When Shulamit Bastacky was a baby, a Roman Catholic nun saved her from the Nazis in World War II Poland by hiding the Jewish infant in a cellar. The Squirrel Hill resident, who is now 65 and moved to the United States in 1963, has heard all about the horror from her family, and she will share her experiences with audiences at "The Diary of Anne Frank," a Prime Stage Theatre production that plays for the next two weekends. Bastacky, along with a few other "hidden children" from the Pittsburgh area, will address audience members in each post-show Q&A session with cast members onstage.
"I think it's wonderful," says Bastacky, referring to the play, and the post-show sessions. "We need to educate young people about such a horrific example of what is such a high degree of fate.
"I feel strongly than Anne Frank is a symbol. ... She had such a talent in writing and ability to express herself," she says. Bastacky wonders, "How many future Anne Franks were murdered?"
The play -- which features a cast of 10, and some background music -- depicts the life of the Frank family, based on the diary from the 13-year-old Anne that later was published as a book. The stage scenery looks has a warehouse-like, attic feel to it, like the dwelling Anne describes in the book, director Wayne Brinda says. Frank's family hid in the annex of an office building in Amsterdam for two years in order to escape capture by the Nazis in the '40s.
Anne's character tells the story in vivid detail onstage as she creates her diary, while a voiceover provides some narration, Brinda says. He is the artistic director and founder of Prime Stage Theatre, and an assistant professor of education at Duquesne University, Uptown. Brinda recommends "The Diary of Anne Frank" for children in sixth grade and up.
"It's a play that's really for everybody," Brinda says. "It's a compelling, great, timely piece for the whole family."
The play coincides with the recent release of letters, postcards and Frank family notes, which went on display last year at the Amsterdam Historical Museum. It also coincides with the rise of Holocaust denial, which is the belief that the genocide of Jews either did not happen, or wasn't as bad as history claims, Brinda says.
"It's a true story. It actually happened, and it's history," Brinda says. Young people, he says, can learn a lot from the Anne Frank story and the themes of bigotry and tyranny.
"We have to recognize what was behind (the Holocaust), and when we see these types of things happening today ... young people can stand up and do something about it."
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