The Diary of Anne Frank: A Play

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Creative Dramaturgy and Documentary Theatre”

In this activity, students will focus on turning research and further historical context and documentation into a form that would be useful to an audience in deepening the play’s historical significance.

The Diary of Anne Frank is an example of Documentary Theatre, or Docudrama, which is theatre that is based on one or more historical documents. However, one of the major criticisms of the text has been the lack of emphasis on the weight of the historical context of the Holocaust. This activity can build on the prior class discussion and analysis of the text and its historical elements.

Dramaturgy refers to the study and analysis of a dramatic text through the lens of elements that translate into performance and staging.

• Work in a small group of 3-5 classmates.
• Choose a quote from the text that is spoken by a character (as opposed to a radio broadcast) that references or comments on a historical event or context about the world outside the Secret Annex or about Anne Frank.
• Use scholarly, reputable resources to research the historical event or context of the quote; then create a poster for a lobby display. Posters should include the quote along with images and text that explain the context to an audience.
• Assume that your audience has no more than a basic understanding of historical events.
• Alternately, your group might create a digital lobby display by using free web builders.

Teaching Suggestion: Depending on available technology and ability, students might use graphic design software, word processing programs, or slideshow software. Alternately, students can create a digital lobby display by using free web builders. It may be good practice for students to cite their sources.

If students need a starting point for research, these two sites are a great place to begin.

• Resource 1: The United States Holocaust Museum
• Resource 2: The Anne Frank House Museum

Differentiation Suggestion: For theatre students, advanced students, or even as a second part of this activity, students can design content for the performance itself. Ask students to each pick a different moment in the play when a multimedia project might be inserted into the performance, either during a transitional moment or as an illustration of the spoken text. For that moment, they should create a video, slideshow of media, or a design element that illustrates the moment’s historical context in a way that is legible to the audience. Students should use archival evidence, such as photos, videos, and documents.

Paired Text Extension:

To explore an alternate technique of docudrama about a similar topic, read Ping Chong and Company’s Children of War, which is included in their published volume Undesirable Elements.

• Visit Ping Chong’s website to read about their techniques and performances.
• Compare and contrast Children of War with The Diary of Anne Frank.
• Discuss how students might use techniques of documentary theatre to make their own work and brainstorm which topics or issues they might broach.

Teaching Suggestion: You can use this paired text extension as a basis for discussion or even turn it into a larger project. You might discuss techniques of docudrama and what students find effective. You could ask students to create short scenes or even a full performance based on their own ideas of how to use tactics of documentary theatre.