The Production book of "The Diary of Anne Frank"

233 Pages·2015·4.63 MB·English

University of Iowa
Iowa Research Online
Theses and Dissertations
1961
The Production book of "The Diary of Anne Frank"
Allan Kurtz Longacre II
State University of Iowa
Posted with permission of the author.
This thesis is available at Iowa Research Online: https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/914
Recommended Citation
Longacre, Allan Kurtz II. "The Production book of "The Diary of Anne Frank"." MA (Master of Arts) thesis, State University of Iowa,
1961.
https://doi.org/10.17077/etd.z3b6khh3
Follow this and additional works at:https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd
Part of theTheatre and Performance Studies Commons
THE PRODUCTION BOOK OF
THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK
by
Allan Kurtz Longacre, II
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Master of Arts,
in the Department of Speech and Dramatic
Arts in the Graduate College of the
State University of Iowa
February, 1961
Chairman: Associate Professor William R. Reardon
DEDICATION
To all those who made me and this production
possible, this thesis is gratefully dedicated.
ii
S tate University of Iowa
lib r a r ies
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
DEDICATION ................................................................................................ ii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ........................................ iv
Chapter
I. ANNE FRANK: THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL . . . ...... 1
8
II. ADAPTATION OF THE BOOK ....................................................
20
III. A DIRECTOR’S ANALYSIS ....................................................
34
IV. TECHNICAL PROBLEMS .............................................................
50
V. THE PROMPT BOOK .................................................................
214
VI. AN EVALUATION OF THE PRODUCTION...................................
225
APPENDIX...................................................................................................
229
BIBLIOGRAPHY...........................................................................................
iii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure Page
1. The Set....................................... 43
2. The Set-Rearrangement # 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......... 45
3. The Set-Rearrangement # 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4. "What is it? A him or a her?" . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
5. "I tell you, Anne, this will be a fine life for you." . 72
6. "Let me see your tongue."................................... 81
7. "I saw you...in there, playing with that cat." . . . . 84
8. "What you need is a good old-fashioned spanking." . . . 93
9. "I get along very well with children." . . . . . . . . 118
10. "Go to her, Otto." .......................................................................... 123
11. "We’re just a little minute in life." . . . . . . . . . 210
12. "She puts me to shame." ............................................ 213
iv
CHAPTER I
ANNE FRANK: THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL
As the Nazis gained power in Europe, many Jewish families
were forced to leave the country. Those who did not flee were forced
into hiding. Those who did not hide were forced into concentration
camps and exterminated as soon as possible. In the history of the
world this is one of the most horrible examples of man’s inhumanity
to man. But out of this ordeal, this attempt at genocide, came one
of the most touching and yet most revealing stories to spring from
the horrors of war, Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. Anne
Frank "showed the gentile world what it meant to be a Jew without
preaching propaganda." 1 To the majority of Germans, who w ill not
admit they know what happened to six million Jews, she showed their
guilt as individuals by showing what their persecution had done to
one innocent g irl. "She aroused pity rather than anger."2
The diary was first published in Holland in 1947, seven years
after the end of the Second World War. Doubleday and Company pub­
lished the translation of the diary written by Anne Frank who was
killed several months before the end of the war in a German concen­
tration camp near Bergen-Belsen. It tells the story of two Jewish
1Stanley Frank, "I Knew Anne Frank,” McCal1' s, LXXXV
(July, 1958), pp. 30-31.
2Ibid., p. 31.
1
2
families who attempted to survive the gas chambers by hiding during
the Nazi occupation of Holland. The book was an immediate success
and was on the best seller list for several weeks. Unlike the other
novels and reports which grew out of the dreadful experiences of
participants in World War Two, this book as it was written is not a
condemnation of the Germans or the causes of the war; neither is it
an account of the experiences of those who suffered the torturous
life of the concentration camps. In fact, this book which has made
such a moving comment on the war, says very little concerning the
war itself. It is devoted primarily to the people and the problems
they encountered while living in their secret hiding place. One of
the reasons for the success of this book rests on the fact that it is
merely an account of incidents, incidents which are poignant enough
to te ll their own story. There was no need to elaborate on the
entries in the Diary. The result is "one of the most moving stories
that anyone, anywhere has managed to te ll about World War II."3
The Diary is written in a stream of consciousness style by an
energetic young girl whose only confidante and only outlet for her
energy is her silent friend, Kitty, her diary. The entries in the
diary are written at letters to Kitty and signed "Yours, Anne."
