Pioneer Theatre Company Presents THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK, 3/18-4/2

In a co-production with Indiana Repertory Theatre, Pioneer Theatre Company will produce The Diary of Anne Frank, March 18 through April 2, 2011.

Now it's history; once, it was a young girl's life. The Diary of Anne Frank is such a literary landmark that it's easy to forget how it started out: as the personal journal of a young girl striving to become a woman. Written while she and her family hid from Nazis in Amsterdam, Anne Frank's diary has stood for generations as a tribute to the human spirit. This new version of the play was adapted for the stage by Wendy Kesselman in 1997.

Indiana Repertory Theatre Artistic Director JANET ALLEN directs the production. As the Indiana Repertory Theatre's artistic director for 15 seasons, Allen oversees the production process and education outreach programs, and works closely with managing director Steven Stolen in supervising all aspects of the theatre. With former artistic director Tom Haas, she founded the IRT's Discovery Series, which has now become one of the foremost theatre programs in the country for young audiences. Among the IRT productions she has directed are Love Letters, Macbeth, Looking Over the President's Shoulder, Painting Churches, The Drawer Boy, As You Like It (with Dance Kaleidoscope's David Hochoy), Ah, Wilderness!, An Almost Holy Picture and The Glass Menagerie.

REBECCA BULLER plays the part of Anne Frank. Buller currently resides in Chicago where her recent credits include The Seagull at the Goodman Theatre, All My Sons and Dolly West's Kitchen at Timeline Theatre Company, The Cherry Orchard at Strawdog Theatre Company, Boys & Girls for Theatre Seven of Chicago, and Cut to the Quick for the side project theatre. She also has New York credits. This marks her PTC debut.

Craig Wroe plays the part of Anne's father, Otto Frank. Wroe appeared in London's West End in Miss Evers' Boys, and off-Broadway in numerous productions including Catch-22, An Oak Tree, Othello, The Tempest, The Winter's Tale and Richard II. He has appeared regionally in many theatres across the country and on television in such shows as Royal Pains, Rescue Me, Burn Notice, Third Watch, Ed, The Education of Max Bickford and many others. He was recently seen at PTC in productions of Our Town and Dracula.

Anne's mother Edith Frank is played by DENISE CORMIER. Cormier has appeared in the national tour of The Graduate. Her TV and film credits include Law & Order: CI, Six Degrees, Guiding Light and The Big Gay Musical. Regionally, she has appeared in Intimate Apparel at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Bill W. and Dr. Bob at the Cleveland Play House, The Poetry of Pizza at Virginia Stage Company, Cabaret and Steel Magnolias at the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina, Tender and Spinning Into Butter at the Gloucester Stage Company, Laughter on the 23rd Floor at the Lyric Stage, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at Merrimack Repertory Theatre, among others. This marks her PTC debut.

JACOB LIBERMAN plays the part of Peter van Daan, the young son of another family hiding with the Franks. Liberman's New York credits include Zombie Prom at ATA, Hot As Cole directed by Malcolm Gets, and others. Regionally he has appeared in Fame at North Shore Music Theatre and Kimberly Akimbo at Boston TheatreWorks, where he received an IRNE Award nomination. Dance credits include premieres of Act V and Lessons Learned at the Baryshnikov Arts Center with Yale Dance Theatre, Twyla Tharp's Torelli, and Yvonne Rainer's Trio A at the Ivy Dance Exchange. This is his PTC debut.

The role of Margot Frank, Anne's sister, is played by ERIN NEUFER. In New York, Neufer has appeared in Clean at the Looking Glass Theatre and read for Elegy No. 5 in the Women's Festival of New Voices at the Manhattan Shakespeare Project. Other credits include Quake, Noises Off and The Importance of Being Earnest. This is her PTC debut.

The parts of Mr. and Mrs. van Daan, Peter's parents also in hiding with the Frank family, are played by Paul Kiernan and CONSTANCE MACY, respectively. Kiernan has appeared at PTC in many productions, including Hamlet, Twelve Angry Men, Is He Dead? and Romeo & Juliet, to name a few. He has also appeared at Salt Lake Acting Company and with Salt Lake Shakespeare, Pennsylvania Shakespeare, The Hangar Theatre in Ithaca, and many others. His TV and film credits include Disney's Luck of the Irish, The Maldonado Miracle, Ice Spiders and the HBO series From the Earth to the Moon.

