And Then They Came for Me Rachel Harry Krummel Central Washington University
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Central Washington University ScholarWorks@CWU Graduate Student Projects 2004 Direction of the Play: And Then They Came For Me Rachel Harry Krummel Central Washington University Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/thesis_projects Part of the Theatre and Performance Studies Commons Recommended Citation Krummel, Rachel Harry, "Direction of the Play: And Then They aC me For Me" (2004). Graduate Student Projects. Paper 32. This Graduate Project is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@CWU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Projects by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@CWU. Direction of the Play: And Then They Came For Me A Project Report Presented to The Graduate Faculty Central Washington University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts Theatre Production by Rachel Harry Krummel June,2004 ABSTRACT Thesis Production And Then They Came For Me Hood River Valley High School Directed by Rachel Harry Krummel April 2004 This project entailed background research and documentation, casting, direction, and post-production evaluation of Hood River Valley High School's spring 2004 production of And Then They Carne For Me. The production thesis documentation includes research and analysis on the play and its historical origins, evaluation of the play as a production vehicle, and a discussion of the directorial vision for this production. iii Direction of the Play: And Then They Came For Me Written by James Still, And Then They Carne for Me is not a play about the Holocaust, rather it is a play about three young people who lived during the Holocaust. Written in 1999, the play examines the experiences of Anne Frank, Eva Schloss and Ed Silberberg during the Nazi era. All three emigrated from Germany and Austria to Holland in the 1930s and were trapped in Holland when the Nazis invaded the Netherlands in May 1940. In the play the audience also meets Eva's mother Fritzi, father Erich and brother Heinz, along with Ed's mother and father, and Anne's father Otto. In contrast to the Jewish families, the audience also encounters a member of the Hitler Youth, and hear a part of his story as well. Presented as a multimedia play, And Then They Came for Me weaves videotaped interviews with Eva and Ed, who survived the concentration camps, with live actors recreating scenes from their lives during the thirties. In a taped interview that runs concurrently with the action of the play, Ed Silverberg recounts his flight from his German home to his grandparents' in Amsterdam until his parents could join him. After moving to Amsterdam, Ed and Anne Frank became friends and he is mentioned in her diary as her "first boyfriend". After a daring escape from a Nazi truck, Ed eventually is reunited with his parents, hidden by a family friend in a house on the outskirts of Brussels for more than 2 years, and ultimately freed by the British on Sept. 3, 1944, the exact day Anne Frank and her family were moved to Auschwitz. In the video Eva Schloss describes her own family's attempts to hide from the Nazis. Her father moved the family to Amsterdam in 1940 and it was there that Eva and Anne became acquainted. When Holland was invaded, the family split up and hid separately, Eva with her mother, and Heinz with her father. The family remained separated and hidden for two years. On Eva's fifteenth birthday the Germans found the family, having been betrayed by a traitor in the Dutch underground. Both Eva and her mother survived Auschwitz, unfortunately her father and brother did not. In the years that followed the end of the war, Otto Frank became friends of the two women and married Eva's mother. If Anne had survived the war, she and Eva would have been iv stepsisters. Woven throughout the spoken words of both Ed and Eva are stills of their families, Anne Frank, and numerous images of Nazis, often with the sounds of marching boots, yelled commands in German and chilling clips of Hitler, and the Hitler Youth. The play ends quietly. The playwright suggests the last scene is of an empty stage lit by candles left by the characters who perished during the war. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Title Page ........ ................... ............. ...... ..... .. ......... ................................................................. 1 Approval Page ............... ........................................................................ ......................... ........ ii Abstract ............................................................. ........................ ..... ............. .. .... ............ ......... iii Synopsis of Play ....... ............................... ........... .. ......... ....... .............. ..... ..... .. .. ...................... iv I. PRELIMINARY INFORMATION ................................................................ .. ........... .. .... 1 Committee Option Approval Form ............ ................................. .. ... ... ...... ... .......... ... ............. 2 Playscript Approval Form ............................ ... .................... .. ...... .......................................... 3 Permission of Hiring Authority ...... .. ..................................................................................... 4 Permission of Performance Space Authorities ...................................................................... 5 Evaluation of Play as Production Vehicle for Hood River Valley High School .... ............... 6 Director's Concept Statement .......................... .. .................................................................. .. 8 Tentative Production Schedule ................................................................................ .. ... ....... .. 11 Performance Schedule and Location . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 14 Parameters of Production Organization and Performance Space ........ ..... ............ ................. 15 Budget ................................................................................. .. .. .... .... ...... .... .. .. .. ... ........ 15 Staffing ................................. ................................. ................... .. .. ... ..................... ...... 16 Casting .............................................. .............................. .. .. .... .. ... ............. ................. 16 Facilities .................................................................................................... ................ 17 Equipment ... .. ............. .. .............................................................................................. 17 Scheduling..................................... ... ................. ... ....... ..... .......... ................................ 17 II. PREPRODUCTION ANALYSIS ................ .. .. ..... ................... ........................ .. .. .. ........... 18 Given Circumstances . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 18 Environmental Facts ........................................ ......................... .................. ............... 18 Geographical Location ..... .................................... ................ .......................... 18 Date .............................................. .. .. .. .......... .. ... ............ ... ... ........................... 19 Economic Environment ............................ .. ...... .. .... ....................................... 22 vi Political Environment ....................... ................................. .. .......................... 23 Social Environment. .................................................... .................... .... ........... 26 Religious Environment ...................... ............. ............................................... 28 Polar Attitudes ... .. .. ............................. ........................................................................ 30 Hitler Youth ......................... ........................ ......... ... ............... ....................... 30 Ed ...... .................. ................................. ... .............. ......................................... 31 Eva ... ........ ... ............................... .. ............. ....... ... ........... ... ............................. 32 Previous Action List By Time and Character .. ........ .. ... .................. ... ..... .. ............................. 33 Analysis of Dialogue ......................................................... .. .. .... ............................................ 37 Choice of Words ............................................................ .. .. ....................... ........ .......... 3 7 Choice of Phrases and Sentence Structures .. ....................... ... .............. ... .. ........ .. ....... 3 8 Choice of Images ........................................... .. .... .............. .... .................................... 38 Choice of Peculiar Characteristics .. ............. ........ .. ............. ... .............. ........... ...... ..... 39 The Sound of the Dialogue ..................................................... ................. ....... ... ...... .. 39 Structure of Lines and Speeches ... .. .. .......... ............................................................... 40 Analysis of Dramatic Action ................................... .. .......................... ...... .. .......................... 42 Character Analysis ................ .. ... ... ... ... .. .......... ...... ...... ......................................