KVPAC's Encore Players are currently in rehearsal with the transcendently powerful new adaptation by Wendy Kesselman of The Diary of Anne Frank from the original stage play by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. Directed by Tina Morille, this Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning play will run two weekends, February 11-13 and 18-20, 2011. All shows will begin at 8:00pm, except for Sunday's performances which are matinees and will begin at 2:00pm.
Anne Frank (Brittney Thorne) receives a diary for her thirteenth birthday in June 1942. The following month she and her family, father Otto (Gregory Magyar), mother Edith (Amanda Barker), and sister Margot (Ashleigh Dera) go into hiding in the secret annex behind her father's business in Amsterdam to escape the Nazi roundup of Jews. Eventually, the Franks are joined by the van Daans, Hermann (Jordon Morille), Petronella (Lisa Connolly) and their teenage son Peter (Frank Mena), and then later by Mr. Dussel (Andy Midkiff), a middle-aged bachelor. Together, the eight Jews experience the stresses of air raids, food shortages, and lack of privacy, as well as a break-in, and the perpetual fear of being discovered.
But there are joys too: celebrations, games, radio broadcasts, contact with their sympathetic outsiders Miep Gies (Ariel Theiss) and Mr. Kraler (Chris Mason) who both work in the offices below and bring them their supplies. In due time, they even hear the encouraging news that Allied troops have landed in France and are advancing against the Germans.
Through it all, Anne observes her little world with a sensitive and lively intelligence. She plays childish pranks, falls in love and displays remarkable maturity at times. Then one day she finds her life's vocation - an unusually perceptive writer, Anne documents events in the annex over the course of the two years recording mostly her hopes, frustrations, clashes with her parents, and observations of her companions.If only she can live long enough to fulfill it.
Kesselman's 1997 version of The Diary of Anne Frank includes passages from Anne's diary that were published after the original play was written, as well as other survivor accounts and inclusions from Miep Gies (the Dutch citizen who later discovered and preserved Anne Frank's diary after the Franks were arrested). In 1995, 50 years after Anne Frank's death, Bantam Doubleday Dell published the Definitive Edition. This edition is based on a new English translation of the original Dutch text, and contains entries that both Otto Frank and Contact Publishers omitted from the original 1947 edition. The first edition omitted almost 30 percent of Anne's original diary. Otto Frank deliberately excluded some sections in which Anne expressed negative feelings about her mother, believing that Anne would not want such views made public. Additionally, Contact was a conservative publishing house and were uncomfortable printing Anne's entries concerning her sexuality.
This is a new adaptation for a new generation.
By restoring sections from the original unpublished diary, the 1995 edition makes readers aware of the complexity and sensitivity of Anne Frank, an adolescent struggling to find her own identity amidst turbulent and tragic times. As a writer and a chronicler of the history of her times, the richness of Anne Frank's voice is conveyed in the Diary. Kesselman also introduced more Jewish and religious content, and modified the previously upbeat ending. The adaptation fits the tragedy - with all its bleakness intact - into its historical context. The play remains upbeat and inspirational simply by virtue of the diary's survival as a symbolic document.
"When I was persuaded to tell my story," says Miep Gies from Anne Frank Remembered by (Simon & Schuster/Touchstone). "I had to think of the place that Anne Frank holds in history and what her story has come to mean for the many millions of people who have been touched by it. I'm told that every night when the sun goes down, somewhere in the world the curtain is going up on the stage play made from Anne's diary. Taking into consideration the many printings of Het Achterhuis ('The Annex')-published in English as Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl-and the many translations that have been made of Anne's story, her voice has reached the far edges of the earth ..."
It has now come to Katy, Texas ... and is proudly presented by Encore Players.
Encore Players is the all-volunteer adult community theater program of Katy Visual & Performing Arts Center (KVPAC) that taps into the acting, vocal and dance, as well as stagecraft talents of adults within the Katy-area. Either on stage or behind the scenes, Encore Players is home to those who love the theater and want to be a part of bringing that magic to life.
Pre-Sale Tickets of $15 Adults and $12 Seniors are available at www.kvpac.org. Tickets increase by $3 at the door. Group rates are available by calling 281-829-2787.
For Katy audience members who seek an evening at the theater, they can look to Encore Players as a source to enjoy the theater in their own backyard without the commute or cost involved with heading to one of downtown Houston's theaters. Thank you for supporting KVPAC and the Arts in Katy!
Katy Visual & Performing Arts Center (KVPAC) is located at 2501 S Mason Rd, #290, Katy, TX 77450 in the Great Southwest Equestrian Center Complex.
