About the production
Two Jewish families and a dentist hide for two years in a cramped Amsterdam attic, seen through the eyes of a spirited teenage girl who never stops writing down her hopes.
“Kimberly Senior's direction of this play is vigorous and stirring, heartfelt and brimming with love.”
— Chicagoland Theatre Reviews, Colin Douglas
“The staging has obviously been meticulously directed but Kimberly Senior's guidance is invisible to the audience's eye, the best kind of directing.”
— Chicagoland Theatre Reviews, Dan Zeff
“If ever there was ensemble theater, this is it, and Writers' fine company directed by Kimberly Senior gets down to the very fiber of human reckoning, of valiant mutual accommodation thrown against personal frailty and ravaging fear.”
— Chicago On The Aisle, Lawrence B. Johnson
“We all know 'The Diary of Anne Frank' does not end happily. If you are watching a truthful, deeply engaged production, and director Kimberly Senior's work for Writers Theatre is most certainly in that category, you are left with a feeling of unspeakable waste, loss and regret, the very familiar having been made cruel and strange.”
— Chicago Tribune, Chris Jones
“Under Kimberly Senior's direction...this production builds in intensity as it moves to its conclusion — a finale as devastating as it is inevitable.”
— Chicago Sun-Times, Hedy Weiss
“What Senior extracts from her actors is a perfect storm of the best and the worst of humanity backed into a corner, in which the stakes really are life and death.”
— Buzz News, John Accrocco
“The blocking and honesty of this cast makes director Kimberly Senior’s production an ensemble triumph.”
— Chicago Critic
“Directed to perfection by Kimberly Senior on a unique set”
— Around the Town Chicago
“Kimberly Senior’s new production for Writers Theatre smartly captures that sense of claustrophobia.”
— Time Out Chicago
Read the reviews →
Credits
Written by Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett, newly adapted by Wendy Kesselman
Directed by Kimberly Senior
Featuring Sophie Thatcher (Anne Frank), Sean Fortunato (Otto Frank), Kristina Valada-Viars (Edith Frank), Lila Morse (Margot Frank), Antonio Zhiurinskas (Peter van Daan), Lance Baker (Mr. van Daan), Heidi Kettenring (Mrs. van Daan), Kevin Gudahl (Mr. Dussel), Leah Karpel (Miep Gies), Coburn Goss (Mr. Kraler), Sam Hubbard, Eric Slater and James Sparling (Nazis)
Set Jack Magaw
Lights Sarah Hughey
Sound Josh Schmidt
Costumes Nan Zabriskie
Photos by Michael Brosilow
