Anne of Green Gables L.M. Montgomery

Films

The first filmed appearance of Anne Shirley was in the 1919 silent film, Anne of Green Gables, in which the role was played by Mary Miles Minter. The film was directed by William Desmond Taylor. As of 2011, no prints of this silent film adaptation are known to survive. The 1919 film version moved the story from Prince Edward Island to New England, which one American critic—unaware that the novel was set in Canada—praised for "the genuine New England atmosphere called for by the story".[44] Montgomery herself was infuriated with the film for changing Anne from a Canadian to an American, writing in her diary:

It was a pretty little play well photographed, but I think if I hadn't already known it was from my book, that I would never had recognized it. The landscape and folks were 'New England', never P.E Island...A skunk and an American flag were introduced-both equally unknown in PE Island. I could have shrieked with rage over the latter. Such crass, blatant Yankeeism!.[44]

Montgomery disapproved of Minter's performance, writing she had portrayed "a sweet, sugary heroine utterly unlike my gingerly Anne", and complained about a scene where Shirley waved about a shotgun as something as her Anne would never do.[45]

In the 1934 adaptation of the novel, Anne was portrayed by Dawn O'Day, who legally changed her name to "Anne Shirley." She reprised the role in Anne of Windy Poplars, a 1940 film adaptation. Montgomery liked the 1934 film more than the 1919 film, not least because now the book's dialogue could be portrayed on the silver screen and that two scenes were filmed on location in Prince Edward Island (though the rest of the film was shot in California), but still charged that neither the 1919 nor 1934 versions of Anne of Green Gables quite got her book right.[46] Writing about the 1934 version of Anne of Green Gables, Montgomery wrote in her diary that it was a "thousand times" better than the 1919 version, but still it: "was so entirely different from my vision of the scenes and the people that it did not seem like my book at all".[45] The British scholar Faye Hammill wrote that 1934 film version stripped Anne of the "Canadian and feminist" aspects that the Anne of the books possessed, stating that there was something about Anne that Hollywood cannot get right.[46] Hammill observed that the idea that Anne was entirely cheerful is a product of the film and television versions as the Anne of the books has to deal with loss, rejection, cruel authority figures, and loneliness.[46]

List

• Anne of Green Gables (1919), a silent film adapted to the screen by Frances Marion, directed by William Desmond Taylor, and starring Mary Miles Minter as Anne; this is considered a lost film.
• Anne of Green Gables (1934), directed by George Nichols Jr. and starring Dawn O'Day as Anne Shirley; after filming, O'Day changed her screen name to Anne Shirley.
• Anne of Windy Poplars (1940), directed by Jack Hively, is a black & white "talkie" starring Dawn O'Day as Anne Shirley, now billed as "Anne Shirley".
• Akage no An: Green Gables e no Michi (1989, released in 2010) Red-haired Anne: Road to Green Gables - anime, directed by Isao Takahata. A 100-minute theatrical movie compilation of the first six episodes of the animated television series Akage no An, edited together by Takahata in 1989. The film went unreleased until July 17, 2010, when it was screened at the Ghibli Museum.

Radio productions

• Anne of Green Gables (1941), a British radio drama produced and broadcast by BBC Home Service Basic, adapted into four parts by Muriel Levy, and starring Cherry Cottrell as Anne.[8]
• Anne of Green Gables (1944), a recreation of the 1941 BBC Radio drama, produced and broadcast by BBC Home Service Basic.[47]
• Anne of Green Gables (1954), a Canadian radio drama produced and broadcast by CBC Radio, adapted into 13 parts by Andrew Allen and starring Toby Tarnow as Anne.[48]
• Anna zo Zeleného domu (1966), a Slovak radio drama produced and broadcast by Czechoslovak Radio, starring Anna Bučinská as Anne.[49]
• Anne of Green Gables (1971), a British radio drama produced and broadcast by BBC Radio 4, adapted into 13 parts by Cristina Sellors, and read by Ann Murray.[50]
• Anne of Green Gables (1997), a British radio drama produced and broadcast by BBC Radio 4, dramatized into five parts by Marcy Kahan and starred Barbara Barnes as Anne.[51]

