| | | School Play - 'The Diary of Anne Frank', 14th & 15th March 2011 | | | | CAST | | |  | | Anne |
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Elizabeth Byrne
Diary Anne | Denise Chaila
Anne |
| | | | | | Robert Shaw
Mr Frank | Jane O'Sullivan
Miep Gees |
| | | | | Almost everyone knows Anne’s story, has read the diary or visited the cramped annexe in Amsterdam. It’s a claustrophobic, dramatic setting that makes demands on a cast: while a married couple is arguing, or two young people are tentatively embarking on a relationship, the room is full of other people cooking, reading, knitting – doing whatever they can to pass the time. The actors were always ‘on’, even when they had nothing to say. Ensemble acting requires great concentration and we had to remember to react as well as act.
A big decision was to cast two actors as Anne, one as the Anne who interacts with the other characters and one as ‘Diary Anne’, who speaks directly to the audience and serves as a chorus. In the original Broadway production Anne’s diary readings were broadcast over the theatre’s PA system. We preferred an actor who could talk from the stage but stand outside the action and comment on it. We were also fortunate to have two actors with the talent to play the demanding part of Anne.
| | | | Alanna McKeown Silke
Mrs Van Daan |
| |  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Michelle du Toit
Margot Frank |
| | | | | | |  | | In all, about forty students and several members of staff were involved in the production. The actors were from forms 2-5 and worked well as a team, though often late for rehearsal due to teams of other kinds. As ever with school productions, it was pleasing to watch the scripts gradually disappear, the chins and confidence rise and the young actors become their varied – and not all lovable – characters.
The story is tragic, but Anne’s diary shows that we should not think of the Franks and their housemates only as prisoners or victims. There was space in their cramped annexe for comedy, for music and for love – and it was the source of an enduring work of art, that - those students who heard Mr Reichental or walked around Auschwitz would agree – we need now as much as ever.
AD
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| | | | | | | Crew
Jean Atkinson, Vivienne Bond, Holly Breaky, Andrew Deacon,Jerome Devitt, Margaret King, Kerrie Lindsay, Dymphna Morris, John Rafter, June Stuart, Peter Wilson. Millie Farell, Katie Oakes, Jenny Baron, Christine Brennan, Zoe Hall, Dylan McQuaid, Vicky Douglas, Sarah Greene, Sorcha Swan, Hannah McGuckin, Beth Finnegan,Amy Edghill, David Murphy,David Butler, Vinnie Hughes, Conor Hughes, Claudia Ballester, Marta Truyol, Rebekah Roe | |
| | | | | | |  | A review of 'The Diary of Anne Frank' will appear in the next edition of Bluecoat magazine in December 2011 ... |
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|  | | |  | | | | This term we were honoured to be visited by Holocaust witness and survivor, Mr Tomi Reichental, and a large group of fourth years spent some time in Poland, where they saw for themselves the Auschwitz Museum. In a continuation of this theme, our school play was ‘The Diary of Anne Frank.’ | | | | | | | | | | | |  | | | | | | Many thanks to all teaching, catering and housekeeping staff who supported this production | | | | | | | | | | | | | Many congratulations to all who were involved in this wonderful production | | | | | | | |
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