jewish people increased in July 1942, the family went into hiding in some concealed rooms behind a bookcase in the building where Anne’s father worked. From then until the family’s arrest by the Gestapo in August 1944, Anne kept a diary she had received as a birthday present, and wrote in it regularly.”
Faye went on to read different diary entries of Frank’s, including the ones about her heartbroken feelings for her fellow Jews in the camps being tortured while she had a warm bed to sleep on. It was these moments of reflection by Frank, as well as her mother sharing the news of people wanting to collect journals written throughout this time period, that fueled her desire to one day become a journalist.
Portrayed by Faye, Anne stated, “It is rather funny to think about ten years from now people will wonder what we did, what we ate, what we talked about here. For so long the end of the war seemed so far away, so unreal, like a fairytale. I must, I must, I must continue to write. To get on, to become a journalist. Because that is what I want to be.”
It was through writing that Anne felt her sorrows disappear and a sense of being reborn. Unfortunately, Anne never returned home from one of the camps, only her father did. While she never got to live out her days as a journalist, her diary surely lives on as one of the most popular works to date.
When answering audience questions at the end of her performance, Faye stated, “For whatever reason, they did not take her diary. Anne was not the only person during the war keeping a diary. However, one of the reasons hers became so popular is because it really is considered great literature. I don’t know if any of you have ever read her diary, but I do smile when I think about how Anne did become that famous writer that she always wanted to become. Next to the Bible, it is the most popular book in the world.”
Throughout the entirety of the performance and Q&A portion, audience members sat in absolute awe, fully entranced by Faye’s groundbreaking dedication to her roles and pure knowledge of Anne. Faye’s company is based out of Massachusetts but she travels all over the country to perform. She even encouraged audience members to come see her upcoming shows in Florida if they were in the area. For more information, please check out her website at www.sherylfaye.com.
