I do not think of all the misery, but of the glory that remains. Go outside into the fields, nature and the sun, go out and seek happiness in yourself and in God. Think of the beauty that again and again discharges itself within and without you and be happy.
- "The Diary of Anne Frank"

Frank's words jumped at Bobby Box from a special section of famous quotations in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Box, the associate producer at the Center for Puppetry Arts, had played with the idea of doing a puppet show about Frank's life, and the quote inspired "Anne Frank: Within and Without," which will be shown at the center this month.

"It hit me right between the eyes," Box said. "When you read the book, all through the book she talks about within and without. …We use these words as sort of a springboard for discussion and thought."

The show uses two puppeteers, a myriad of puppets and a memory-play format to tell the story of Anne Frank's life.

Box first had the idea during a trip to Amsterdam. He saw an exhibit on dollhouses at the Rijksmuseum and the next day was deeply moved by a visit to the Anne Frank House. The dollhouses and a model of the annex at the Anne Frank House reminded him of a puppet show set.

"I thought, 'Wouldn't that be cool to have one puppeteer performing the "Diary of Anne Frank" in a dollhouse?' " Box said. "As I started digging into it, I realized there is so much more to the story."

Box, who is not Jewish, read the diary at a young age, found stories about Frank's life in the concentration camps and learned about what the family was like before the war. He decided his show would tell the whole story.

Box and the other designers working on the project read books, watched movies and interviewed Holocaust survivors.

Last summer Box returned to Amsterdam for more research. He tracked down the then-unmarked original apartment of the Frank family, revisited the Anne Frank House, went to Anne's sister Margot's school and visited Anne's Montessori school.

Designer Jason von Hinezmeyer used photos of the family in sculpting the puppets.

"In some ways we are trying to be extremely accurate, and on the other hand, it's a puppet show," Box said.

He said the puppets, although they are inanimate objects, give the audience the opportunity to imbue the characters with life.

Box uses toys including a jack-in-the-box, train set, cradle and music box to tell the story from inside Frank's mind and convey the idea that although she wrote a beautiful diary, she was an ordinary little girl.

"People who try to make her into this 'She was touched by God' type thing are doing her a disservice because the fact is that she was a little girl like any of the hundreds of little girls that come to the Center of Puppetry Arts any day of the week," Box said. "The fact that this ordinary, common person wrote this great stuff, that's fantastic."

Box said he tries to address other issues in the show, such as hope, faith in humanity and Adolf Hitler's rise to power.

"I'm trying to bring up some issues that sometimes get skirted," Box said, "not to answer them, just to bring them up."

Although he wants the show to be thought-provoking, it also has to be accurate.

He gave scripts to many people to read, including Sylvia Wygoda of the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust and Sir Jack Polak from Anne Frank USA, who was in a concentration camp with the girl.

"There are so many shows on Anne Frank … the play, an opera, a musical," Polak said.

"It's the first time I heard that there was a puppet show. I think it's a great idea."

Box was concerned about what people would think about a puppet show that examined such serious subjects.

Wygoda, however, said she wasn't worried.

"I know the quality of their work, and I know their shows are not just for children," she said. "The reputation of the center itself played a big factor in our willingness to participate with them."

The Georgia Commission on the Holocaust partnered with the Center for Puppetry Arts on the project. They will work together to take the show on the road and have set up a replica of the Franks' hiding place in the lobby of the Center for Puppetry Arts.

Wygoda also hopes the show will raise interest in the Anne Frank exhibit at Kennesaw State University in Cobb County.

The commission also worked closely with Box to get him rights to "The Diary of Anne Frank" and to images of other characters. Box said the images are essential to the show's message.

"These are real people. This is what they look like, they have faces, and horrible things happen to them," he said.

Anne Frank: Within and Without

Who: Ages 12 and up
When: Jan. 19 to 29, 8 p.m. Thursday to Saturday and 5 p.m. Sunday; also, Jan. 24 to 27, 11 a.m. matinee
Tickets: www.puppet.org  or (404) 873-3391.
A lecture by Andre Kessler of the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust will run from 6:30 to 7:30 Jan. 22 after the 5 p.m. performance. Admission is free with the ticket stub to that show.