
Yours,
Anne was
the first production of the first season--a sensitive musical
adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank. There was talk of canceling
the performances out of respect for the victims and survivors
of the recent tragedy of September 11th. However, remembering
that the Holocaust Anne Frank documented in her famous diary
was also a tragedy of epic proportions, the decision was made
to continue.
Yours,
Anne had originally opened in New York in 1985 and ran for
six months at Playhouse 91. That theatrical treatment, with
a libretto by Enid Futterman and music by Michael Cohen, was
based on the diary of a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl who lived
in hiding in Amsterdam until she was betrayed and transported
to a Nazi concentration camp, where she died.
Griffin
native Dan Strickland was the original Music Director and it
was Maestro Strickland who readied Yours, Anne for Main Street
Players' initial production. There are twenty musical segments
in Yours, Anne interspersed with dialogue spoken by a cast of
eight professional actors.
Yours,
Anne was semi-staged with the action of the Frank family
taking place inside what Anne called her "secret annex."
A multilevel set suggested spaces representing their garret,
kitchen and Mr. van Dann's room--all treated in different shades
of gray" ...similar to seeing a black and white movie,"
visualizes Norma Richardson, Founding Artistic Director of Main
Street Players. The focal point of these representational spaces
was an attic window. Through this brightly-lit pane Anne saw
the outside world for her 25 months of confinement in her drab
attic prison.
Yours,
Anne performed before full houses and was extended from
two weekends to three.