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Exclusive Interview: Stella Fenton and Josephine O'Reilly of Birmingham Village Players' 'The Diary of Anne Frank' · The BSB Podcast

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  The incredible story of Anne Frank and her family is coming to Birmingham Village Players with their production of The Diary of Anne Frank.
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  And today we're talking to two of the cast members, Josephine O'Reilly and Stella Fenton.
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  Thank you so much for joining me today.
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  Thank you for having us.
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  Thank you.
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  It's such a pleasure.
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  We're so excited to talk about the show.
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  This is such a important and timely show.
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  And you're currently in about two weeks before the production, before you go for opening night.
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  Josephine, how is that going so far?
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  I think that everything has been going great.
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  Everyone's been getting down their lines.
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  And I don't know, we have such a talented cast.
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  And I think this is, it's going to be amazing by showtime.
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  This is kind of crunch time Stella, right?
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  Right before, like, the last two weeks is kind of when everything starts to come together.
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  definitely yeah it's honestly down to details at this point so we're we're working during our rehearsal times just nailing down those few moments that are gonna be like extra
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  special and emotional for the audience and we're just taking the time to really solidify it in a way that's super presentable and connect easy to connect to for the audience
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  This is kind of a you want to make sure that you get correct and right and it's so important.
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  ah But for maybe those who aren't familiar with the story of Anne Frank, Josephine, what's kind of going on in this show, specifically this production of it?
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  Well, it is a play made about the book oh The Diary of Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl, and it's all about the stories and diary entries of Anne Frank from um when her
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  family went into hiding during the Holocaust, and it's all about how they hold on to hope and how they were able to live together and showing just...
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  uh
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  how everything happened during the Holocaust from more of like a very personal perspective.
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  And we get to see Anne, her sister Margot, and both of her parents, Edith and Otto Frank, living together with another family, the Van Daan's and they have a son, Peter.
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  And they're also living with one more man, Mr.
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  Dussel, but his real name is Hans Pfeffer, but she changed his name.
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  to Mr.
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  Ducell in her diary.
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  Again, such an incredible story, so many interesting characters.
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  So what really drew you to wanting to be a part of this play?
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  As a young Jewish woman, um I grew up, you know, discussing Anne Frank at the dinner table with my grandparents who have relatives who were in the Holocaust.
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  So the story is very close to home.
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  It's one I've been very familiar with since I was a child.
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  We read the book in school.
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  It's something that I've known for a while.
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  And so when I saw it was coming to Birmingham, players, I was like, yes, I got to try out for this.
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  um Just because, A, I'm interested in the story and B, as a young Jewish woman, I think it's really important to represent my heritage and my culture.
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  um and getting to act along this like incredible cast has just made the experience so much more meaningful.
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  what a cool way to honor that heritage, you know, to be a part of this story.
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  Like one of the most important stories from our modern time.
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  It's still kind of modern, you know, like, but like this is one that is still so, it's so poignant and like, it's so cool to be a part of that.
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  Yes.
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  Josephine, how about for you?
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  What drew you to audition for this play?
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  Um, I remember seeing the audition notice and I had definitely heard of Anne Frank and her diary.
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  I knew that she's an important figure in history and I thought this would be an amazing show for me to go out and audition for because the story is just so important.
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  And after I signed up, started, um, I started reading the diary and I just got to know Anne and I got to know her story and
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  It just made me like, okay, so I really want to be a part of this because I just, after reading about her, I just loved her so much as a person and loving her and knowing how
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  much of an important story this is to be telling, especially now.
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  And I'm just so happy to have the chance to be a part of it.
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  and you're actually playing Anne, which is so incredible to be able to play that role and to bring this to life.
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  Yeah.
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  What has kind of been your developmental process to bringing this character to life?
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  em I've been really wanting to make sure that people can see all the amazing things about her because I know sometimes from people I've talked to, people get the wrong idea about
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  her thinking that she's hyper, she's bouncing off the walls, and she can't pay attention.
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  But I just want to make sure that everyone can see how intelligent and smart and kind and caring and just full of life that she was.
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  Yeah, and I just really want to make sure people can see that.
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  And it's just important for me to tell the audience that she was just such a good person.
