Suffolk News-Herald

&uot;In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.&uot;

– Anne Frank

Last year, the Nansemond River High School Thespian Society used comedy to get within a place of regional competition for the first time in school history. This weekend, they hope to use fear, horror, and, ultimately, inspiration to take the final step.

After a pair of warmup performances for their friends, family and faculty, the Warrior acting troupe will perform &uot;The Diary of Anne Frank,&uot; at the Virginia High School League Theater Competition at Indian River High School. Whereas they finished fourth last year with M’Beth, a spoof of the Shakespeare tragedy MacBeth, the locals will perform a 35-minute version of the story of a young girl whose plight has inspired millions.

&uot;The kids needed something very heavy to put their acting chops into,&uot; said club instructor Joleen Miller, who herself visited Frank’s Amsterdam home during her years at Elon University. &uot;They needed to focus on seriousness. They love doing comedy, but they have to try something that’s dark and real.&uot;

Today at 6:15 p.m. and Friday at 3:15 p.m., the play will be performed. Those in attendance should remember that the stage they’re watching is twice as big as the room that Anne, her parents and sister, another family and someone else shared while hiding from the Nazis for two years.

In 1942, with Holland occupied by Hitler’s minions, the Frank family fled their home and hid in an office building, leaving a note to make the Nazis think that they had escaped. With a bookcase hiding the stairway to their secret home, the store downstairs went on with normal operations. During the day, the tenants could not wear shoes or use the bathroom for fear of alerting the customers. Food was rationed out, if it came at all, and the family could only keep track of time by listening for the bells from a nearby church.

One day, a helper from the store came to the Franks and told them of the D-Day invasion, which convinced them that help was coming. Then, a thief broke into the store during the night, and heard them upstairs. The Nazis found out about them, and Anne and her family, except for her father, were taken to the concentration camps.

Anne was taken to the camp Belsen, where she died of typhus. Her father survived the Holocaust, and returned to the home, where he found the diary that would eventually become one of the world’s most printed books.

Over the next few days, River junior Kim Boone becomes the young woman.

&uot;I’ve read the book, and I like her,&uot; Boone said. &uot;Despite all the hardships she went through, she stayed positive.

&uot;Since she was becoming a teenager, she had a lot of time to think about the person she was becoming.&uot;