by Bill Rogers
THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK TO BE AT MIDDFEST
INTERNATIONAL
Award-winning
actor/director Christine
Brunner
is bringing a professional production of the stage play The Diary of Anne
Frank
to Middfest International which features The Netherlands, where Anne
Frank
and her family were hidden by a sympathetic Dutch family during World War
II.
Christine
has chosen a newer version of the play The
Diary of Anne Frank,
adapted by Wendy Kesselman, which appeared on Broadway in 1997 with Natalie
Portman in the title role. The play is less romanticized and contains fewer
sentimentalized moments, and more raw, intense, and moving emotional scenes. The
New York Daily News critic wrote, “The
new DIARY is chillingly honest about the Holocaust. Wendy Kesselman’s work has
restored the terror.”
In
addition to performing the fully produced 90 minute show (no intermission) three times at Middfest International’s
celebration of the Netherlands
on October 5, 6 and 7 at the Middletown
Exhibition
Center,
the show will also appear at:
Open
Dress Rehearsal – 9/16 - TBA
Kettering
Adventist
Church
– 9/22 – 8 pm
Fairfield
Community
Art
Center
– 9/23 – 2 pm
Dayton
Jewish Community Center – 10/17
1
pm,
and 7
pm
Miami
University
Middletown
Fantastic Free Fridays – 10/19 - TBA
The
show includes an accompanying study guide, available in September free for
groups and classes. The cast and crew will appear immediately following each
production for a discussion period.
This
show is recommended for 7th grade audiences and up, and for adults of
all ages who will be astonished at the perseverance of heart and goodness that
one young heroine showed during one of the most inhumane, unimaginable and
darkest times in our world’s history. The show includes dark images, references
to female puberty, and disturbing moments of Anne and her family being captured
by the Nazis, as well as a description about the conditions of the prisoners in
the concentration camps.
Christine
sees this play as a living representation of all the heroes and victims of the
Holocaust. Anne Frank’s
dairy is one of hundreds, if not thousands, of diaries kept by Jews in hiding,
and also serves to celebrate the memory of those who were willing to risk their
lives and safety to protect them.
The
cast are all professional actors who will perform with a portable stage setting
reminiscent of the pages in a book using many moveable box shapes to represent
the different scenes.
Director
Christine
Brunner
(Middletown)
Anne
Frank
Sarah Gomes
(Dayton)
Otto
Frank
John-Michael Lander
(Dayton)
Mrs.
Frank
Melinda Bogner
(Cincinnati)
Margot
Frank
Jennifer Shaw
(Dayton)
Mr.
Van Daan Walt Kuhlman
(Cincinnati)
Mrs.
Van Daan Jill Evans
(Kettering)
Peter
Van Daan Philip Smyth
(Dayton)
Mr.
Dussel Ron Weber
(Springfield)
Miep
Gies Helen Raymond
(Cincinnati)
also is set designer
Mr.
Kraler Benjamin Kroger
(Mason)
Asst to the Director Alexis Curtis
(Middletown).
Carpenter:
Tom Pressler
(Middletown)
Set
Engineer: John Newby
(Middletown)
Scenic
Painter: Gretchen LeHigh
(Findley,
OH)
Sound
Designer: Jay Brunner
(Middletown)
Props
Master: Jimmy Mallas
(Dayton)
Booking
Manager: Shirley Butts
(Middletown)
Christine
Brunner
(Director) is a veteran actor on stage and screen and director in both the
Cincinnati
and Dayton
communities. She is a member of the Theatre Department faculty at
Miami
University.
Christine has appeared in commercials and print ads for P&G, Western-Southern Life, Babies-R-Us,
Wendy’s, Dayton Daily News, LensCrafters, HH Gregg, and many others, including a
Glad Steam-In Bags commercial that is appearing nationally.
She
has appears on the Discovery Channel program, “The New Detectives,” Ovation
Theatre’s production of Who’s
Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
and Miami
University Summer Stock in Joseph…Dreamcoat,
The
Fourth Wall,
And the
World Goes ‘Round,
with Cincinnati Children’s Theatre’s production of Annie
and many others. Her work has been
recognized with many of the most prestigious awards.
The
production is funded through grants from the Middletown Community Foundation’s
C.W. Fondersmith Trust, the David A and Carole R Schul Fund and the Laura Lou
Neuenswander Fund. Also sponsored, in part, by the Ohio Arts Council and the
Cincinnati Fine Arts Fund.
For
specific show times and locations, visit the www.MiddfestInternational.org website or call
513-425-7707.
source: Ann Mort