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  Is there a way to stepping into a role that's based on a real person such as Anne?
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  It's definitely changed the way that I have thought um how I have developed her throughout the show because in other productions that I've done with like made-up characters, I've
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  been able to really like develop them in how I would have thought that they would have been and how I would interpret them and I feel a lot of ownership over it.
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  But of course, is Anne.
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  She's herself and
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  more of my process was thinking about making sure I'm doing exactly what she would have done and it means paying a lot more attention to the really tiny details of everything
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  about her.
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  for sure.
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  Stella, you're playing Margot.
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  you know, while Anne's kind of, people know Anne a little bit more, Margot is kind of, you know, this character who is present, but I hope that get to play around with her a little
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  bit more.
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  But who is Margot to you?
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  Like, who is this person?
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  Well, Margot is Anne's older sister.
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  um She's intelligent, she's disciplined, she's composed, and she's definitely like the contrast to the outwardly emotional and expressive Anne Frank that we see on stage.
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  um
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  She's really seen as this perfect child archetype.
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  And over the show, we really start to see the weight that she carries as the older sister, um the maturity that she has to adopt so quickly.
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  um And I think that stepping into a role with responsibility like that, just embodying Margot Frank's responsibility while also embodying the responsibility of playing a real
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  person and honoring their actual truth, um that whole theme of responsibility
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  has been a really enriching acting process for me and has allowed me to tap into a lot of new emotions that I'm excited to show people on stage.
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  Now, is it a different process for tapping into somebody who was real, know, somebody who was alive, such as like Margot, then compared to maybe to like a role that is, you know, a
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  fictional character?
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  Yeah, I mean, um I've been in lots of other shows where it has been a fictional character.
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  And I think I would say similar to what Josephine was saying, when you adopt a character that is fictional, um it's easy to have like your own liberty with it and have your own
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  take on it.
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  And your performance as that character is like singular to your performance and you as an actor.
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  um But I think that honoring
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  the emotions that someone else had felt, especially in a time as pivotal and like scary as this, um it allows you to kind of refine your acting process a little more and be more
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  patient with it.
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  It's really easy to like jump at a fictional character and be like, here's what I'm gonna do here.
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  um Let's make this choice.
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  But every choice that I make with Margot, I really have to sit with myself and think, am I doing this because I feel like it's right?
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  Or am I doing this because I think it honors her truth and like what she was feeling during this time?
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  So it's really about getting into the mindset of who this person is and based off what we know of them, it kind of, who is Margot or who is Anne?
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  Yeah, definitely.
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  I agree.
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  uh
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  So Josephine, what has been the most challenging part of playing a character such as Anne?
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  think probably finding that in between of her really strong emotions and also finding like the reason behind her very strong emotions because you see it a lot in the show and in her
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  diary.
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  She is flopping from one thought to another like and she always has like big opinions on things and
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  And she always tries to express it a lot.
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  And I've just been doing my best trying to make sure that I get more of the reality and humanizing point of view of that is that what I've seen through the diary is that she's
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  just not hyper.
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  She feels like she's not being heard.
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  And she wants people to respect her ideas and opinions.
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  And so...
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  She's going bigger.
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  She's trying to get people to notice.
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  And I want to make sure that comes out in her character so people can understand how human and how personal and just how real this story is.
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  It sounds like a really grounding approach to who Anne is.
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  And still, how about for you, what has been the most challenging part of bringing Margot to life?
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  Like we discussed previously, I think there's a challenge in the silence of the role and not necessarily um having a lot of scripted action that is like given by the original
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  playwright for Margot to do.
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  um And I think that that silence is intentional, but it's definitely harder to work with because it leaves it up to you and it leaves it up to your analyzation of who this
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  character was and how you feel like they should be represented.
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  um
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  And I find myself to be a pretty talkative and bubbly person um outside of the stage.
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  So sitting with the silence and the patience that Margot had is definitely a contrast to like how I behave in my everyday life.
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  And slowing down has definitely been like the hardest part for me to apply to this role.
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  But I feel like once you have that patience and once you truly do take that time to step back and allow like...
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  yourself to watch what's happening and let the emotions come from watching rather than doing.
