BLOG: Sara Farb on The Road to Opening Stratford's THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK

BroadwayWorld Toronto is pleased to present the first entry in an exclusive series of guest blogs from The Stratford Festival. Stephanie Rothenberg (Maria in The Sound of Music) and Sara Farb (Anne in The Diary of Anne Frank) will chronicle their road from first preview to opening night in our newest feature "The Road to Opening!" Here, Sara blogs about first previews.

It has been just over two months since we first began rehearsing The Diary of Anne Frank, and we're about to head into preview number four.

We open in just under a month, which means that we'll be rehearsing and doing previews until then. It's the same with anything in life, really, but I find at Stratford particularly, the passage of time is completely bewildering.

I suppose it's because the amount of time we have is sort of an illusion: Our rehearsals span several months, but because we are all rehearsing other plays at the same time, it is actually a question of hours, not days. So it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking, "We don't perform for another two weeks!" when really, we only have about three rehearsals before that performance.

About a month ago, I stupidly looked at my calendar to see what kind of rehearsal time was left before preview number one, and involuntarily ended up in the fetal position on my kitchen floor.

I'm finding doing this show more humbling an experience than I've ever had on stage. I did not feel awesome about how I did in preview number three. That lasted for a short time, because I suddenly remembered that this has so little to do with me.

The point of this show is perpetuating Anne's story, and remembering all those who were lost in the Holocaust. Keeping that in mind actually takes the pressure off; the gravity of the story we're telling is a really useful tool to keep my ego in check.