Just one day after the IETM expressed its concern about the restriction of artistic freedom around the world, a new incident on the other side of the Atlantic raises the issue once again.
In Michigan, USA, a small group of masked protesters gathered outside the Fowlerville Community Theatre waving Nazi flags while The Diary of Anne Frank was being performed. According to the local sheriff, Michael Murphy, the troublemakers were asked to leave the area and eventually moved to the sidewalk across the street for a short time before leaving.
The cast and audience of the show were informed of the incident at intermission by members of the production. According to a statement from the Fowlerville Community Theatre, 'although some of the cast were shocked by the hateful event, they continued with the show with professionalism'.
Anna Frank's famous diary is the book that resulted from the publication of the diary the young woman kept while hiding with her family in the Prisengravec bunker in Amsterdam during the Second World War.
She and her family were arrested by the Gestapo. In the end, only her father, Otto Frank, survived, thanks to whom some of the pages of the diary were published for the first time in 1947.
"As theatre people we tell stories that take the audience to different places and times, some imaginary, some real." Fowlerville Community Theatre said in a statement. "On Saturday night, things became more real than we expected. The presence of the protesters outside gave us a small glimpse of the fear and uncertainty felt by those in hiding at the time," the statement adds.
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