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Holocaust descendant to join LATTE Theater panel after performances
LA GRANGE PARK – La Grange Area Teen Theater Ensemble will present "The Diary of Anne Frank" at 7 p.m. Nov. 9 and 10 and at 2 p.m. Nov. 10.
The play will be presented at the Plymouth Place Auditorium, 315 N. La Grange Road, La Grange Park. LATTE Theater depicts living history in a haunting drama about the lives of eight people hiding from the Nazis in an attic.
The ensemble plans post-show panel discussions with a second-generation Holocaust survivor, the cast and director. Anne emerges as a resilient, lyrical, intensely gifted young girl, who confronts her rapidly changing life and the increasing horror of her time with astonishing honesty, wit and determination.
In partnership with the Illinois Holocaust Museum, Steve Koek will join the cast for a panel discussion following each show. His family were in hiding in Amsterdam at the same time Anne Frank was, and barely escaped with their lives to America. They were Joe and his two sisters, Eva and Henny, who were among the Hidden Children of Holland. After giving their three children over to resistance fighters, their parents, were betrayed, captured and taken away to Auschwitz. In hiding, Joe was separated from his sisters. Against the odds, all three siblings survived the war.
"Anne Frank's story, at its core, is about a normal teenager trying to understand and define her place in an ever-changing world," LATTE producer and Artistic Director Felicia Pfluger said in an email. "We hear her developing her own voice in her diary as she searches for autonomy. She is human. She teases a boy and later develops a crush on him. She fights PTSD and traumatic nightmares.
"She worries about her friends and is processing her body changing. … She is a prankster and loves to laugh. She desperately seeks validation and yearns to make a difference in this world. She is unfiltered, sublimely candid, and quite human. The … family are perfectly imperfect people with their own personalities. They are fun and amusing, with their own strengths and Achilles heels," Pfluger said.
During intermission, music sung by the Tower Chorale and dedicated to Anne Frank will be played. Just as the Frank family in the story could not leave the annex in real life, the cast will stay in motion on stage during the intermission. The audience will be asked to quietly share the team's reverence for the living history reenactment.
The family's bright voices are but a few in the sea of six million Jews and 11 million total individuals whose voices were silenced in the Holocaust, Pfluger said.
"I am humbled that I have been able to produce and direct 'Anne Frank,'" Pfluger said. "It shares history, life, resilience and so many heartwarming moments. The teens have crafted rich and beautiful characters that pay homage to their real-life counterparts, and attack head-on the issues of hatred that resonate deeply still today."
And to quote Anne Frank, "How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. I keep my ideals, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart."
Tickets cost $15 for adults, $5 for students and seniors. For more information, visit www.lattetheater.com or call 708-655-0989.