Leader-Telegram from Eau Claire, Wisconsin • 43

Sunday Puzzle West-Central Opinions Entertainment 3F 6F 8F Sunday. Aprilg. 2001 I.IM)KR-lHI(iRM LOCAL TH EATER LTu IT 11 (2SllM The tragic, inspiring story of Anne Frank and her famed diary needs no embellishments. The challenge in the UW-EC's Theatre for Young Audiences production is capturing her courage and indomitable spirit. By William Foy Leader-Telegram staff he sense of hope amid jmmm gmmm thut uIwmih llMIUI II lilt IV through Anne Frunk's brief life can be fouiid in her famous diary and in what she and her family saw from 'J tflff photo by Andl Itompnlnk (Mr, Frank), Nicola Kittle (Mrs, Van Doun), Tiffany Klongorbo (Mrs, Frank) and Jennifer Householder (Anne).

The cast of the UW-Eau Claire Theatre for Young Audiences production of "Tho Diary of Anne Frank" Includes, from left, Carlssa Trumble (Margot), Tony Brown their crumped hiding place, Cheryl Starr discovered. Starr, who is directing UW-Eau Claire Tlicutre for Young Audiences production of "The Diary of Anne Frank," said that when she and her family visited the Pranks' annex turned museum in Amsterdam six years ago, two sights struck her most profoundly: the movie-star pictures that Anne hung on the walls, and the view of a chestnut tree from the back window of their quarters. "It just gave mc chills when I walked into the room and saw those pictures and realized she hud put those pictures on the wull," said Starr, associate professor of music and theater arts at the university. Needless to say, the set of Starr's production will include movie-star photographs. She also found it moving to glimpse the tree.

"There's this fully mature tree, and it was all in the early spring blooms in May," she said. "It was something about looking at that tree and looking, at those pictures and knowing I wus looking ut the same things that she hud looked at that really stayed with mc. It was a great experience," The visit to Amsterdam wus not the first time the story affected Slurr deeply. She reud it when she was about I 3 years old, she said, und reread it several other times. She also uuditioned for a production when she started gruduute school in the lute '70s, "I really wunted to be Anne," she said, "I was cast us Margol, her sister" This production of 'The Diary of Anne Frank" is being performed for sch(K)l audiences at 9 a.m.

Tuesdays and Thursdays through April and for the general public at 7:30 p.m. April 19 through 21 and 1:30 p.m. April 22. As the museum visit confirmed, Starr suid, the story's hold comes from the fact thut it is true. "Probubly the most powerful aspect is knowing this was a real person," Starr said, "that those words you're hearing were written by somebody who is actually going through this: Jennifer I louscholder, a sophomore from Galesville who plays the title character, said she found it moving that Anne stayed happy and childlike despite her terrible situation.

"Yet toward the end of her life she really did realize what was going on," Householder said, In casting Anne, Starr said she was Anno Frank Timclino looking for a performer who could take the role beyond sweetness and inject some playfulness. That was no problem for I louscholder. "When I reud the script for the first time I saw her as mischievous and a daddy's girl, and my little sister is like that." she said. The realism also is evident in the way playwrights Frances Goodrich and Albert Muckett portrayed the characters with all their Haws. Anne, for instance, is not made out to be a saint.

"She's not a very nice person at times," Starr said, "and I think that's what makes the play satisfying and enjoyable for the actors is that they arc complex characters," Householder pointed out that Anne is like many children her age. "As a 1 3-year-old, she's very selfish," the actress said. "And she doesn't think about being proper. She has a line, 'I don't want to be To cite another example, Mr. Vaii Daan, part of the familyln hiding with the Franks and dentist Mr.

Dussel, is not portrayed as a cardboard bad guy. "In many ways, he just has less See FRANK, Page 2F Oct. 6, 1944: Anne and Margot are moved to the Borgon Bolsen camp. Jan. 6, 194S: Edith Frank dies at Auschwitz Blrkonau, Jan.

27, 1945: Otto Frank Is liberated from Auschwitz by the Russian army, February or March, 1945: Anne and Margot die within days of each other. May 1945: The Gorman army surrenders, Oct. 24, 1945: Otto Frank, the group's lone survivor, receives a letter telling him his daughters died at BorgervBolsen. 1947: "Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl" Is published. 1955: The play "The Diary of Anne Frank premieres on Broadway.

