anne frank
anne frank: the diary of a young girl Note: As you know, this is a non-fiction story. I would never want to trivialize Anne's story by having the band discuss it. If anything, I would like to expand appreciation for this incredible piece of writing that connects us to a life that will forever live in our hearts. I don't know if Isaac, Taylor and Zac have read this book, but I'm pretty sure they would be in awe of her ability to touch people's lives. (In the famous Hanson garage with the stereo on.) Zac: (Lip syncing) . . . On your mark, Ready, Set. Let's go. Dance floor pro. I know you, you know . . . Isaac: (Pretends to have cigar on his mouth.) Just bite it. It's for the look. I don't light it . . . Taylor: (Dancing) Come on! Gettin' jiggy wit' it! Jessica and Avery: Ne-na Ne-na Ne Na-Na. (Clap) Ne-na Ne-na Ne NA! (Mackie goes over to the stereo and turns up the volume. He laughs and claps his hands.) Isaac/Taylor/Zac: Dancin' a jig with this Hanson kid . . . Who else? Wil Smith. Living the life some consider a myth. Rock from South Street to 1-2-fifth! . . . (Mrs. Hanson comes down the stairs and motions for all to be quiet.) Mrs. H: Hey guys, I just put Zoe down for a nap. Let's all try to be really, really quiet this time. We can party later, I promise. Hey, have you guys discussed the Diary of Anne Frank yet? Jessie, why don' t you finish reading Sarah, Plain and Tall to Avie? Mackie, come help Mommy find your Play-Doh, okay? Mackie: I don't like the baby. She's no fun. I want to knock her nose off. Isaac: Hey, Play-Doh sounds like fun. Besides you would never want to hurt the baby, I know. You love her. How about a pony ride upstairs? (Runs to scoop his brother up in his arms.) Mackie: (Laughing) Faster, Ike! No go slow! Jessie: Zac, remember when we made that awesome green guy city with Play-Doh? Zac: Oh yeah, (t.v. announcer voice) "The meteor is now headed straight for the center of the metropolis. All citizens are asked to . . . SPLAT!" Jessie: (giggling) I told you to make their insides orange, so that when they got squished, they would change colors. Race ya' up! (Starts to run towards the stairs.) Zac: Oh yeah, last one's up has to make my bed tomorrow. Taylor: Avie, want a ride? Avie: On your shoulders, Tay! Taylor: Okay, (bending down so she can get on his shoulders.), but you're going to have to watch your head for low-flying planes. (smiles) Mrs. H.: (To no one in particular) What would we do without big brothers? (As the guys get situated to discuss their book, Mrs. H. comes in holding Mac.) Mrs. H: Looks like you guys are getting settled. Imagine what it would be like to have to be this quiet all day, because your life depended on it. Isaac: Much as it does in our house. (He ducks as his mother playfully smacks his shoulder.) Mrs. H: That would mean no dancing, no singing, no instruments, especially no drums (She takes Zac's hair and pulls it thoughtfully into a ponytail and lets it fall through her fingers.). You wouldn't even be able to flush all day, that's how serious it was. Mackie: Later, I play Zacky's drums. Okay, Mommy. (Zac gives his Mom a "look." She nods and winks at him as if to say, "'I've got it covered.") Mrs. H: Help Mommy find the new Play-Doh colors she bought for her Big Mac. Mackie: Drums, Mommy. Promise? (They leave.) Taylor: Our family would be found after exactly one day of hiding. Isaac: Uh, you’re dreaming Taylor. A second, maybe? Zac: How about that time when we slipped away for Avie’s birthday party? Everyone thought we were some place else. No one could find us then. Isaac: That’s true. And that’s kind of how the Franks did it. Remember how people actually started making up stories about how they had seen them escaping in a car in the middle of the night after the rumors they started got around? But it’s not like we’re in a Secret Annex at all. Yeah, we have to plan our moves, you know, based on what other people might do, but . . . Taylor: . . . but we’re getting marriage proposals, not getting stalked by the Nazis. Zac: Taylor, one thing you have in common with the Franks though. Your Star of David. Taylor: Well, that’s more because of choice. I could take it off if I wanted to. It’s not a huge, yellow armband that tells people that I’m possibly disgusting and potentially dangerous. Zac: Yeah, and I guess, it’s also not like they’re trying to wipe out all the soccer players or, just people who like to wear things around their necks or something. (Pauses, then says) Hey, we’re all home-schooled. Taylor: (Laughs a little uncomfortably.) Yeah, that’s true. Isaac: Do you remember how we visited the Annex when we were in the Netherlands? I actually had a weird thought when we were there. You know how Anne took all of those pictures of movie stars and postcards and