Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Creative Dramaturgy and Documentary Theatre”

In this activity, students will focus on turning research and further historical context and documentation into a form that would be useful to an audience in deepening the play’s historical significance.

The Diary of Anne Frank is an example of Documentary Theatre, or Docudrama, which is theatre that is based on one or more historical documents. However, one of the major criticisms of the text has been the lack of emphasis on the weight of the historical context of the Holocaust. This activity can build on the prior class discussion and analysis of the text and its historical elements.

Dramaturgy refers to the study and analysis of a dramatic text through the lens of elements that translate into performance and staging.

• Work in a small group of 3-5 classmates.
• Choose a quote from the text that is spoken by a character (as opposed to a radio broadcast) that references or comments on a historical event or context about the world outside the Secret Annex or about Anne Frank.
• Use scholarly, reputable resources to research the historical event or context of the quote; then create a poster for a lobby display.