What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank Cast and Creative Announcement

The Old Globe
announces cast and creative team for
What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank

A world premiere
by Pulitzer Prize finalist Nathan Englander and
directed by Globe Artistic Director Barry Edelstein

Featuring Rebecca Creskoff, Greg Hildreth, Joshua Malina,
Nathan Salstone, and Sophie von Haselberg

Performances begin September 11
and play through October 23, 2022,
with the opening on Sunday, September 18

Single tickets go on sale August 5, 2022 at 12:00 noon PDT
and are available at www.TheOldGlobe.org

PHOTO EDITORS: Photos of What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank can be found here.

SAN DIEGO (August 2, 2022) — The Old Globe announced today the cast and creative team for the world premiere of What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank by Pulitzer Prize finalist Nathan Englander (The Twenty-Seventh Man, For the Relief of Unbearable Urges). This funny and unique play is directed by the Globe’s Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein (The Twenty-Seventh Man, Picasso at the Lapin Agile). Performances begin September 11, 2022 and play through October 23, 2022, with the opening on Sunday, September 18. The production will play in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Globe’s Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Tickets for What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank go on sale August 5 at 12:00 noon PDT and will be available at www.TheOldGlobe.org.

Englander and Edelstein wowed Globe audiences with the West Coast premiere of The Twenty-Seventh Man, and now they team up again for this world premiere of a modern-day comedy of friendship. What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank is Englander’s adaptation of his award-winning short story about two women, inseparable in high school, whose adult lives have taken them to opposite ends of the earth, and to wildly different experiences of culture, religion, and family. When they reunite, their bond is tested by the distance that has grown between them… and also by their husbands, who don’t exactly see eye to eye. Englander’s distinctive voice—hilarious, outrageous, and emotional—gives us a uniquely funny and smart exploration of how we see ourselves and how our friends see us.

“It’s a special privilege to deepen the Globe’s relationship, and mine, with Nathan Englander and his writing for the stage,” said Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein. “Our collaboration on his play The Twenty-Seventh Man was a highlight of my directing career, and the distinctive voice, sensibility, and emotional power of that play are present as well in What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank. And this play is funny—very funny. Its story of two couples coming together for a dinner party that goes wildly off the rails turns out to be an X-ray of our anxious and unsteady moment. Englander dives deep into the contemporary Jewish experience in America and Israel, and in that specific world finds universal themes of what it means to sustain a friendship over time, how we share our traditions with our children, and, most of all, how insanely exhausting it is to be alive right now. In the brilliant hands of an acting company of uncommon skill and comic experience, it will be an exhilarating night in the theatre. The play is unique, extraordinary, and rich, and I am proud and honored to bring its world premiere to San Diego.”

The cast for What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank features Rebecca Creskoff as Debbie (Manhattan Theatre Club’s Losing Louie, TNT’s “Claws”), Greg Hildreth as Mark (The Old Globe’s Love’s Labor’s Lost, Broadway’s Company), Joshua Malina as Phil (Broadway’s A Few Good Men, NBC’s “The West Wing”), Nathan Salstone as Trevor (Broadway’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, first national tour of Hadestown), and Sophie von Haselberg as Lauren (Off Broadway’s Billy & Ray, Berkshire Theatre Festival’s The Cat and the Canary).

In addition to playwright Nathan Englander and director Barry Edelstein, the creative team for What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank includes scenic design by Paul Tate dePoo, costume design by Katherine Roth, lighting design by Russell H. Champa, original music and sound design by Lindsay Jones, casting by Caparelliotis Casting, and production stage management by Alyssa Escalante.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank will play in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Globe’s Conrad Prebys Theatre Center in San Diego’s Balboa Park (1363 Old Globe Way). Performances run September 11, 2022 through October 23, 2022, with the opening on Sunday, September 18. The performance schedule is Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m., Thursdays and Fridays at 8:00 p.m., Saturdays at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., and Sundays at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Single tickets for What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank go on sale to the public on Friday, August 5 at 12:00 noon PDT and will be available online at www.TheOldGlobe.org, by phone at (619) 23-GLOBE (234-5623), or in person at The Old Globe’s Box Office in Balboa Park. Regular ticket prices start at $30. For additional information, visit www.TheOldGlobe.org. What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frankcontain strong language.

In alignment with the State of California, which has removed mask and vaccine requirements for indoor events, effective March 21, 2022, The Old Globe will not require patrons to provide proof of vaccination or to wear masks while attending shows or events in either our indoor or outdoor venues. However, the theatre still strongly recommends mask-wearing while at the Globe, and patrons should feel comfortable wearing a mask anywhere on our campus if they choose.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frankis supported by production sponsors Elaine and Dave Darwin, Edelman, Sheila and Jeffrey Lipinsky, Paula and Brian Powers, Jean and Gary Shekhter, Karen and Stuart Tanz, Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Fund, and Vicki and Carl Zeiger as well as artist sponsors Sandra and Arthur Levinson (for playwright Nathan Englander). What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank is the 2020 winner of The Blanche and Irving Laurie Theatre Visions Fund and is the recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award.

Financial support for The Old Globe is provided by The City of San Diego. The Theodor and Audrey Geisel Fund provides leadership support for The Old Globe’s year-round activities.

Bios and photos of all participants can be found at www.TheOldGlobe.org/Press-Room.

The Tony Award–winning The Old Globe is one of the country’s leading professional not-for-profit regional theatres. Now in its 88th year, the Globe is San Diego’s flagship performing arts institution, and it serves a vibrant community with theatre as a public good. Under the leadership of Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein and the Audrey S. Geisel Managing Director Timothy J. Shields, The Old Globe produces a year-round season of 16 productions of classic, contemporary, and new works on its three Balboa Park stages, including its internationally renowned Shakespeare Festival. More than 250,000 people annually attend Globe productions and participate in the theatre’s artistic and arts engagement programs. Its nationally prominent Arts Engagement Department provides an array of participatory programs that make theatre matter to more people in neighborhoods throughout the region. Humanities programs at the Globe and around the city broaden the community’s understanding of theatre art in all its forms. The Globe also boasts a range of new play development programs with professional and community-based writers, as well as the renowned The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program. Numerous world premieres—such as 2014 Tony Award winner for Best Musical A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Bright Star, The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas!—have been developed at The Old Globe and have gone on to highly successful runs on Broadway and at regional theatres across the country.

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