| Frannie Sheridan-
The Waltonsteins aka I Tried to be Normal |
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| At the age of 14, this nice Canadian Catholic girl found out that her parents were really Jewish Holocaust survivors from Auschwitz, hiding their true identity for fear of latent anti-semitism. | |
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| Vancouver writer and performer Frannie Sheridan has based The Waltonsteins, a dark and humorous play, on her own life. After harrowing European wartime experiences, her Jewish parents met, married, and raised their seven children in Canada, where they were repeatedly victimized for being Jewish. The family converted to Catholicism. Frannie and her six brothers and sisters were warned to never tell anyone they were Jewish. Through the telling of the play the tragedy of sharing a lie, became a tale of the power of family relationships and the resiliency of the human spirit. “An hour after Frannie strode on stage, 500 people, many of them weeping, leapt to their feet to cheer.” -The Ottawa Citizen “The community was so touched by Frannie Sheridan and her outstanding performance.” -CBC Radio “I couldn’t take my eyes off Sheridan” -The Georgia Straight |
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