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I'm directing The Diary of Anne Frank this fall.  Question for those who have done this show....did you "Americanize" the names or did you keep them authentic to their German pronunciation?  I've watched numerous video clips to research the pronunciation of names....they all Americanize them.  I would prefer to keep them authentic.  For instance: did you pronounce the Van Daan name as "Van Dan" (Phonetic spelling) or "Vaughn Don"?   Likewise....Anne...did you pronounce it as "Ann" (the way most people speak her name in the title) or the German pronunciation "Anneh"?  Frank....pronounced like the man's name or pronounced "Fronk"?

Any help you can give would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Michael

I'm directing The Diary of Anne Frank this fall.  Question for those who have done this show....did you "Americanize" the names or did you keep them authentic to their German pronunciation?  I've watched numerous video clips to research the pronunciation of names....they all Americanize them.  I would prefer to keep them authentic.  For instance: did you pronounce the Van Daan name as "Van Dan" (Phonetic spelling) or "Vaughn Don"?   Likewise....Anne...did you pronounce it as "Ann" (the way most people speak her name in the title) or the German pronunciation "Anneh"?  Frank....pronounced like the man's name or pronounced "Fronk"?

Any help you can give would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Michael

I'm directing The Diary of Anne Frank this fall.  Question for those who have done this show....did you "Americanize" the names or did you keep them authentic to their German pronunciation?  I've watched numerous video clips to research the pronunciation of names....they all Americanize them.  I would prefer to keep them authentic.  For instance: did you pronounce the Van Daan name as "Van Dan" (Phonetic spelling) or "Vaughn Don"?   Likewise....Anne...did you pronounce it as "Ann" (the way most people speak her name in the title) or the German pronunciation "Anneh"?  Frank....pronounced like the man's name or pronounced "Fronk"?

Any help you can give would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Michael

I'm directing The Diary of Anne Frank this fall.  Question for those who have done this show....did you "Americanize" the names or did you keep them authentic to their German pronunciation?  I've watched numerous video clips to research the pronunciation of names....they all Americanize them.  I would prefer to keep them authentic.  For instance: did you pronounce the Van Daan name as "Van Dan" (Phonetic spelling) or "Vaughn Don"?   Likewise....Anne...did you pronounce it as "Ann" (the way most people speak her name in the title) or the German pronunciation "Anneh"?  Frank....pronounced like the man's name or pronounced "Fronk"?

Any help you can give would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Michael

I'm directing The Diary of Anne Frank this fall.  Question for those who have done this show....did you "Americanize" the names or did you keep them authentic to their German pronunciation?  I've watched numerous video clips to research the pronunciation of names....they all Americanize them.  I would prefer to keep them authentic.  For instance: did you pronounce the Van Daan name as "Van Dan" (Phonetic spelling) or "Vaughn Don"?   Likewise....Anne...did you pronounce it as "Ann" (the way most people speak her name in the title) or the German pronunciation "Anneh"?  Frank....pronounced like the man's name or pronounced "Fronk"?

Any help you can give would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Michael

Haven't done the production (though it's on my radar), and I would want to do 'authentic', though what was shared about the New Jersey mish-mash is a valid point; it could be jarring (at least initially) for an audience to hear the German pronunciation mixed in with the Pennsylvania...though, being English, I can't speak to how well PA blends in with German pronunciation. It might be perfect. :) If you have time, it would be great to smooth out the rest of the accent so that it's an understandable/accessible heavily German influenced-accented production.

Good luck! I think the biggest take-away is that authenticity is a great thing to strive for, but be aware of possible pitfalls and if necessary, compromise where you need to. Such a worthy project regardless of what accents or name pronunciations you end up choosing.

I'm directing The Diary of Anne Frank this fall.  Question for those who have done this show....did you "Americanize" the names or did you keep them authentic to their German pronunciation?  I've watched numerous video clips to research the pronunciation of names....they all Americanize them.  I would prefer to keep them authentic.  For instance: did you pronounce the Van Daan name as "Van Dan" (Phonetic spelling) or "Vaughn Don"?   Likewise....Anne...did you pronounce it as "Ann" (the way most people speak her name in the title) or the German pronunciation "Anneh"?  Frank....pronounced like the man's name or pronounced "Fronk"?

Any help you can give would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Michael

Thanks to all who replied to my message.  I've decided to go authentic in pronunciations! Although we hail from the Pittsburgh area, my students don't speak "Pittsburghese" (Thank GOD!!! LOL).  We had our read through on Saturday morning.  Prior to the read through we discussed the authentic pronunciations.  They seemed to do well with them....and it blended with the rest of the script.

