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The Diary of Anne Frank

The famous diary of Anne Frank was turned into a play in 1956. Since then, it has been performed multiple times on stages all over the country and worldwide (the play script, with extensive notes, is readily available from Dramatists Play Service).

Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, two Hollywood writers who worked together, had never told a story like that of the Frank family. Some previous scripts were for sophisticated comedies like "The Thin Man" and lively musicals like "Easter Parade." But Goodrich and Hackett did a lot of research for the play. They used Anne's diary and their experience seeing Otto Frank and the attic hideout.

The Story

One of the most well-known and unsettling tales of the twentieth century is found in Anne Frank's diary. The memoirs of this young Jewish girl who had to hide from the Nazis for almost two years are essential to remember one of the worst times in human history.

Wendy Kesselman's adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama by Goodrich and Hackett draws from previously unpublished passages from Anne Frank's diary. This lets the audience see Anne as a passionate, complicated young woman. We also know what it's like to be a modern teenager like her, so we can relate to her experiences as a teenager.

Anne, her parents, her sister, and the Van Daan family hid from the Nazis for over two years in a room above their father's former workplace in Amsterdam. Anne has a secluded childhood in the attic. She laughs, fights, plays with her mother, and falls in love for the first time there. Even though her life is hard and terrible things are happening around her, Anne's spirit shines through as she says, "Despite everything, people are good at heart." Anne's energy, her bright spirit, and her story of being strong still touch people deeply, making her story as important now as it was when her diary was first published.

Production

Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett turned the book into a play, and it opened at the Cort Theatre on Broadway on October 5, 1955. Kermit Bloomgarden was in charge of making the play, and Garson Kanin directed it. In February 1957, the play moved to another Broadway theater, the Ambassador Theatre. It ran there 717 times before it closed on June 22, 1957. The play went on tour in the United States with the same cast, except that Millie Perkins played Anne Frank.