The Diary of Anne Frank at the Giving Tree Theater

My wife and I made the trip to Iowa this weekend for a little R & R.   Friday night saw us at a fairly new community theatre in downtown Marion called the Giving Tree.  It is a quite comfy little black box with unusual sort of semi-cabaret seating composed mainly of a bunch of sofas and easy chairs. The show was the Goodrich and Hackett version of  "The Diary of Anne Frank." as adapted by Wendy Kesselman.  My grandson had done some Holocaust study and expressed an interest in seeing it. As it was close by my daughter got us all tickets.

The cast, composed of a nice mix of high schoolers and adults did a fine job bringing the now quite familiar story to life. I have seen many productions over the years and still treasure both of our visits to the original house in Amsterdam.   The whole site remains a moving document even though it is  more commercialized now than when we first visited it in the summer of 1963.  I took these photos then and they have weathered the years remarkably well. 

Here is the bookcase that hid the stairs going up to the attic
 

The attic window that Anne must have gazed out of often
 

The tower of the West Kirk can be seen from that window and its bells would have been a constant in their lives.

 

The canal in front of the house shows the church just across the way.

The Giving Tree Theater  has projected an ambitious list of further productions and if you are in the Cedar Rapids, Iowa area I definitely recommend you check them out.  Check out their web site in the link at the top of this article.