The diary was given to Anne on her thirteenth birthday,
3Time, LIX (June 16, 1952), p. 102.
3
June 12, 1942, On Monday, the sixth of July, the Franks went into
hiding. From the scattered entries during the month of June, we see
Anne as a normal young g irl. She had many boyfriends, enjoyed games,
and complained about hardships; and although she knew about the
horrible accounts of the war, she was too young, too eager to live
and enjoy living to let them bother her.
The Germans had been collecting Jews in Amsterdam for some
time before Margot, Anne’s sixteen year old sister, received word
that she was to report to the Germans to be sent to a youth camp, a
well-known front for a work and eventual death camp. Rather than
accept this, the Franks went into hiding in the attic of a warehouse
and office building where Otto Frank had worked. To the excited
little girl, this was an adventure. This adventure lasted until
August 4th, 1944, when the Green Police discovered the people in
hiding and took them to concentration camps where all but Mr. Frank
perished.
The entries in the diary describe fully the hiding place,
the secret annex, and the people who lived there. "Anne’s diary
probes deep into the core of human relations and succeeds in bringing
us an understanding of life under threat."4 But Anne went even
further in the study of people in her diary, "She shows how ordinary
4Meyer Levin, "Child Behind the Secret Door," New York
Times Book Review Section, (June 15, 1952), p. 1.
4
people within this ordeal, consistently hold to the greater human
values ."5 The amazing thing about the book is that this thirteen,
fourteen, and later fifteen year old girl exhibited such insight and
understanding in her writing. It is "a remarkable study in the
psychology of a small group of people forced to live together in
almost unbearable proximity."6 Through Anne’s perception and her
ability to write clearly and to the point, the people are fully
characterized. The Diary is written in such a way that the reader
is more concerned with the people than their situation, i .e., the
war or the fear of being discovered. Finally, and probably most
important, Anne wrote a beautiful description of a young g irl’s
youth with honesty and unpretentiousness. Her entries about herself
describe her growth from childhood to adolescence with unconscious
intelligence and understanding. She "succeeded in communicating in
virtually perfect form, the drama of puberty."7 The wonder of it is
that Anne did not attempt to pose herself as a martyr. She admitted
her faults, "never shirking from revealing the ugly things about
herself."3 She made mistakes in her associations with the other
5Ibid.
6Ibid.
7Ibid.
8Ibid.
5
inmates of the Secret Annex, and in the Diary she shows that she was
intelligent enough to try and profit from those errors. She said
concerning one of her mistakes, "What is done cannot he undone, but
one can prevent it happening again."9
The Diary has the effect of a true narrative as it discloses
the universal feelings and relationships between members of the family.
But Anne's writings were considered "too tenderly intimate to be
labeled classic."10 Anne's diary has literary value because "It is
the unfolding psychological drama of a g irl's growth, mingled with the
physical dangers of the group, that frees Anne's book from the
horizontal effect of most diaries. Hers rises continuously, with the
tension of a well-constructed n o v e l . A"11nd yet, throughout it
"bubbles with amusement, love, discovery."12 Shortly after the appear­
ance of the Diary, the public was amazed at the exceptional talent Anne
expressed in her writings. They were, perhaps, more appalled at her
fate when they considered this talent which Anne so obviously had.
Anne's teacher said that between the time she wrote themes in class and
the time she wrote the Diary she had improved a great deal. She was,
in fact, surprised that Anne had written this amazing little book.
9Anne Frank: Diary of a Young G irl, trans. B. M. Mooyaart
(New York: Pocket Books, Inc., 1953), p. 203.
10Levin, op. c it.
11Ibid.
12Ibid.