Scene: July, 1945, The Secret Annex. An overturned couch can be seen on the right side of the stage. Papers are scattered about the floor. A table with a single chair sits in the middle of the stage...alone. Plates and forks have been layed out upon the table, untouched for almost a year.
Anne: July 18th, 1945. My dear father returns to the secret annex where we lived for almost three years. He did so much to keep all of us safe. He did his best to keep us quiet, safe, healthy, happy, and still, we were found.
Otto enters from the right side of the stage carrying a briefcase and a hat. As he enters, he places the breifcase on the ground and puts his hat on the couch. He walks to the table and sighs.
*Knock knock*
Otto: Come in.
Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl enter. Miep is carrying a journal and some papers.
Miep: Otto! You're back!
Otto: I am.
Bep: Thank goodness! I'm so happy that you're okay!
Otto: I'm glad to be back. It's so nice to see you two. Where's Viktor and Johannes?
Miep: Johannes and Victor were arrested. Johannes was released due to health issues and...we don't know where Victor is.
Otto: That's...terrible. Is Victor in hiding?
Miep: We're not sure.
*Long Pause*
Bep: I'm really sorry about Edith and Margot and Anne.
Otto: Yes, I was heartbroken when I heard about Edith- wait...Margot and Anne. What happened to them? What happened to my daughters? Bep! What happened?
Everyone onstage freezes and is covered in a blue light. Anne walks onto and to the front of the stage.
Anne: My mother died of exhaustion in Auschwitz. Me and my sister, Margot, died after a typhus outbreak in Bergen-Belsen. Unfortunately, dad had to find out the hard way.
Anne exits
Otto: Typhus.
Miep: Yes.
Otto: They're all gone. Everyone. Peter, Hermann, Fritz, Auguste. Every single one...besides me. Why? Why me?
Miep: Maybe it was for a reason. Otto, after the raid, Bep and I tried to save everything that you left behind. One of the things we found was Anne's diary.
Otto: Diary?
Everyone freezes again. Same thing as last time. So to avoid a long paragraph every time this happens, we're just gonna say "freeze"
Anne: On my 13th birthday, my grandmother gave me a diary as a gift. One of my favorite memories of my diary is how I would always write to my imaginary friend on the outside. Her name was Kitty.
Anne exits
Miep: Most of her entries were written to someone named Kitty.
Otto chuckles
Otto: Her best friend.
Bep: Some of the pages were ripped out by the...you know.
Otto: The ones who forced us into hiding in the first place.
Miep: These belong to you, Otto.
Miep hands the diary to Otto
Otto: Thank you, Miep. Thank you, Bep.
Miep: Anytime, Otto. If you need anything, you know where to find us.
Miep and Bep exit. Otto takes a seat on the lonely chair, placing the diary on the table.
Otto: What am I going to do?
Freeze
Anne: I originally intended for my diary to be for my eyes only, but I heard someone on the radio talking about how they wanted eyewitness accounts or something. So, I decided that my diary would be for the whole world to see. Here's how it starts.
Otto exits. Anne walks to the table and begins to write in her Diary.
Anne: "I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support."
Blackout. End of scene one.
YOU ARE READING
Anne: The Secret Annex
Fiction HistoriqueThis is my first time showing my work to others so don't judge me too much if it's bad. The genre says Historical Fiction, but that's not really what it is. The Diary of Anne Frank is just...historical. But in my defence, I couldn't find anything el...
