We are delighted that Brittany McDaniel has kindly shared her playscript, photos and film of their production of Tom Palmer’s “After the War” for other schools to use and adapt as needed, see below.
Find out more about how this exciting partnership came about and connect scroll further below:
Playscript here
Photos of the production
Film
Background
Brittany McDaniel, a teacher based out of North Platte, Nebraska, USA (the most landlocked state in the US) read After the War: From Auschwitz to Ambleside in the summer of 2025 as she was looking for a script or story to adapt for her high school students (14-18 year olds) to perform as their competition one act. In Nebraska, area high school schools compete against other schools with 30 minute long productions and receive judging feedback over the course of their season. Mrs. McDaniel found Tom Palmer’s book while falling down a rabbit hole of research after watching the BBC drama, The Windermere Children and the rest is history. She could see the play happening in her head as she read it and she knew she needed to try and make it happen.
Thanks to the wonder of the internet, Mrs. McDaniel was able to contact Mr. Palmer and ask for permission to adapt his book into a play that would fit within the competition rules and after some back and forth for clarification, everything was set. Throughout the writing and revising process, there were a few moments and flashbacks that had to be cut due to time and the nature of presenting something live on stage. Also, one scene was added toward the very end. “The book is so beautifully written but when I was translating it for the stage, it felt like the audience needed one more flashback before the final scene. That led to adding the scene where Yossi is reunited with his family one last time in order for him to say goodbye to them. Also, the line ‘Get up, Yossi. Wash your face.’ just stuck with me and I wanted to find a way for Yossi and his father to have another moment with it.” states McDaniel.
Throughout the whole process, McDaniel and her students read and watched a variety of nonfiction, memoirs, and articles in order to learn more about the children and adults this book was written about. We would encourage anyone reading this book to also do the same. When asked about their experiences with the show, the cast members of the show responded with these statements:
Henry Cline (Yossi) “Some stories need telling and this is one of them. Rehearsing and performing this show has given the cast the chance to both put on a deep and meaningful story, but also to stay in touch with history and keep an important message alive.”
Isabella Frazier (Rebecca Frenkle, Yossi’s mother) – “Everyone knows the horrors of the holocaust, but no one takes a moment to learn about what happened once the camps were liberated. The atrocities that occurred in the camp continued to haunt the survivors until their dying breaths.”
Mrs. McDaniel says feel free to schools to use the script adaptation to help with your lessons and curriculum as needed. Almost all of the dialogue comes directly from the text and any changes were made after very careful consideration. If you would like to contact Brittany McDaniel to talk about her process or how to incorporate theatre into your own classroom, please reach out to her via email at bmcdaniel at nppsd dot org
More playscripts here
More about After the War here
Thank you