"77 7 Aug. 19, 1980: Otto Frank dies In Switzerland. Ho Is 91 years old. 1997: A new adaptation of "The Diary of Anne Frank" premieres on Broadway. Here are Important datos In the life of Anne Frank, her diary and the play "The Diary of Anne Frank." Tho Information comes from the Web site of the Anne Frank Center USA (www.annofrank.com), May 12, 1925: Otto Frank and Edith Hollandornder are marriod In Achon, Germany, Feb.

16, 1926: The Franks' first daughter, Margot, Is born In Frankfurt am Malm, Germany. June 12, 1929: Annellese Marie Frank Is born to Edith and Otto Frank In Frankfurt am Malm, Jan. 30, 1933: Adolf Hitler Is appointed chancellor of Germany, April 1, 1933: Hitler ordors an official boycott of all Jewish shopkeepers, doctors and lawyers, Summer 1933: Otto Frank moves to Amsterdam to establish a business. May 1940: Germany Invades tho Netherlands. June 12, 1942: Anne turns 13 and is given a diary, Anne Frank July 6, 1942: The Frank family goes Into hiding In Amsterdam.

Their hiding place Is In the upper back floors of Mr, Frank's business. They are joined by the Van Pols family (named "Van Daan" In the diary and the play) and the dentist Dr. Fritz Pfoffor Aug. 4, 1944: Gorman soldiers discover the eight pooplo In hiding; they are sent to the Westerbork camp. Sept.

3, 1944: They are moved to Auschwitz camp. To Beale, not to be Hamlet is not in question Actor draws raves despite not fitting part 's physical mold If You Go By Matt Wolf Associated Press ONDON On the face or even body of it, Simon Russell Beale is an unlikely Hamlet. What: Shakespeare' "Hamlet," performed by the Royal National Theatre, When: Wednesday, May 2, through Sunday, May 13. Wher: Guthrie Theater, 725 Vineiand Place, Minneapolis. How much: $25 to $60, To find out more: Call (877) 44-STAGE (447-8243); or on-line at 'This i a super-romantic production," he say, adding drily, "which is odd, given the person playing I lamlet." OK, Beale may not look the matinee idol, What difference when real romanticism lie with- That is if you set the short, portly performer against John Ciiclgud, Laurence Olivier, Kenneth Branagh and Ralph Ficnnc four of Britain's more notable Danes of the last century.

"I'm 40 and overweight," Beale says in an interview, "and this was a bone of contention. But once you accept the shape and age I am, audiences go for it." Not just audiences, liver since lie opened last September at the Royal National Theatre in what ifT- 'i upset to Conlelh I (ill, from Broadway' current "Stones in His Pockets." This month, the actor begin a four-stale, five-city U.S. tour that take the production to Boston (April 1 1-29), Minneapolis (May 2-13), Tucson (May 16-20) and Phoenix (May 22-27), finishing in New York City on May 30. For sheer oul, humanityrand depth of feeling, 7 Beale' I lamlet stand apart, "Let' face it," say the actor, a warm, engaging presence who ha become a bona fide tar of the Umdon stage, "you couldn't get a better text for limitle possibility," So while Olivier heightened i lamlet' Freudian feelings toward his mother, Gertrude, and Ficnnc lent hi Byronic profile to the part, Russell Beale insist on the sense of love thwarted and displaced that drive Hamlet, Beale and director John Caird "liked the idea that everyone in the play can potentially get on," ay the actor, with the drama deriving from what happen when amity give way to discord in (lie "rotten" Danish state, "livcryonc there is conceivably a good or a loving person, and what' so awful about the play is that their love i destroyed. is considered to be Shakespeare denning role, "Simon in? Or, a Caird say of his leading man.

Beale has staked his own richly revealing claim on an inexhaustible part. In London, where Hamlets arrive as regularly as certain buses, critic rained down bouquet. Beale won the livening Standard Drama Award for best actor in November followed by a special. Sliakcspcarc interpretation prize from the London Critic Circle in Fehruary, Art Olivier nominee the same month for the role, he lot in a notable 1 the most romantic actor I know, 'Hiat may be why lie can elucidate the play so clearly ami with such affection, whereas wine of his rcoritcmporarie can barely perform it. let alone discus it afterward, Daniel Day Irwi.s, for example, famously walked off stage dining a National See BEALE, Page 2F AMoclaUd Pit Simon Russell Beale has won awards and critical acclaim for his peformance as the title character in the Royal National Theatre production of 'Hamlet" i.