Santa Monica Rep Reads THE ADDING MACHINE & THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK

The Broad Stage presents Santa Monica Rep reading Elmer Rice's The Adding Machine, a bold satire that tells the story of a man struggling to maintain his status in a rapidly changing technological universe, at The Edye at The Broad Stage on Sunday, November 11 at 2:00pm. Tickets are on sale at www.thebroadstage.org or by calling 310-434-3200.

Two days prior, on Friday, November 9 at 10:30am, Santa Monica Rep gives a staged reading of the impactful The Diary of Anne Frank by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett for Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) eighth graders. This reading at Barnum Hall at Santa Monica High School is part of The Broad Stage education department Student Matinees.

The Diary of Anne Frank represents a unique partnership between SMMUSD, Santa Monica College Public Policy Institute, and The Broad Stage, Santa Monica's leading performing arts presenter. Seating for The Diary of Anne Frank is only available for SMMUSD students.

The famous 1959 film version was based on this play and won a unique Golden Globe Award for Best Film Promoting International Understanding (1960). A Q+A lead by the Santa Monica College Public Policy Institute follows the performance.

First produced in 1923, in The Adding Machine at The Edye, Rice adapted techniques from German Expressionist theatre to depict the dehumanization of man in the 20th century with themes that still resonate today. The hero, Mr. Zero is an everyman who can't escape his fate: to be reborn again and again - as a slave. Worst of all, he's not getting better with each life, he's getting worse. Rice, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Street Scene, wrote The Adding Machine in just 17 days, creating a lasting masterpiece that is still a relevant depiction of modern society.

At its premiere The New York Times said that The Adding Machine is "revolutionary ... the best example of the newer expressionism in the theatre that it has yet experienced ... [it] comes in the language of a great art. For one mad moment all of the figures that [the hero] has ever added whirl madly in the Zero brain - and when he is again aware of the world he has stabbed his employer through the heart with a bill-file."

Jane Deknatel, Director The Broad Stage, said, "Santa Monica Rep affords us the ability to bring great plays with great ideas to our audience - both in the intimate space of the 140 seat The Edye and as part of our educational program. This is the first time we are using Barnum Hall (1296 seats) at Santa Monica High School for our student matinees. As a result we are present this to the majority of SMMUSD eighth graders - from John Adams and Lincoln Middle Schools - allowing for a unique meeting of a city peer group and fulfilling The Broad Stage's mission of serving SMMUSD in a robust way."

For The Diary of Anne Frank, the title role is read by Rosalind Jewett, a junior at Santa Monica High School. This is Rosalind's second season performing The Diary of Anne Frank with Santa Monica Repertory Theatre for The Broad Stage's Student Matinee Program. Bringing this reading to SAMOHi allows her talents to be shared with fellow students in the Theatre and English departments who will also attend the program.

Founded in 2010, Santa Monica Rep has produced nearly 40 play readings, productions and special events, including co-presenting the SHINE Storytelling Salon, where hundreds of storytellers have shared their personal triumphs and tribulations. Community is at the heart of our work: Santa Monica Rep has served thousands of community members through our free Staged Readings at the Santa Monica Public
Library and over two thousand public-school students through our SM Rep Reads collaborations with The Broad Stage.

The Diary of Anne Frank -- This special performance was made possible through the support of SMMUSD Superintendent Dr. Ben Drati, SMC's Public Policy Institute and Education & Community Programs at The Broad Stage.

The Adding Machine -- Theatre at The Broad Stage made possible in part by generous gifts from Bill & Laurie Benenson and Susan Stockel. | Santa Monica Rep Reads at The Broad Stage made possible in part by generous gifts from James & Laura Maslon and the Attias Family Foundation.

About Elmer Rice (1892-1967)
Elmer Rice was an American playwright, director and novelist noted for his innovative and polemical plays. He graduated from the New York Law School in 1912 but soon turned to writing plays. His first work, the melodramatic On Trial (1914), was the first play to employ the film technique of flashbacks, in this case to present the recollections of witnesses at a trial. Rice's most important play, Street Scene (1929), was a starkly realistic tragedy set outside a New York City slum tenement building. The play won a Pulitzer Prize and was adapted into a highly popular musical (1947) with lyrics by Langston Hughes and music by Kurt Weill. Rice was active in the WPA Federal Theatre Project for a short time in the mid-1930s. He also championed the American Civil Liberties Union and the cause of free speech and, in the 1950s, was an opponent of U.S. Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy. Rice also wrote several novels and an autobiography, Minority Report (1963).