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  think that's that's allowed me to reach like a very powerful acting performance with Margot.
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  It's so beautiful too to think that you have to really just kind of sit there with Margot.
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  like, there's not a lot of...
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  Like, you have to find out who she really is.
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  You have to just sit with who is she, you know?
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  Yeah, I feel like I have a stronger connection to her now and like understanding that responsibility and that silence that she had.
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  She would have actually been 100, I'm pretty sure, this week.
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  that's a fun little tidbit to share.
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  But yeah.
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  That's awesome to be able to take that in there too to think about that.
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  Again, it makes it more real.
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  Definitely.
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  I think that plenty of times when it comes to stories, especially with stories that have passed, sometimes people forget that like, is a real story.
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  These are real people, you know, this is a real experience.
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  This isn't just an acting, you know.
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  And so it's cool to have that moment to be like, oh yeah, this is a person who would have been 100, you know.
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  Yeah, it makes you connect to the story way more.
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  Josephine, do you feel like your understanding of Anne has changed throughout the rehearsal process?
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  I think definitely because as being on stage as her being around all of the other actors and characters in the scenes has really made it more obvious to me the dynamic between her
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  and everyone else because it's really hard to get that out of reading her diary because of course it's just her perspective and of course just reading the script all you can really
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  hear is yourself but being on stage with everyone
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  one else, it feels so much more real, just the anxiety of it all, like being so close together with people.
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  And I think it's really made me change on how Anne's opinions of everyone, people think that she was just mad at everyone, but it was just really their close proximity.
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  And yeah, maybe they got into disagreements every now and then, but so do families.
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  It's not just because she was just an angry teenager.
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  So I think that's probably what I've noticed.
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  That's a beautiful answer.
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  Absolutely.
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  So Stella, how do you feel like this play explores hope despite being difficult circumstances?
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  um I think that the beauty in this show is the characters adaptation if that makes sense.
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  something so scarring and traumatic um like the Holocaust and being forced out of your home um and being forced to submit to a destructive power um can destroy oh
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  anyone and I think that the beauty in this show and the aspect of hope in this show really comes from the adaptation of the the Franks and the Van Daan's being able to create
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  normalcy in a time of panic and a time of fear.
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  um You'll notice in the show that like there's maintained
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  house routines, see them cleaning, see them having meals, you see them using the bathroom, you see them reading, you see them doing common familial household activities.
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  And that for me really grounds the show and allows you to sit with it and be like, wow, this was real.
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  And they were real people just going about their...
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  little habitual experiences that they did at home in this small annex and it really makes it.
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  um That's what I think brings the hope to the show and brings.
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  I don't know light to the situation overall.
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  Josephine, how do you feel like this, like in your perspective, does this show explore that hope?
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  think it shows a lot how most of the people in the annex always voice their opinions on their sorrows about everything going on and even the thoughts in the back of their head on
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  feeling like the war will never end.
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  But then we always have these moments where I feel like everyone was holding on to this little bit of hope in their own way or another.
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  Like a quote from Anne is she says,
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  In spite of everything, I think people are truly good at heart.
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  It's because she was holding onto this hope that even though she was exposed to this much hate from people, that she still believes and she still has hope that everyone's truly
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  good at heart.
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  And everyone thought that the peace and the love and the hope would overcome the hate.
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  and we can see in modern day experiences, it eventually did.
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  And I think that's how important it was.
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  I think that's why this show still speaks to people and why it resonates with audiences and actors as well.
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  Well, thank you so much for you both being here.
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  It's been such a pleasure talking to you both and we're so excited for this production to arrive.
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  Thank you so much.
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  if I could add this in, we just wanted, the director wanted us to share with that on March 15th, during a Sunday matinee.
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  After the show, there's gonna be a talk back if anyone's interested.
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  And we just wanted to throw that out there to let audiences know that they can stay after the show and hear from the cast.
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  Perfect!
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  So the Diary of Anne Frank opens at Birmingham Village Players on March 6th with a really awesome talk back on March 15th that everybody should stay with and talk and learn a
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  little bit more and explore this important story.
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  But it runs through the 22 seconds so get your tickets now.
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  We'll see you at the show.