By Michelle Hines, University Relations
Posted Sept. 1, 2006
Junior Paige Berry rehearses at Triad Stage.
Anne Frank is not an easy role to play. It requires an actress who can identify with the emotions of a young Jewish girl hiding out with her family under claustrophobic conditions in Amsterdam, hiding from the Gestapo during WWII.
But Paige Berry, a UNCG junior, summoned up the courage to tackle the part. Berry will play the lead in Triad Stage’s production of the “The Diary of Anne Frank,” which runs Sept. 3-24, 2006, at Triad Stage, 232 S. Elm St., Greensboro.
Preston Lane, Triad Stage’s artistic director, regularly works with the best local and national talent. He was pleased to find his Anne at home in Greensboro.
“Since I first saw Paige in a UNCG production during her freshman year, I have been greatly impressed by her talent. She brings a vitality and a freshness to the role, bringing Anne Frank to life with the talent and courage of a true professional.”
Berry prepared for the role by reading up on the Holocaust.
“It’s very depressing,” she said. “It puts you in complete awe and shock.”
She found herself having to weed through a great deal of material trying to find the bits she needed.
“I had to ask myself, ‘What’s gonna help me feel a strong connection?’”
Of course, Berry also reread the “Diary,” published by Frank’s father in 1947 two years after she died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Reading the young girl’s story helped her to “live in the sphere” Anne Frank lived in.
No, the role isn’t easy, she admitted, but it is rewarding.
“We all have some moments, moments where everyone just has to take five minutes to recover from it. You think about the absolute terror these people would have felt and how depressed and confined these people were.”
Staging the “Diary” is important, she said, because it reminds us to remember.
“I think that when you remember the Holocaust, that’s the whole point. We have to remember. We can’t forget that it happened, that’s it’s still happening in places like Darfur and Rwanda. It’s a classic pattern Americans get into where we find ways to distract ourselves from reality and live in denial of it.”
Berry is not the only UNCG acting student to participate in “Diary.” Jon Douglas plays Peter Van Daan, Gretchen Ferris plays Margot and Ambien Mitchell plays Miep Gies.
Liliana Landsman, a UNCG Theatre senior, is assistant director, and MEd Theatre Education student Debra LeWinter serves as dramaturg.
Call Triad Stage at 272-0160 for tickets and information. Ticket prices range from $16-$42.