Stage productions

• Anne of Green Gables: The Musical, performed annually in the summer, at Charlottetown Festival, since 1965, this is Canada's longest-running main stage musical production, and has had a total audience of more than 2 million.[52][53][54] Anne of Green Gables – The Musical was composed by Canadians Don Harron and Norman Campbell, with lyrics by Elaine Campbell and Mavor Moore. The production has been performed before Queen Elizabeth II and it has toured across Canada, the United States, Europe, and Japan. In 1969, it had a run in London's West End. The Charlottetown Festival production performed at the 1970 World's Fair in Osaka, Japan. Walter Learning directed and organized a successful national tour of the musical in Japan in 1991.[55]
• The Guild in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, hosts Anne and Gilbert, The Musical. Written by Nancy White, Bob Johnston, and Jeff Hochhauser, the production is based on Montgomery's sequels featuring Anne Shirley.[56]
• The Nine Lives of L.M. Montgomery, a musical adapted from Montgomery's novel and her life, opened at Kings Playhouse in Georgetown, Prince Edward Island on June 20, 2008, the 100th anniversary of the book's publication. With book and lyrics by Adam-Michael James and music by Emmy-nominated composer Leo Marchildon, the musical depicts events from Montgomery's life and features as characters heroines from all of her novels. Anne figures prominently, and is shown from age 12 into her 40s. Gilbert Blythe also appears. The show's second production was at the Carrefour Theatre in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island and opened July 11, 2009. Both years, the musical was nominated for The Prince Edward Island Museum and Heritage Foundation's Wendell Boyle Award. In July 2010, a concert version of the show toured Prince Edward Island, with four performances at Green Gables.[57]
• Theatreworks USA, a New York-based children's theatre company, produced an Anne of Green Gables musical in 2006 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. A revived production, with musical contributions from Gretchen Cryer, is planned to tour grade-schools.[58]
• The Peterborough Players, based in Peterborough, New Hampshire, staged an adaptation by Joseph Robinette of Anne of Green Gables in August 2009.[59]
• Anne and Gilbert is a musical adaptation of the books Anne of Avonlea and Anne of the Island. It depicts the relationship of Anne and Gilbert during their years as teachers and college students, as well as their return to Avonlea.[60]
• Anne of Green Gables, adapted by Julia Britton and Robert Chuter performed as a site-specific production at Rippon Lea, Melbourne, Australia December - February, 1996–97.
• Bend in the Road is a musical adaptation of Anne of Green Gables featured in the 2013 New York Musical Theatre Festival. The musical is written by Benita Scheckel and Michael Upward.[61][62]
• A "folk-rock" adaptation entitled Anne of Green Gables by Matte O'Brien and Matt Vinson was premiered at the 2018 Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival, with a subsequent 2020 concept album and a 2022 production at Goodspeed Opera House.[63][64][65][66]

Television films and episodic series (animated)

• Akage no An (1979; Red-Haired Anne), an animated television series, part of Nippon Animation's World Masterpiece Theater, produced in Japan and directed by Isao Takahata.
• Anne of Green Gables: The Animated Series (2001), a PBS Kids animated series for older children ages eight to twelve, created by Sullivan Entertainment Inc.
• Anne: Journey to Green Gables (2005), an animated video film produced by Sullivan Entertainment and the prequel to Anne of Green Gables: The Animated Series (2001–2002)
• Kon'nichiwa Anne: Before Green Gables (2009), part of the World Masterpiece Theater, this prequel to Akage no An is based on Budge Wilson's authorized prequel Before Green Gables (2008).

Television films and episodic series (live action)

• Anne of Green Gables (1952), a BBC television series starring Carole Lorimer as Anne.[67] Broadcast live, no recordings are thought to have ever existed, as it was made before telerecording was practised by the BBC.
• Anne of Green Gables (1956), a made-for-television musical version directed by Norman Campbell and starring Toby Tarnow as Anne.
• Anne de Green Gables (1957), a French-Canadian television film directed by Jacques Gauthier, starring Mireille Lachance as Anne Shirley.
• Anne of Green Gables (1958), a recreation of the 1956 film directed by Don Harron, starring Kathy Willard as Anne.
• Anne of Green Gables (1972), a British made-for-television 5-part mini-series directed by Joan Craft, starring Kim Braden as Anne.
  • Anne of Avonlea (1975), a British made-for-television 4-part mini-series sequel directed by Joan Craft, starring Kim Braden as Anne.
• Anne of Green Gables (1985), a CBC four-hour television mini series directed by Kevin Sullivan with Megan Follows as Anne; widely considered the definitive version to date.
  • Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel (1987), a sequel to the 1985 miniseries which aired on CBC and the Disney Channel as Anne of Avonlea: The Continuing Story of Anne of Green Gables. Follows reprises her role.
  • Road to Avonlea (1990–1996) shown on CBC, a live-action television spin-off series based upon characters and episodes from several of L.M. Montgomery's other books. Anne herself never appears but other characters from the previous two films are included, and the series is set within the same continuity as Sullivan's 1980s miniseries.
  • Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story (2000), a sequel to the 1985 television miniseries not based on the novels. Follows reprises Anne Shirley once again.
  • Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning (2008), a prequel to the 1985 television miniseries not based on the novels. Hannah Endicott-Douglas plays young Anne, and Barbara Hershey plays Anne as an adult.
• L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables (2016), a 90-minute made-for-television adaptation of the book by Breakthrough Films & Television, adapted by Susan Coyne, directed by John Kent Harrison, and stars Ella Ballentine as Anne, Sara Botsford as Marilla Cuthbert, and Martin Sheen as Matthew Cuthbert. It was followed by Anne of Green Gables: The Good Stars and Anne of Green Gables: Fire & Dew (both in 2017).
• Anne with an E (2017–2019), a Canadian joint CBC-Netflix episodic drama that developed the subtext of trauma in the novel through original storylines. It was adapted by Moira Walley-Beckett, and stars Amybeth McNulty as Anne Shirley, Geraldine James as Marilla Cuthbert, R. H. Thomson as Matthew Cuthbert, and Lucas Jade Zumann as Gilbert Blythe.

Web productions

• Green Gables Fables (2014–2016), an American-Canadian web series which conveys the story in the form of Tumblr posts, tweets, vlogs, and other social media. It is a modern adaptation of Anne of Green Gables and Anne of the Island, with many of its elements changed to better suit 21st-century culture. Mandy Harmon portrays the main character, Anne Shirley.[68]
• Project Green Gables (2015–2016), a Finnish web series and a modern adaptation of Anne of Green Gables, which conveys the story in the form of vlogs. Laura Eklund Nhaga plays Anne Shirley.[69]