Andoverite as Anne

By Judy Wakefield
Staff Writer

October 16, 2008 01:26 pm

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Katy Kohut read the powerful and emotional story of Anne Frank as a fourth-grader.

"But I didn't really get it," she admits.

Two years later, she not only knows the Holocaust story well, she'll portray Anne Frank in an Acting Out production on Oct. 24 and 25.

Katy is the daughter of director Penny Kohut of Andover, who said her daughter auditioned like all the other actresses and performed well to clinch the role. She even looks a bit like Anne Frank — only with braces.

It's the first time the West Middle School sixth-grader has been a lead in a show directed by her mom. Katy has had other roles in shows, but has never been cast as the female lead until now.

Anneliese "Anne" Marie Frank hid from the Nazis in Amsterdam with her family and others during World War II. Her diary documented the group's ordeal.

"It's a story that is hard to imagine," Katy said. "She fought so hard to be free."

Added her mom: "People tend to forget about such stories and sometimes need to stop for a moment to be reminded."

It's a heavy drama to tackle, but Penny Kohut said staging a story like Anne Frank's is important.

"She was a typical girl in many ways, and we show that side of her. It's a drama, and I think, a story that should never be forgotten," she said.

Jeff Ashworth, also of Andover, said it had been years since his last performance — in a junior high school production of "Godspell" — when he hooked up with Acting Out. He's in this show, too. Now married with children, he agreed that "The Diary of Anne Frank" is an important story to put on stage.

"Like every kid, she was rebelling to be normal," he said. "I think kids today need to see how typical she really was."

For Kaity Beaumont, a ninth-grader at Andover High School, her role of Miep Gies fits her to the core, even if the character's age is 22. A self-described upbeat-all-the-time person, she likes her character because she is a positive personality in this drama.

"She is sort of like a lifeline because she is the one who brings food and the newspaper," Kaity said.

Gies is known as the person who saved the diary of Anne Frank.

Director Kohut said it was time for Acting Out to tackle a drama, because her theater group likes to mix things up. Its long list of performances have included lots of comedies and kid-friendly productions over the years.

Photos

Katy Kohut of Andover rehearses her role of Anne Frank during a dress rehearsal for the Acting Out production of "The Diary of Anne Frank." Staff Photographer

Jeff Ashworth, center, of Andover, portrays Mr. Kraler in "The Diary of Anne Frank." Staff Photographer

Acting Out Theater cast preps for next weekend's 'The Diary of Anne Frank'

By Sally Applegate / Correspondent

North Andover -

During the final years of WWII, a young German/Jewish girl hid from the Nazis with a group of family and friends for 25 months in a secret annex of rooms over her father’s office in Amsterdam. The sweet and optimistic Anne Frank kept a diary of her deepest thoughts and feelings.

After the family was betrayed to the Nazis and arrested on the morning of Aug. 4, 1944, Anne’s diary was discovered scattered on the floor of that annex. The diary was published shortly after the war’s end as “The Diary of a Young Girl,” and would become one of the most widely read books in the world.

The Acting Out Theater Company Inc., in conjunction with POOYA productions, is bringing this heartbreaking story to life in its upcoming production of the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning Broadway play, “The Diary of Anne Frank.” Opening at The Stage at 60 Island St. in Lawrence Friday, Oct. 24 at 7:30 p.m., with additional performances on Saturday, Oct. 25 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett’s dramatization of Anne’s diary takes the family through its final days of hiding from the Nazis.

Ironically, the betrayal and arrest of the Frank family and their friends happened around the same time as the D-Day landing heralded the approaching end of the war. The eight people who had been hiding in the hidden annex were first sent to the Westerbork concentration camp, but later separated and sent to Auschwitz and Bergen-Belson.

For this Acting Out production, director Penny Kohut has assembled a brilliant cast. As Anne Frank, Katy Kohut of Andover bears a remarkable resemblance to the original, with the same haunting eyes. She is cute, wistful, and endearing as the doomed heroine.

As her young teen friend and budding love interest, Michael Buckhout of Haverhill is also well cast.

At a rehearsal earlier this week, director Penny Kohut was engineering the charmingly awkward scene between the two young teens when Buckhout’s character finally gathers the courage to give Anne a chaste little kiss, then immediately feels guilty at his boldness.

“I want the audience to feel worse than you do,” says Kohut to Buckhout.

Rich and Rosanne Farese of North Andover are compelling as Mr. and Mrs. Frank, and Mrs. Farese’s dramatic face is perfect for her role. She is very powerful in a scene where one of the people in hiding with them is caught stealing bread in the middle of the night from the limited food supply.

Rich Farese is touching as Otto Frank, pointing out the toll their 25-month confinement together is taking on them.

“We don’t need the Nazis to destroy us. We’re destroying ourselves,” says Otto Frank.

The real Otto Frank, after surviving Auschwitz, told tourists visiting that same annex, now turned into a museum, “You must not forget the unbearable tension that was constantly present.”

Molly Tannatt of North Andover and Robert Fitzgerald of Haverhill play the other married couple, Mr. and Mrs. Van Daan, hiding with the Franks. Fitzgerald is moving in the scene where he collapses with self-loathing after trying to steal food from the rest of them.

Steve Daly of North Andover, often seen in comic roles, uses his expressive face to good effect as Mr. Dussel in this production, as he grouses over the inconvenience of sharing space with everyone else.

The real Otto Frank lost his family in the horrific Nazi concentration camps. His wife, Edith Frank, died of exhaustion, and his daughters Anne and Margot Frank died of typhus. Anne was only 15 years old when she died just two weeks before the allied troops liberated the Bergen-Belson Concentration Camp where she and her sister were being held.

A particularly touching and well-known quote from Anne Frank’s diary used in the play shows the unbroken optimism and hope shining through her young spirit.

“In spite of everything, I still believe people are good at heart,” says Anne Frank in the play.
Cast member Steve Daly says he is surprised how many people he talks to think that Anne Frank survived her internment by the Nazis during World War II.

“Only Otto Frank survived,” says Daly. “Not too many people are really familiar with this story and how it ended. For me, the sense of cabin fever we get up here during the winter is not even close to what these people endured for 25 months.”

According to the Anne Frank Museum Web site, many children wrote to Otto Frank after WWII, asking how such horrible things could have happened. Mr. Frank, who only learned the real depth of his daughter’s inner feelings by reading her diary, had this challenge for them.

“I hope Anne’s book will have an effect on the rest of your life so that insofar as it is possible in your own circumstances, you will work for unity and peace,” wrote Otto Frank.

Tickets for “The Diary of Anne Frank” are $10 and will be available at the door at 50 Island St. next to The Essex Art Center. Tickets can also be ordered in advance by calling 978-475-2570 or e-mailing actingout@earthlink.net . There is a $1 per ticket discount for groups of 10 or more paid in advance.