The Diary of Anne Frank (Original text)

A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE

The Diary of Anne Frank (Original text)

Full-Length Play, Drama  /  5w, 5m

This original stage adaptation of Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, edited by Otto Frank, won the 1956 Pulitzer Prize, Tony Award, Critics Circle Award, and virtually every other coveted prize of the theatre.

Image: 1997 Broadway Production (Joan Marcus)

The Diary of Anne Frank (Original text)

  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    5w, 5m
  • Duration
    Duration
    More than 120 minutes (2 hours)
Accolades
Accolades
  • Winner! 1956 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
    Winner! 1956 Tony Award for Best Play
    Nominee: Five 1956 Tony Awards

Details

Summary

During the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, Anne Frank began to keep a diary on June 14, 1942, two days after her 13th birthday and twenty-two days before going into hiding with her parents, sister, and three other people. Hiding in the sealed-off upper rooms of the annex of her father's office building in Amsterdam, Anne and the others cope with the day-to-day struggles of life in cramped quarters, as the spectre of tragedy looms, ever-present, over their every move.

History
The Diary of Anne Frank opened on Broadway at the Cort Theatre on October 5, 1955, directed by Garson Kanin and featuring Susan Strasberg, Joseph Schildkraut, Jack Gilford and Dennie Moore.
Performing Groups
MR. FRANK
MIEP GIES
MRS. VAN DAAN
MR. VAN DAAN
PETER VAN DAAN
MRS. FRANK
MARGOT FRANK
ANNE FRANK
MR. KRALER
MR. DUSSEL
  • Time Period 1940s / WWII
  • Features Period Costumes
  • Duration More than 120 minutes (2 hours)
  • Cautions
    • No Special Cautions

Media

“A lovely tender drama.” – The New York Times

“A lovely tender drama… Strange how the shining spirit of a young girl now dead can filter down through the years and inspire a group of theatrical professionals in a foreign land.” – The New York Times

“The precise quality of the new play at the Cort is the quality of glowing, ineradicable life—life in its warmth, its wonder, its spasms of anguish and its wild and flaring humor… Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett have fashioned a wonderfully sensitive and theatrically craftsmanlike narrative out of the real-life legacy left us by a spirited and straightforward Jewish girl… as bright and shining as a banner.” –The New York Herald-Tribune

“A moving document on the stage.” – The New York Post

“There is so much beauty, warm humor, gentle pity… in The Diary of Anne Frank that it is difficult to imagine how this play could be contained in one set on one stage… this is a fine drama.” – The New York Daily News

Photos

  • The Diary of Anne Frank (Original text)

    Image: 1997 Broadway Production (Joan Marcus)

Licensing & Materials

  • Licensing available for professional groups only. Some restrictions apply.

Scripts

Available Formats:

Add-Ons

Take a look below at how you can enhance your show!

Authors

Frances Goodrich

Frances Goodrich (1891-1984) was born in Belleville, NJ and started in the theatre as an actress, making her debut with Ruth Chatterton in 1916 in Come Out of the Kitchen. She collaborated with Albert Hackett in writing the play Up Pops the Devil in 1930, and they married the ...

View full profile

Albert Hackett

Albert Hackett (1900-1995) made his New York stage debut as an actor as a little girl in Lottie, the Poor Saleslady in 1906. He appeared in productions of Peter Pan, Crime, Whoopee and The Nervous Wreck.

With Frances Goodrich, whom he married in 1931, he wrote the plays Brida ...

View full profile

Community

Now Playing

Community Experiences