Last modified: Monday, September 8, 2008
IU programs supporting Bloomington production of The Diary of Anne Frank
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sept. 8, 2008
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Several academic programs at Indiana University Bloomington will collaborate with Cardinal Stage Company on the Bloomington theater group's production of The Diary of Anne Frank and related community outreach and education activities.
Avery Wigglesworth will play Anne Frank and McCarry Reynolds will portray Peter Van Daan in "The Diary of Anne Frank."
Cardinal Stage will present playwright Wendy Kesselman's new adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning play Sept. 12-28 at the Waldron Arts Center Auditorium, 122 S. Walnut St. in Bloomington.
The production is sponsored by the Indiana University Robert A. and Sandra S. Borns Jewish Studies Program, its Institute for Jewish Culture and the Arts, and the Pearl Schwartz Fund for Jewish Arts.
Also planned are:
- "Anne Frank: Her Impact and Legacy," a conversation with playwright Kesselman, production director Randy White, and visiting lecturer and Anne Frank scholar David Barnouw, a member of the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation. The free public talk will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 16 (Tuesday) at the Waldron Arts Center.
- A training workshop for Indiana middle and high school teachers on classroom teaching centered on The Diary of Anne Frank and the Holocaust in the Netherlands, from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. Sept. 17 (Wednesday) at the Waldron Arts Center.
Presenters for the teacher training workshop will include Kesselman, Barnouw and noted Holocaust scholar Alvin Rosenfeld, Indiana University professor of English, director of the Institute of Jewish Culture and the Arts and former longtime director of the Borns Jewish Studies Program at IU. Rosenfeld, who also serves as production adviser for the Cardinal Stage production, is the author or editor of several books on the Holocaust. In 1992 he was appointed by President Bush to the council that oversees the U.S. Holocaust Museum.
The Performing Arts Committee of the Indiana Memorial Union Board will co-sponsor the Sept. 16 public talk with Cardinal Stage. The Sept. 17 teacher workshop is sponsored by IU's West European Studies National Resource Center, Borns Jewish Studies Program, Institute for Jewish Culture and the Arts, Office of the Vice President for International Affairs, Germanic Studies Department and Institute of German Studies.
While in Bloomington, Kesselman and Barnouw will meet with Indiana University Wells Scholars, Hutton Honors College participants and Union Board members.
The Diary of Anne Frank tells the well-known story of a Jewish girl who comes of age while hiding with her family in the attic of a home in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. Time magazine named Anne Frank one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century.
Kesselman's adaptation incorporates material that was left out of the original 1955 play, including recently released material from Anne's diary. It was produced on Broadway and received a Tony Award nomination. Kesselman's plays also include My Sister in this House, The Notebook, The Executioner's Daughter and The Foggy, Foggy Dew.
Barnouw was a member of the task force that edited and published The Diary of Anne Frank: The Critical Edition after Otto Frank's bequest of his daughter's complete diary to the Institute for War Documentation. Barnouw writes and speaks frequently about Anne Frank and her influence and was a consultant for projects including the 1996 Oscar-winning documentary Anne Frank Remembered and the 2001 ABC mini-series Anne Frank.
The cast for the Cardinal Stage production of The Diary of Anne Frank includes Bloomington High School North senior Avery Wigglesworth as Anne, McCarry Reynolds as Peter Van Daan, and Mike Price and Martha Jacobs as Anne's parents, Otto and Edith Frank. Bill and Karen Hicks are providing producer-level underwriting for the production; Irwin Union Bank is the season sponsor.
Cardinal Stage Company is a nonprofit professional regional theater company. For more information, see https://www.cardinalstage.org.
