The Berlin Diaries
Dates : June 4, 2025 — June 22, 2025
Oregon Book Award-winning playwright Andrea Stolowitz opens the pages of her great-grandfather’s journal to discover a previously unknown genealogy that propels her on a search for home, heritage, and repairing her own story within the Jewish diaspora.
june 4-22, 2025
The Berlin Diaries
By Andrea Stolowitz
Directed by Elizabeth Dinkova
Oregon Book Award-winning playwright Andrea Stolowitz opens the pages of her great-grandfather’s journal to discover a previously unknown genealogy in The Berlin Diaries. How do you find home when a family history is scattered like the torn pages of a journal entry released to the wind? Two performers become generations of characters in an attempt to stitch together clues and restore memories formerly lost to time.
How do people become verschollen, lost, like library books, leaving only the dusty outline – a life reduced to negative space? Stolowitz searches for clues that propel her forward and backward in time, pursuing a family history formerly lost to war. In a breathtaking journey around the world, what will remain lost and what will be found at the intersection of national history and private lives?
About the Production
Run Time: 90 minutes
*Appearing through an Agreement between this theater, Theater J, and Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States
Director: Elizabeth Dinkova
Set Designer: Sarah Beth Hall
Costume Designer: Johnna Presby
Lighting Designer: Colin K Bills+
Sound Designer: Sarah O’Halloran+
Projections Designer: Deja Collins
Resident Properties Artisan: Pamela Weiner
German Language Coach: Gillian Drake
Dialect Coach: Katie McDonald
Rehearsal Stage Manager: Hope Villanueva
Production Stage Manager: Alyssa Hill
Assistant Stage Manager: Briana Padgett
Assistant Stage Manager: Elena Zimmerman
*Appearing through an Agreement between this theater, Theater J, and Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States
+Member of United Scenic Artists Local 829
Ann Gilbert
Bonnie and Alan Hammerschlag
Paul and Zena Mason
Lee Silverman
Stuart Sotsky
Manny Strauss and Betsy Karmin
Joan S. Wessel
Christopher Wolf and James Beller
Judy and Leo Zickler
Accessible Performances
Theater J strives to make our productions accessible to all by providing the following open captions for people who are Deaf, deaf, or hard of hearing.
The open captions will be displayed on a projection screen to the left of the stage. If you have any questions, please call the box office at 202-777-3210 or reach out to our Director of Patron Experience, Julia Harris at jharris@theaterj.org.
Creative Connections
Join us for powerful pre and post-show conversations with expert guests to deep dive the themes of The Berlin Diaries.
Creative Connections events are free and open to the public. Discussions take place in the Goldman Theater unless otherwise noted.
Theater J Artistic Director Hayley Finn will moderate a compelling conversation with members of 3GDC – grandchildren of Holocaust survivors who preserve and honor the legacy of their grandparents through education, advocacy, and community-building.
Hester Kamin’s pre-show conversations are a Theater J favorite! Join us to discuss the themes of our plays and how they relate to our own experiences and the issues of our times. Pre-show conversations are a great way to meet other theater fans and thinkers and to be ready to engage with the play more deeply.
Holocaust survivor, co-author of Inseparable, and Theater J Honorary Council Member Marion Ein Lewin joins Hayley Finn after the matinee to discuss the important role diaries from the Holocaust play in supplementing historical narratives with personal perspectives.
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