Berlin Diary
Andrea Stolowitz
BERLIN DIARY
by Andrea Stolowitz
Looking into your family's past can be dangerous - or at least really disruptive.
A playwright receives a grant to investigate her great grandfather's wartime diary, transplants her husband and kids to Berlin, and starts a deep dive into the tenuous past of her family.
Her forebears escaped Germany, right? So why are her relatives not close to each other now? What divides them from each other? Why did great grandfather Max seem to have family all around him?
Following genealogical trails over the entire world, she is surprised - and perhaps glad? - to discover that she may indeed have lost relatives to the Shoah. Should this make her more connected to her family, her history, her people?
With courage and forthright honesty, she will try to find out.
Andrea Stolowitz’s plays have been developed and presented nationally and internationally at theaters such as The Long Wharf, The Old Globe, The Cherry Lane, and New York Stage and Film. The LA Times calls her work “heartbreaking” and the Orange County Register characterizes her approach as a “brave refusal to sugarcoat issues and tough decisions.” Andrea is a resident playwright at Artists Repertory Theater (www.artistsrep.org) where she has just received a new play commission. An MFA playwriting alumna of UC-San Diego, Andrea has served on the faculties at UC-San Diego, Duke University, Willamette University, The University of Portland.
“Similar to an episode of “Who Do You think You Are” but really theatrical. Beautifully created. I loved it. It made me want to investigate my family!”
JPP Development: 2017 Jewish Playwriting Contest, 2017 Toronto Tour
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