Alexis Fishman stars in the one woman play "Anne Being Frank" on Saturday, Nov. 9, Sunday, Nov. 10, and Tuesday, Nov. 12 at three South Florida venues.
Australian playwright Ron Elisha gives a new insight into the famed diary of Anne Frank, who died in a Holocaust concentration camp in 1945, in the one-woman play "Anne Being Frank", a one-act 90-minute production, running in three South Florida venues on Saturday, Nov. 9, Sunday, Nov. 10 and Tuesday, Nov. 12.
Alexis Fishman in the one-woman play "Anne Being Frank."
Sponsored primarily by the not-for-profit YILove Jewish organization, "Anne Being Frank" opens on Saturday at the Aventura Arts and Cultural Center in Aventura. The play will next be performed on Sunday at the Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach before closing its three-performance run on Tuesday at the Rose and Alfred Miniaci Performing Arts Center in Davie.
Elisha imagines Frank as surviving The Holocaust and retells the story of Frank and her diary with Frank living through the horrors of hiding in her family's secret annex in Holland before being found by the Nazis and imprisoned in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
Two unique aspects of "Anne Being Frank" differ from the historical Anne Frank.
Two unique aspects of "Anne Being Frank" differ from the historical Anne Frank. The playwright has Frank revising her original diary to include her emotions and observations of life in the concentration camp. Elisha also has Anne in an imaginary world as surviving The Holocaust to discuss the manuscript of her revised diary with a publisher from Manhattan.
The historical Annelies Marie Frank died from tyfus fever in 1945, weeks before the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
Australian playwright Ron Elisha gives a new insight into the famed diary of Anne Frank, who died in a Holocaust concentration camp in 1945, in the one woman play "Anne Being Frank."
"It is the insight of Anne, surviving the horrors of her time in the concentration camp, that gives a new viewpoint on her diary, given her personal experience in the camp as well as watching other prisoners in the concentration camp suffer," says Australian actress Alexis Fishman, who stars as Anne Frank and also voices other characters from Frank's life in the play.
"Anne wants the world to know her emotions and needs to reveal what is the truth of what happened. She is battling with a Manhattan editor who wants to maintain the innocence and purity of Anne's original diary written when she was in hiding."
As Frank, Fishman gives the audience insight into whether a surviving Anne Frank would have still written in the historical diary, "In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart."
Although Anne Frank discusses her revised diary with an imagined editor, the playwright does not detail any specific events about Anne Frank in a post-1945 world as to whether Anne is married, has children, where she resides, or if she is alive at all.
"Anne Being Frank" is presented as a commemoration of Kristallnacht (translated as "The Broken Glass" when violence against German Jews began on Nov. 4, 1938) by YILove Jewish.
"I won't reveal what the audience will see and experience with Anne, but Ron (playwright Elisha) wrote a brilliant play that challenges audiences to consider what would be Anne's diary if she had survived The Holocaust," says Fishman.
"Anne Being Frank" is presented as a commemoration of Kristallnacht (translated as "The Broken Glass" when violence against German Jews began on Nov. 4, 1938) by YILove Jewish.
"The goal of audiences seeing 'Anne Being Frank' and so many of the other YILove Jewish events is to combat antisemitism through understanding through the cultural arts," says Avi Hoffman, founder and president of YILove Jewish. Hoffman, known primarily as an actor who has performed hundreds of roles in musicals over decades in South Florida, starred in the YILove Jewish production of "Yiddish Tangos" at Aventura Arts and Cultural Center in Aventura last month.
Alexis Fishman (Photo by Kurt Sneddon)
Avi Hoffman, founder and president of YILove Jewish.
"Anne Being Frank" was produced off-Broadway in 2023 and won the "Broadway World" award for best production.
Fishman is the granddaughter of four Holocaust survivors, who all emigrated to Australia following World War II. Born and raised in Sydney, Fishman has been nominated for the Australian-based Helpmann Awards for numerous musicals and cabaret shows she has performed in both Australia and the United States.
Since starring in "Anne Being Frank," Fishman has lived in New York City and has spent much time sharing the story of her four grandparents' journey surviving The Holocaust to students at New York Public Schools.
"Given my personal Jewish roots, I love talking with students and it reinforced my creativity as well. Playing in 'Anne Being Frank' is the most challenging role of my career and the most exciting. The play covers so much. There is no emotion, no secret that the play does not uncover. It's really a gift as an actor to explore all the facets of who I am and who Anne Frank was," said Fishman.
IF YOU GO
- WHAT: YILove Jewish presents with other sponsors "Anne Being Frank" by playwright Ron Elisha, a one act play starring actress Alexis Fishman and directed by Amanda Brooke Lerner.
- WHEN: Three performances at 8 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 9, 8 p.m., Sunday Nov. 10 and 7:30 p.m., Nov. 12
- WHERE: Saturday, Aventura Arts and Cultural Center, 3385 NE 188 Street in Aventura; Sunday, Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, 801 Okeechobee Blvd. in West Palm Beach; Tuesday, Rose and Alfred Minaci Performing Arts Center, 3100 Ray Ferraro Jr. Blvd. in Davie.
- TICKETS: $52 all venues
- INFORMATION: go to aventuracenter.org, miniacipac.com, or kravis.org
