Berlin Diary

Finalist for the 2017 Oregon Book Award

The great-grandfather of Oregon Book Award-winning playwright Andrea Stolowitz kept a journal for his descendants after escaping to New York City in 1939 as a German Jew. Following the complicated lure of genealogy, Stolowitz went back to Berlin to bring the story of her unknown ancestors out of the archives into the light. The record keeps as many secrets as it shares; how do people become verschollen, lost, like library books?

In this complex, contemporary drama about the search for home, fragmented heritage and Jewish diaspora, two performers scintillated between characters and locations at the border of reality and memory and the intersection of national history and private lives. 

The Portland workshop production CoHo Theatre in April 2017 was made possible with generous support from the Jewish Theatre Federation of Greater Portland, Metro and Jewish Theatre Collaborative. Other community sponsors included:  Congregation Beth Israel, Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, Mittleman Jewish Community Center, and PSU’s Judaic Studies Department.

A workshop production of Berlin Diary premiered at English Theatre Berlin in October 2016. The play was supported through a 2014-15 DAAD faculty research fellowship, a year-long residency at English Theatre Berlin/International Performing Arts Center, and grants from the Oregon Arts Commission, The Regional Arts and Culture Council, The Checkpoint Charlie Foundation, and The US Embassy. The play was developed at PlayPenn and the New Harmony Project.

After a sold out run of workshop productions in Portland in April, Andrea Stolowitz’s Berlin Diary toured Oregon, New York state & Toronto.

REVIEWS
Portland Mercury (April 2017)
Dennis Sparks Blog (April 2017)
Broadway World (April 2017)

PREVIEWS
Willamette Week (April 2017)
Portland Tribune (April 2017)
Portland Monthly (March 2017)
DC Metro Theatre Arts (May 2016)