stuff and put them up on her walls? It really made me think about, you know how we’re in those magazines that people use to decorate their walls? I don’t like to think about that personally, but it happens. Anyway, that’s the kind of thing that keeps people sane during the worst times . . . Zac: (Hums a few bars from "Pachabel’s Canon in D.") Taylor: Ike, I swear to God, I wrote something exactly like that in my journal when we were there. It made me think even more about how it’s just an image. How it really has nothing to do with you personally, but somehow it’s more powerful than even you can imagine. Isaac: Yeah, more powerful, exactly. Her diary also made me think of how we’re always writing and recording things ourselves. It’s like we all have the same experiences, even though she’s a girl, and she lived during a terrible time in history and she’s from another country . . . Taylor: . . . and that's the point. Anne could've been anybody, you know. It wasn't because of who she was, really. She didn't do anything to anybody. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Zac: Whoa, living with all those people. It's scary. Remember, when Anne was talking about sharing a room with Mr. Dussel? He was like, "Shhh" "Shhh" all the time, whenever she moved? (Fake coughs) THAT must've been pretty, annoying (louder) Tay! Taylor: Uh, everybody handles jetlag in his or her own way. I mean, some people politely ask other people to try to be quiet in the middle of the night while some people completely forget their name when an interviewer ask them for it. (smiles) Zac! Zac: Hey, you guys are NOT the quietest sleepers either! Taylor: Would it be the noise that would doom us in the attic, or would we destroy each other? Isaac: (Dramatically) We would have, a situation. Taylor: Exactly. It's amazing that they did not go completely insane. All day long, waiting to hear footsteps on the stairs. Not knowing, would absolutely drive a person crazy! Anne and I are the same age. She went into hiding at the same time in her life when "Middle of Nowhere" came out for us. Weird. Isaac: I mean, yeah, that is weird. Peter is my age. Before he met Anne, did anyone get the impression that "Lonely Boy" could have been written for this kid? We could've been thinking of him when we were doing "Boomerang." (sings) "Is there no one who could love a lonely boy? At the end of the day, there's no one to hold his hand. Is there no one who could love a lonely boy. At the end of the day, there's no one to understand." Taylor: (continues to sing with Isaac) "Looking for another place to start. Trying to find the switch, and turn on the light in the dark. He found the answer, that true love can prevail. Through the darkest of nights, coldest winters, through the fires of hell." Zac: Oh man, that song could be about Peter. When did we write that? Like ages ago. Isaac: Can you imagine being able to actually live with the girl you were in love with? I mean the circumstances were not the best. His parents, alone, would normally scare any girl away. But together, 24/7 . . . I was dying when I read that "SVP Gas" thing Peter left on the bathroom door when he couldn't flush it after being in there forever . . . if you know what I mean (grinning). Zac: Uh, this family could totally use a warning sign like that in our house (holding his nose) Taylor: You might want to revise that sign first. "SVP" is French for "Please." I don't think you're going to want to ask for something like that. Peter actually meant, "Beware" which is what Anne thought was pretty hilarious too. Isaac: Remember, Taylor, when you were talking about dramatic irony before? This book is the perfect example of it, but you wish you didn't know what was going to happen to the characters in the end. Taylor: They're not really characters, so I don't know if it's dramatic irony or not. Either way, knowing the end, it's like each word is unbelievably, eh, meaningful, you know? Isaac: You know how people are always asking us what it’s like to be missing our childhood and want to know if we’re being robbed . . . Taylor: . . . like we’re being forced to sing and make people happy . . . Zac: . . . Our parents made us do it. Ahhh, help me . . . Isaac: Well, it’s pretty ridiculous to think that people who get motorbikes for Christmas and get to go on "Nickelodeon’s Kids’ Choice Awards" and play paintball with their friends for their birthday are people suffering from a lost childhood . . . Taylor: . . . Totally. Totally. I mean, Anne lost all of her friends (literally lost them), and remember how her dad said something like, "I don’t think Anne is suffering from anything that a ride on her bike or some time with her friends wouldn’t cure"? Come on! We can go outside and climb our treehouse right now if we wanted