The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK: Know-the-Show Guide The Diary of Anne Frank by Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett Adapted by Wendy Kesselman Know-the-Show Audience Guide researched and written by the Education Department of The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey Artwork: Scott McKowen The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK: Know-the-Show Guide In This Guide – THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK: An Introduction ........................................................................ 2 – About this Adaptation: From the Page to the Stage .................................................................... 3 – The Life of Anne Frank .............................................................................................................. 5 – THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK: A Synopsis ............................................................................... 7 – A Timeline of Events .................................................................................................................. 9 – Who’s Who in the Play ........................................................................................................... 11 – In Her Own Words ................................................................................................................. 14 – In this Production ................................................................................................................... 15 – Explore Online ....................................................................................................................... 16 – Sources and Further Reading .................................................................................................. 17 1 The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK: Know-the-Show Guide The Diary of AnneAn Frank: Introduction “I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support.” -Friday, June 12, 1942 The Frank Family on their way to the Wedding of Miep Gies - July 16, 1941 On June 12, 1929, one of the most unexpectedly important writers of the 20th century was born in Frankfurt, Germany. By Pulitzer and Tony winning Broadway play in 1957 and an Academy March of 1945 she was dead, one of more than six-million Award Nominated film in 1959. Since then, more than a dozen victims of the terrible holocaust that scourged its way across television shows, mini-series, and films have examined the life of Europe, driven by the anti-Semitism of Germany’s Nazi party in Anne Frank, but none have captured her experiences as powerfully the early 1940s. as her own words did in her diary. One voice out of six-million, and still her words live on, Anne’s diaries were rereleased in 1995 with the previously edited continuing to inspire compassion and elicit hope from everyone passages reinstated, so for the 1997 adaptation of the play, Wendy who comes into contact with them. Kesselman was able to draw on more of Anne’s words in the retelling of her story. With nearly 30 percent more source material First translated into English in the early 1950’s, Anne Frank: The than the original play, Kesselman’s adaptation brings us all a bit Diary of a Young Girl was the first exposure many Americans had closer to the young girl in the Annex. to the atrocities committed during WWII. That novel inspired a 2 The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK: Know-the-Show Guide which would be collected after the war. Anne and her family heard From the Page to the Stage the broadcast while hiding in the Annex and a now 15-year old Anne began the process of editing and revising her diary entries About this Adaptation with the dream of publishing them after the war ended. She even came up with a list of psuedonyms for the other residents in the “When I write, I can shake off all my cares.” Annex and the people who helped them remain hidden. - April 5, 1944 On August 2, 1944 an anonymous tip led members of the occupying German army to raid the Frank’s secret annex, arresting On June 12, 1942, everyone inside. Originally all of the residents were sent to Anne Frank received a Auschwitz in Poland, but as the Russian Army advanced, the Nazis red and white checked transferred many of their prisoners away from the approaching “Autograph” book from Allied forces. In October of 1944, Anne and her sister Margot were her father, Otto, for her transferred to Bergen-Belsen in Germany and in March of 1945 thirteenth birthday. Less Anne died of typhus; just a few short weeks before the camp was than a month later, on July liberated by British forces on April 15, 1945. 6, 1942 the Franks went into hiding in the secret Otto Frank, Anne’s father, was the only resident of the Annex to annex above Mr. Frank’s survive until the war’s end. Upon his return to the Netherlands he business. For the next was given Anne’s diaries by Miep Gies (who had saved them from two years Anne would the ransacked Annex). Miep had never read the diaries, and later document her experiences said that if she had read them she probably would have destroyed in the Annex through a them because they could have been used by the SS to implicate series of diary entries, many of the people who had helped the Franks in hiding. Mr. primarily in the form of letters written to “Dear Kitty.” Frank himself resisted reading them for a time, but eventually began transcribing them from Dutch into German for family members in In the spring of 1944, via a “Radio Oranje” broadcast carried Switzerland. by BBC into the occupied Netherlands, Gerrit Bolkestein (the exiled Dutch Minister for Education, Art and Science) encouraged Ultimately her father decided to help fulfill his daughter’s wish of his countrymen still living in the occupied Netherlands to keep having her diary published. The Secret Annex. Diary Letters from written evidence of the atrocities committed by the occupying June 14, 1942 to August 1, 1944 was published in Amsterdam Nazi forces; he was specifically interested in letters and diaries on June 25, 1947. Certain passages and portions of the diary 3 The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK: Know-the-Show Guide (primarily the passages dealing with Anne’s sexuality) were Kesselman drew from the newly restored version of Anne’s diary, omitted or edited at the publisher’s request. Mr. Frank himself reincorporating the passages about Anne’s sexuality and her Jewish omitted passages of the diary in which Anne appeared critical of identity that had been previously omitted and downplayed in her family or friends who were still living. earlier versions. She eliminated the flashback approach of the original by removing the opening and closing scenes featuring a The Secret Annex was so popular it was printed six times in the “present-day” Otto and Miep, opting instead for a straightforward, original Dutch, and in 1950 plans were made to translate it into chronological retelling of the events in the Annex. This new English. In 1952, Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl was adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank opened on December 4, published and released in America and Great Britain, where it 1997 at The Music Box Theatre on Broadway, starring Natalie became a bestseller in both countries. Portman (Anne), George Hearn (Otto), Linda Lavin (Mrs. Van Daan) and Harris Yulin (Mr. Van Daan). After a few false starts, Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett In addition to these theatrical versions, Anne’s diaries have been (famous at the time for writing It’s a Wonderful Life and Father the inspiration for dozens of television shows, mini-series, feature of the Bride) were contracted to adapt the diary into a stage films and documentaries, all of which have helped to ensure that play. The Diary of Anne Frank premiered on Broadway at The the words and feelings of a remarkable teenager, voiced in a time of Cort Theatre on October 5, 1955 where it ran for more than 700 epic destruction, will live on to inspire future generations. performances, earning the 1956 Pulitzer Prize for Drama as well as the 1956 Tony Award for Best Play. Some critics of the original play believe that the “Love Story” between Peter and Anne was “It’s utterly impossible for me to build my life on a pushed to the forefront, while some of Anne’s Jewish identity was foundation of chaos, suffering and death. I see the pulled back in an attempt to appeal to a wider audience. world being slowly transformed into a wilderness, I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will In 1995 – partially to silence critics who believed the diary could not have been written by a young girl – The Netherlands Institute destroy us too. I feel the suffering of millions. And for War Documentation published a new edition of the diary yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that that included the passages that had been previously removed by everything will change for the better, that this Mr. Frank and the original publisher, as well as some of Anne’s cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility original manuscripts. This version was released as The Diary of a will return once more” Young Girl: The Definitive Edition. During this time Wendy Kesselman was commissioned to create - July 15, 1944 an adaptation of Goodrich and Hackett’s original play. 4 The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK: Know-the-Show Guide Nazi Party won control of the German government and their anti- The Life Semitism transitioned from party platform to German law. Shortly after Hitler’s rise to power, Mr. Frank moved his family to Anne Frank Aachen to stay with his in-laws while he relocated to Amsterdam, where he planned to settle, open a business and start anew. In of 1934, after starting his company, Opekta, which specialized in Annelies Marie Frank was the spices and pectin used in producing jams, Mr. Frank sent for born in Frankfurt, Germany his family, and they were all reunited in Amsterdam. Throughout on June 12, 1929 to Otto most of the rest of the 1930’s the family enjoyed a fairly normal and Edith Frank.