BROOKSVILLE — Live Oak Theatre will stage a special matinee of “The Diary of Anne Frank” for school and homeschool groups at 2:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 11, with groups receiving one free seat for every 10 purchased.
The award-winning play will have five performances Sept. 11-13 at the Carol and Frank Morsani Center for the Arts, 21030 Cortez Blvd. Matinees are at 2:30 p.m. Friday through Sunday, and evening performances are at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Tickets are $25 for adults and $10 for children 13 and younger with the purchase of an adult seat — the same prices as the rest of the theater’s eight-show season. To reserve seats, go to liveoaktheatre.org/current-production, email marie@liveoaktheatre.org or call 352-593-0027.
The stage adaptation is generally suited to children 10 and older, or roughly middle school age, though much depends on a child’s emotional maturity. The theater recommends that teachers and parents talk with children about World War II and the Holocaust beforehand so they understand the history behind the drama they will see on stage.
About ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’
The play, by the husband-and-wife team of Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, is drawn from “The Diary of a Young Girl,” the journal a Jewish teenager kept while hiding from the Nazis in an Amsterdam annex. The book was published in 1947, two years after Anne Frank died at Bergen-Belsen.
The play premiered at Broadway’s Cort Theatre in 1955 and ran for 717 performances. It won the 1956 Pulitzer Prize for drama and the New York Drama Critics’ Circle award for best play, and Susan Strasberg won a 1956 Theatre World Award for her portrayal of Anne. The script also formed the basis of the 1959 film adaptation, which won three Academy Awards.
Wendy Kesselman revised the play for a 1997 Broadway revival that starred Natalie Portman as Anne.