ANNE FRANK, A New Play Rediscovering Anne Frank, by Carol Kaufman Segal

           

Anne Frank was a young Jewish girl, a victim of the holocaust during World War II, and famous for the diary she wrote while incarcerated.  She was born in 1929 in Germany.  When the Nazis took control of Germany, her family escaped to Amsterdam.  Unfortunately they became trapped there when the Germans occupied the Netherlands.  The Franks, and some of their friends, went into hiding in 1942 in the building where her father worked and where Anne began keeping her diary.

            

The Museum of Tolerance is featuring  Anne, a new play rediscovering Anne Frank, by Jessica Durlacher and Leon de Winter, based on The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, translated by Susan Massotty, and adapted by Nick Blaemire.  The play is being presented in retrospect of Anne Frank’s 90^th birthday.

  In this production, it is years later and Anne (Ava Lalezlarzadeh), as an adult, meets a publisher (Timothy P. Brown) who has shown an interest in her story. She begins looking back at the years when she, her Father, Otto Frank (Rob Brownstein), Mother Edith (Andrea Gwynnel), and Sister Margot (Marnina Schon), were compelled to hide from the Nazis.  Hiding with them were the van Pels, Hermann (Aylam Orian), his wife Auguste (Mary Gordon Murray - also Miep Gies),  their son Peter (Kevin Matsumoto), and  Jan (Tony DeCarlo – also Dustman and Pfeffer).

           

We now go back to the story that is told in Anne’s Diary.  Otto takes control of the situation they find themselves in, working out the living arrangements with each person so that everyone can survive as comfortably as possible under their dire circumstances.  Teen-age Anne is going through the normal stage of a teenager, and sometimes behaves in a difficult manner.  As a typical teen-ager, she has her eye on Peter.

          

  For the most part, things go along quite well.  Spending  two years together, cooped up and hiding in a small area could not have been the easiest for anyone These people were certainly under a great deal of tension, and there were bound to be problems at times.  Each cast member brings their character to life under the astute direction of Eve Brandstein. 

           

As I watched the play, it was heart-breaking knowing that these were real people fighting to save their lives and knowing that Otto Frank was the only one of them to survive.  If not for him, we would have never known about Anne’s diary and these remarkable people and what they lived through.  He made certain that the diary was published.

            

The time-honored set is by Desma Murphy, costumes for the period by Florence Kemper Bunzel.  The play is being presented at The Museum of Tolerance, located at 9786 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles. The scheduled performances are Sundays at 3 PM and 7 PM, and Mondays at 8 PM through July 22.  Tickets are available online at www.museumoftolerance.com, or by phone at (310) 772-2505.  You might also inquire about the Anne Frank Exhibition on display at the Museum of Tolerance.

          

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