Ticket Prices Premium Performances:
$24 Adult, $15 Student, $12 Child (12 and under)
Super Saver Performances:
$21 Adult, $13 Student, $12 Child (12 and under)
REDISCOVER
Cardinal Stage Company's 2008-09 season launches with a gripping new version of The Diary of Anne Frank. It's a story the world knows by heart, but Wendy Kesselman’s contemporary adaptation incorporates material left out of the celebrated 1955 play, including recently released entries from Anne’s original diary.
Kesselman’s new version presents a truer picture of what the families went through in the now famous secret annex. By turns funny and inspiring, the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning play remains an extraordinary theatrical experience.
The cast of Anne Frank features some of this region’s best-known actors, including Bloomington’s own Mike Price and Martha Jacobs. Cardinal is also thrilled that Indiana Repertory Theatre regular Constance Macy will make her Cardinal debut along with Bloomington High School North senior Avery Wigglesworth in the role of Anne Frank.
Cast and Designers
Anne Frank: Avery Wigglesworth
Otto Frank: Mike Price
Edith Frank: Martha Jacobs*
Margot Frank: Miranda Stinson
Peter Van Daan: McCarry Reynolds
Mr. Van Daan: Ken Farrell
Mrs. Van Daan: Constance Macy*
Miep Gies: Allison Moody Mr. Dussell: Gerard Pauwels
Mr. Kraler: Jack O’Hara
Directed by Randy White **
Set Design: Mark Smith
Costume Design: Amanda Bailey
Lighting Design: Patrick Mero
Stage Manager: Dylan Marks
* Indicates member of Actors’ Equity Association
**Indicates member of Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers
Directory Randy White rehearses with Miranda Stinson (Margot), Avery Wigglesworth (Anne), and McCarry Reynolds (Peter) in preparation for opening night of The Diary of Anne Frank.
Wendy Kesselman's new adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank has been called "A sensitive, stirring and thoroughly engaging new adaptation" by NY Newsday.
Video sample courtesy of Mike Price
Theater Review
Powerful ‘Anne Frank’ invades personal space
By Glenn Kaufmann H-T Reviewer
September 13, 2008
Cardinal Stage Company’s season opening production brings the emotional turmoil of life in hiding during World War II to the stage in a gripping drama based on the writings of a teenage girl coming of age in the worst of times.
That Anne Frank’s diary has become a symbol much larger than itself, and a spoken word covenant with ourselves to never forget her and the countless others who suffered her fate, is a testament to the discipline of her writing and the passion with which she describes her own nightmare.
In 1943, barely a step ahead of a Nazi edict that would have sent her sister Margot to a work camp, Anne Frank, her parents and sister moved into a tiny suite of rooms above a small manufacturing shop in Amsterdam. Another family (a husband and wife and their teenage son Peter) joins them in hiding. Later, as the Nazis' campaign grows ever more grim, they welcome a dentist who fears for his life. These eight individuals are aided by the shop director Victor Kugler (referred to in Anne’s diary and in the play as “Mr. Kraler”), and by his colleague Hermine Santrouschitz (referred to in Anne’s diary and in the play as “Miep Gies”). Kraler and Gies supplied the families with food and a few of the meager luxuries available in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam.
In fact, some of this production’s most powerful moments come as those who are in hiding savor their few special treats. We come to understand the trials of these eight people as we watch them caress their ration of spice cake as if it were a royal feast or a life-saving swallow of water. In fact, it is the sense of possessions and the small intimate props that define these characters and offers us a glimpse of their experience. As the show progresses and we learn what each of the eight individuals cares about and what things they crave from the outer world, we watch them all carry these possessions off into a quiet space of their own. Even if it’s simply a father stepping away from the dinner table to don the misshapen scarf his daughter has knitted for him in the dark, it is in this moment that all the magic works and we realize that, for these eight people, their most cherished possession and their most desperate need is an all-too-brief taste of privacy.
While the entire cast is quite remarkable, particular praise goes out to Avery Wigglesworth (Anne Frank), and her visceral portrayal of the frayed nerve rollercoaster of life as a teenage girl in hiding. Likewise, McCarry Reynolds is excellent as Peter. While they are outnumbered by the adults in hiding, it is the credible chemistry and tension of the children’s situation that we all relate to and that makes this story so real.
Director Randy White and set designer Mark Smith have done an excellent job recreating the cloistered confines of the hiding place without sacrificing the space necessary to let the characters breathe and the story to be told.
“The Diary of Anne Frank” is always a powerful and engaging story, and this production is a “do not miss it” example of art on stage.
Special Events
Conversation with Playwright Wendy Kesselman and scholar David Barnouw
7:30 PM Tuesday, September 16, Waldron Auditorium
Cardinal Stage and Union Board present Anne Frank’s Impact and Legacy. A special conversation with playwright Wendy Kesselman and David Barnouw from the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. Free and open to the public.
Teacher Training Workshop 3:30 – 5:30 pm September 17, 2008, Waldron Auditorium
Indiana University and Cardinal Stage Company present a special teacher training workshop in conjunction with Cardinal Stage Company’s production of a new adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank. This workshop is FREE; attendance will be limited to the first 35 teachers to pre-register. Teachers will also receive a ticket to the September 17th performance of Wendy Kesselman's Tony-nominated new adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank and a special student work / resource book. A limited amount of substitute pay is available. Please inquire when registering.
To register please e-mail west@indiana.edu. For more information please call Amanda Smith of the West European Studies Center at 812-855-3280 or visit http://www.iub.edu/~west/ .
Workshop and Special Performance sponsored by the West European Studies National Resource Center, the Robert A. and Sandra S. Borns Jewish Studies Program, the Borns Jewish Studies Program’s Institute for Jewish Culture and the Arts, Office of the Vice President for International Affairs, Germanic Studies Department and the Institute of German Studies.
