WAB's MS Drama Troupe presents "A Thousand Cranes," a drama, on Monday May 11 and Tuesday May 12, beginning at 7:00pm at WAB.

MS Drama Cooordinator, Julie Ladner, and WAB Teacher-Librarians, John Byrne and Trish McNair, co-direct a cast of 20+ MS students, plus MS stage crew, lighting and sound and musicians in this two night production. Tickets available from MS reception.

A Thousand Cranes was written in 1988 by Kathryn Schultz Miller, co-founder of the ArtReach Touring Theatre in Ohio. This multiple award-winning play has been produced by countless professional and community theaters in the United States and in other countries around the world.

The play is based on the true story of Sadako Sasaki, a lively and athletic girl who lived in Hiroshima, Japan during World War II. Although she was only two when the atomic bomb fell in 1945 and had seemed in good health in the years following, at the age of 12, she developed leukemia as a result of exposure to radiation.

In this retelling for the stage, Sadako’s good friend, Kenji, reminds her of the old story that “if a sick person folds one thousand paper cranes, the gods will grant her wish and make her healthy again.” With the same determination she once trained for a race, Sadako begins to fold her thousand cranes. Before she is able to complete her task, however, she is visited by her beloved Grandmother, who guides her to the spirit world and assures her that her wish for a thousand paper cranes and for peace in the world will be carried on by others living after her. Sadako’s friends and classmates folded enough cranes to finish her thousand.

Today, children in Japan and all over the world send cranes to be placed at the feet of Sadako’s statue in Hiroshima Peace Park. Their wish is engraved on the base of the statue: This is our cry, This is our prayer, Peace in the World.