Macy is an Indianapolis-based actor who has worked at the Indiana Repertory Theatre since 1990. Her favorite IRT roles have included Barbara in Iron Kisses, Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Roxanne in Cyrano, Kate Keller in The Miracle Worker, BeLinda Blair in Noises Off and Becky Foster in Becky's New Car. She makes her PTC debut.

ROB JOHANSEN plays Mr. Dussel, a dentist also hiding with the Franks. Johansen is in his 15th season with the Indiana Repertory Theatre, where he has appeared in the one-man shows After Paul McCartney and Underneath the Lintel as well as such shows as The Giver, To Kill A Mockingbird, Sherlock Holmes: The Final Turn of the Screw, As You Like It, Cyrano and A Christmas Carol. This is his PTC debut.

TERENCE GOODMAN plays Mr. Kraler, the owner of the shop above which the families are living. Goodman's Broadway and First National tour credits include the original production of Jesus Christ Superstar, the first revival of Damn Yankees with Gwen Verdon and Ray Walston, and as Captain Smith in Titanic. He was a series regular on Days of Our Lives and had a recurring role on The Young and the Restless. He returns to PTC after last appearing in Our Town and 42nd Street.

Miep Gies, the woman who heroically helps the Franks in defiance of the Nazis, is played by KATHLEEN WISE. Her regional credits include Murder on the Nile at the Dorset Theatre Festival, Chain of Fools at the Guthrie Theater, and Antony and Cleopatra and A Midsummer Night's Dream at Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum. She makes her PTC debut.

Rounding out the cast are local actors KENT HADFIELD, JAKE MILO KOEPPL and ANDY RINDLISBACH as members of the Nazi party.

Scenic design is by guest artist Bill Clarke. Clarke designed A Walk in the Woods and Abby's Song on Broadway, and his off-Broadway work includes Eccentricities of a Nightingale and The Daughter-in-Law (which both appeared on the NY Times' Ten Best List), Secret Order, June Moon, Queens Blvd., Ann Magnuson's You Could Be Home Now, Keith Reddin's The Innocents' Crusade, Alan Havis' Morocco and The Cherry Orchard. His recent PTC designs include Pride and Prejudice, Romeo & Juliet and Twelve Angry Men.

LINDA PISANO designs costumes for this production. Pisano is a four-time winner of the Peggy Ezekiel Award for Excellence in Design and a three-time jury winner of the National Design Exposition. Her work was also featured at the Quadrennial World Design Exposition in Prague. She has designed more than 80 productions around the U.S. for such theatres as the Utah Shakespeare Festival, Pioneer Theatre Company, BalletMet, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, IU Opera Theatre and many others.

Lighting design is by guest designer Ann G. Wrightson. Wrightson designed the Broadway production of Souvenir, and she was a Tony nominee for her work on the Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning August: Osage County, which she designed for Broadway, London, Sydney and the national tour. Wrightson's recent work includes Fences at the Huntington Theatre, The Unmentionables at Yale Rep and Up at Steppenwolf Theatre. She recently designed PTC's world premiere production of In by Bess Wohl.

Sound design is by guest artist Andrew Hopson. Hopson has designed for shows at such theatres as the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, American Repertory Theatre, American Players Theatre, and Harvard University. In 2004 his New York debut, Trying, was rated one of the best off-Broadway shows of the year. In film, he has scored the documentaries Birth of Legends, The Battle of Comm Avenue, Hockey's Greatest Era 1942-1967, The Frozen Four and Utah's Olympic Legacy. He has produced, engineered or performed on more than 40 CDs ranging from stories for children to collections of modern American piano works.

Pioneer Theatre Company, Utah's premier resident professional theatre, performs at Roy W. and Elizabeth E. Simmons Pioneer Memorial Theatre, located on the University of Utah campus at 300 South and 1400 East in Salt Lake City, easily accessible by TRAX light rail. Free parking is also available and the theatre is equipped with an elevator, handicap parking, hearing assistance devices and other easy-access features.

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