For those who are interested in doing this show, I've worked so hard with my artistic director to come up with a minimalist set (kinda sorta).  There will be different levels, partial walls, some doors, gables suspended from above....but the back of the set will be a cyc to light with colors and to also display multimedia projections.  We're hiding 3 projectors in the set design and will project the diary entries as she is writing them as well as other historic videos, etc.  This could either be really awesome or a tragedy larger than the story itself LOL.  Stay tuned.....  :) 

Haven't done the production (though it's on my radar), and I would want to do 'authentic', though what was shared about the New Jersey mish-mash is a valid point; it could be jarring (at least initially) for an audience to hear the German pronunciation mixed in with the Pennsylvania...though, being English, I can't speak to how well PA blends in with German pronunciation. It might be perfect. :) If you have time, it would be great to smooth out the rest of the accent so that it's an understandable/accessible heavily German influenced-accented production.

Good luck! I think the biggest take-away is that authenticity is a great thing to strive for, but be aware of possible pitfalls and if necessary, compromise where you need to. Such a worthy project regardless of what accents or name pronunciations you end up choosing.

I'm directing The Diary of Anne Frank this fall.  Question for those who have done this show....did you "Americanize" the names or did you keep them authentic to their German pronunciation?  I've watched numerous video clips to research the pronunciation of names....they all Americanize them.  I would prefer to keep them authentic.  For instance: did you pronounce the Van Daan name as "Van Dan" (Phonetic spelling) or "Vaughn Don"?   Likewise....Anne...did you pronounce it as "Ann" (the way most people speak her name in the title) or the German pronunciation "Anneh"?  Frank....pronounced like the man's name or pronounced "Fronk"?

Any help you can give would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Michael

Classic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIlrNKVzKLU

Thanks to all who replied to my message.  I've decided to go authentic in pronunciations! Although we hail from the Pittsburgh area, my students don't speak "Pittsburghese" (Thank GOD!!! LOL).  We had our read through on Saturday morning.  Prior to the read through we discussed the authentic pronunciations.  They seemed to do well with them....and it blended with the rest of the script.

For those who are interested in doing this show, I've worked so hard with my artistic director to come up with a minimalist set (kinda sorta).  There will be different levels, partial walls, some doors, gables suspended from above....but the back of the set will be a cyc to light with colors and to also display multimedia projections.  We're hiding 3 projectors in the set design and will project the diary entries as she is writing them as well as other historic videos, etc.  This could either be really awesome or a tragedy larger than the story itself LOL.  Stay tuned.....  :) 

Haven't done the production (though it's on my radar), and I would want to do 'authentic', though what was shared about the New Jersey mish-mash is a valid point; it could be jarring (at least initially) for an audience to hear the German pronunciation mixed in with the Pennsylvania...though, being English, I can't speak to how well PA blends in with German pronunciation. It might be perfect. :) If you have time, it would be great to smooth out the rest of the accent so that it's an understandable/accessible heavily German influenced-accented production.

Good luck! I think the biggest take-away is that authenticity is a great thing to strive for, but be aware of possible pitfalls and if necessary, compromise where you need to. Such a worthy project regardless of what accents or name pronunciations you end up choosing.

I'm directing The Diary of Anne Frank this fall.  Question for those who have done this show....did you "Americanize" the names or did you keep them authentic to their German pronunciation?  I've watched numerous video clips to research the pronunciation of names....they all Americanize them.  I would prefer to keep them authentic.  For instance: did you pronounce the Van Daan name as "Van Dan" (Phonetic spelling) or "Vaughn Don"?   Likewise....Anne...did you pronounce it as "Ann" (the way most people speak her name in the title) or the German pronunciation "Anneh"?  Frank....pronounced like the man's name or pronounced "Fronk"?

Any help you can give would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Michael

I'm directing The Diary of Anne Frank this fall.  Question for those who have done this show....did you "Americanize" the names or did you keep them authentic to their German pronunciation?  I've watched numerous video clips to research the pronunciation of names....they all Americanize them.  I would prefer to keep them authentic.  For instance: did you pronounce the Van Daan name as "Van Dan" (Phonetic spelling) or "Vaughn Don"?   Likewise....Anne...did you pronounce it as "Ann" (the way most people speak her name in the title) or the German pronunciation "Anneh"?  Frank....pronounced like the man's name or pronounced "Fronk"?

Any help you can give would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Michael