OPA Presents THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK This Weekend

This month, Olmsted Performing Arts (OPA) - www.olmstedperformingarts.com - in Olmsted Falls will present "The Diary of Anne Frank" - the story of a young girl trying to understand and overcome a world of hatred.

OPA begins the 2015 season with the touching, emotionally gripping and true tale of Anne Frank, a girl and her family, hiding from the Nazis and certain death during World War II in Amsterdam. Anne survives for two years with seven other people in a secret annex before the group is discovered and deported to concentration camps.

Anne (played by Isabel Billinghurst from LaGrange) narrates this lyrical, intense account of her life over those two years.

"(Isabel) is displaying a level of talent and comfort on the stage that is beyond her years," says OPA Director Shane O'Neill of his young star.

Anne tells us a tale of sadness, but also of beauty and wit, as her family struggles to stay alive, to do normal human things, and overcome the claustrophobic bad dream they are caught in. "The Diary of Anne Frank" captures the realities of her daily existence - the fear, the hope, the laughter and the grief. Each day of those two dark years, Anne's voice shines through: "When I write I shake off all my cares. But I want to achieve more than that. I want to be useful and bring enjoyment to all people, even those I've never met. I want to go on living even after my death."

The script was taken from the real life diary of Anne Frank and became a book by Otto Frank - the only member of the Frank family to survive the Holocaust - and then a stage play written by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. The play won a Tony Award in 1956, the script also won a Pulitzer Prize and has been produced around the world and won countless other awards.

"Although most people are already familiar with the story of Anne Frank it is a very important one," says O'Neill, "One worth reminding ourselves of."

O'Neill has a Masters of Music in Vocal Performance with a specialization in Musical Theatre from New York University and a Bachelor of Arts in Musical Theatre from Ashland University. He has performed in New York City and throughout Northeast Ohio. Read an in-depth interview with O'Neill at www.olmstedperformingarts.com/interview-with-shane-oneill-director-of-the-diary-of-anne-frank/. Other cast members in "The Diary of Anne Frank" include Jake Ingrassia as Peter, OPA director Christina Haviland as Mrs. Frank, Bill Wallace as Mr. Frank, Kim Falatic as Mrs. Van Daan, and John Thobaben as Mr. Van Daan.