to. It’s completely different. Isaac: Completely. She was in hiding and became famous after she died. People only read about her life changes, while people ask us about ours. Zac: The worst that happens to us is when people ask us about our voice changing and stuff like that . . . Isaac: (grinning) . . . which Taylor almost made the mistake of saying was worse than what girls have to go through. Good Lord, Taylor, Oprah almost gave you a "talk." Taylor: Well, I guess I won’t need one after reading January 5, 1944 (blushes slightly). Zac: Eh, voice changing isn’t so bad? (Shyly) Isaac: Mom told me that Anne’s dad edited some of that stuff out of it, but now there’s an unedited version available. Taylor, you might want to check that out sometime if you want the full scoop. (Grins) I don’t think Anne would have minded that people read that about her. It would just blow her away to know that literally millions of people have read the "unbosomings of a 13-year-old girl" anyway . . . Taylor: (Recovering) . . . It’s a miracle that her diary even survived, um, everything that happened. Ike, do you remember we literally couldn’t speak when we visited the concentration camp in Germany? Isaac: Remember how afterward, Dad was like, "Guys, remember that this is a Memorial so that nothing this unspeakable will ever happen again"? And then it was like, these buildings are empty now, but at one time they were filled with people our grandparents’ age now. Our grandparents were alive when this was all happening. It’s like, "Oh my God! It’s real!" Taylor: It’s real. Yeah. Zac: Mom almost didn’t let me go with you guys to see it. But, people my age, Jessie, Avie, Mackie and even, Zoe, all had to go through it too. Taylor: There’s no school that can teach you this. We can learn all about it, yeah, in a text book, but then visiting the actual places, the memory stays with you, or even if we see it first, then learn about it later . . . Isaac: . . . yeah, the memory is a part of us. What we learn is part of who we become, not just a letter on a multiple choice test or something. Zac: You’re always learning, no matter what you’re doing. Taylor: That’s the point. It’s cool the way Mom gives us stories to learn things by too. You know, Of Mice and Men, made us mad about the Great Depression . . . Zac: You mean, it made us cry about it, Tay (with a grin). Taylor: (Hurriedly goes on) Eh, yeah. And now this book shows us a part of World War II that makes it come to life . . . Isaac: . . . It's real, genuine, almost a part of us. Tay, I was thinking about "Soldier" when I finished this book. Can’t you see Peter like the one-legged soldier and Anne was his ballerina? Zac: (Imitates his sisters’ voices from the beginning of the song of "Mmmbop" CD.) Tell me the story of the one-legged solider. One more time - please! Taylor: (sings) "Their bases began to melt into one in the same. And now they share each others destiny. Together forever, they will be, And they are no longer lonely for a friend." Isaac: That’s still one of my favorite songs. Taylor: No doubt. Zac: Do you think Anne would have liked that song too? Isaac: Maybe one day we can sing it for her and ask her. Taylor: Listen, I think I hear Mom coming. Mrs. H: Guys, Mackie is taking a nap too. Why don’t you get out your journals and summarize some of the things you talked about? Did you catch what Ernest Schnabel said about Anne’s diary?: "Her voice was preserved, out of the millions that were silenced, this voice, no louder than a child’s whisper . . . It has outlasted the shouts of the murderers and has soared above the voices of time" She would never want to appear more than human, but the power of thoughts on paper is beyond what we can ever expect. You guys are getting a taste of that with your music. You never expect that a thought that just comes across your mind can find a place in someone else’s heart. It’s difficult to share my boys with the world, but I know it’s a gift. Anne’s parents never held her back from being herself in the attic, in spite of everything that was going on around her. That’s something your dad and I want for you too, to be completely yourself, in spite of everything that’s going on around you. The Franks are just like any other family that way. That’s what’s so amazing about this story. Zac: Mom, what song do you think we should sing for Anne when we see her in Heaven? (Mrs. H. puts her hand to her mouth and reaches for a something in her overall pocket with the other hand. Then she goes over to give each of the boys a hug and a kiss on the forehead.) Mrs. H: (As she continues to dry her eyes) Go on, get out of here. I changed my mind. Get your sisters. You all need to be outside. It's so beautiful out there.
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