Hannah Arendt 

(NEW YORK, NY) -- Luna Stage proudly presents the New York premiere of Jenny Lyn Bader’s Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library, directed by Ari Laura Kreith, running Off-Broadway October 18 – November 10, 2024 for 25 performances in a limited engagement at 59E59 Theaters, Theater B, located at 59 East 59th Street in New York City. Previews begin October 18 for an October 24 opening.

Berlin, 1933. With martial law in effect, political activism has become a capital crime. A young Gestapo officer arrests a graduate student suspected of illegal research. This interrogation promises to be most challenging as he faces the iconic 20th-century thinker Hannah Arendt.

Is she an innocent woman? Or an enemy of the state? Inspired by real events, this fantastical drama delves into the life and mind of one of history’s most profound thinkers.

Brett Temple, Ella Dershowitz, Drew Hirshfield

The design team includes Lortel and Obie Award winner Lauren Helpern (Set), Cameron Filepas (Lights), Megan Culley (Sound) and Deborah Caney (Costumes). Production Stage Manager is Sarah Herdrich.

Performances are Tuesdays - Saturdays at 7:15pm, and Saturdays and Sundays at 2:15pm, with an added matinee on Thursday, November 7 at 2:15pm. No performance on November 5 (Election Day). Run time is approximately 90 minutes. Tickets are $44 (includes fees), and $30 for 59E59 members. $27 First Look tickets are available for October 18 at 7:15pm and October 19 at 2:15pm. Student rush tickets are available in-person at the box office beginning one hour prior to showtime. For more info and to purchase tickets, click here.

ARTIST BIOS

JENNY LYN BADER is the author of plays including In Flight (Workshop Theatre), Equally Divine (14th St. Y), None of the Above (New Georges), and the audio piece Tree Confessions (TINATC, with Kathleen Chalfant). Online productions include Guru of Touch (EdFringe) and Communal Table (Broadway Podcast Network). Her work has been published by DPS, Next Stage Press, Smith & Kraus, Applause, Vintage, Lincoln Center Theatre Review, and Plays International & Europe. Jenny Lyn is a Princess Grace Award finalist and the recipient of a Lark Playwriting Fellowship. She is an alumna of Harvard.

ARI LAURA KREITH is Artistic Director of Luna Stage, where she directed World Premieres of RIFT (Venturous Award), Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library, Heartland (Star-Ledger Top 10), and The Voting Writes Project. NYC: Theatre 167’s Jackson Heights Trilogy (3 full-length plays collaboratively written by 18 playwrights featuring 37 actors in 93 roles in 14 languages), Pirira (NYIT Award: Best Production), Mourning Sun (West End Theatre/Kampala, Uganda). Immersive commissions: Queens Museum, NY Transit Museum. Site-specific: Ground On Which We Stand (Giles R. Wright Award). She is an alumna of Yale.

ELLA DERSHOWITZ Off-Broadway: Can You Forgive Her? (Vineyard Theatre), Intimacy (New Group), Card and Gift (Clubbed Thumb), Connected (59E59), On the Verge (Attic), A Splintered Soul (Rosalind Productions). Regional: The Two Hander (NJ Rep), Joy and Pandemic (Huntington), Hudson Stage, MV Playhouse, Marin Theatre Company, Aurora, Cap Stage, City Lights. TV/Film: Phil Spector (HBO), The Affair (Showtime), Lie to Me (Fox), Knife Fight, Two-Bit Waltz, Addiction: A 60’s Love Story, Pitching Tents. Training: Yale, LAMDA.

DREW HIRSHFIELD is lucky enough to have worked on plays by Bertolt Brecht, Francis Beaumont, Sandy Rustin, Arthur Miller, Kate Hamill, Robert Askins, Jordan Seavey, Lucas Hnath, Anton Chekhov, Steve Martin, Peter Shaffer, Lanford Wilson, Sam Shepard, Oliver Goldsmith, Tom Stoppard, Neil Simon, Steven Sater, Shakespeare, and many others, at theaters large and small across the county. He’s long served on the acting faculty at New York Film Academy. He earned an MFA from American Conservatory Theater.

BRETT TEMPLE originated the role of Officer Karl Frick in Jenny Lyn Bader’s Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library at Luna Stage and is excited to return to it at 59E59. Stage: The Valley of the Shadow (WP Theatre); Henry IV Part One (Shakespeare's Globe). Screen: Mrs. Fletcher; Bull; and the upcoming film When The Moon Was Twice as Big. A New Jersey native and graduate of Rutgers, Mason Gross.

Praise for Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library includes: “A powerful and timely tour de force!” – Voice of America. 

“Gripping... A play for our times!” – Jersey Arts. 

“An intimate, riveting revelation of insight and courage expressed in unexpected ways... providing optimism for the fate of the human race.” – NJ Arts Maven.

“Thoughtful and thought-provoking! Get tickets today and take your sharpest friends with you... I came away wanting to know more, and with the desire to engage someone very far on the other side of the ideological fence. The right time is now.” – Q Onstage.

“What makes the play so powerful is that we see how the young philosopher was already trying to process what was happening to the German people.” – Jewish Journal

Luna Stage develops and produces vibrant plays about local and global experiences, and brings communities together for artistic events that spark conversations, create understanding, and inspire change. Founded in Montclair NJ in 1993, Luna Stage moved to West Orange in 2010 to become an arts anchor of the underserved Valley neighborhood. As producer, innovator, and educator, Luna is dedicated to eliminating barriers to participation, and nurturing the next generation of audiences and artists.

Luna Stage World Premieres include Tony winner Matthew Lopez’s breakout play The Whipping Man, which went on to have its New York premiere at Manhattan Theatre Club and subsequently became one of the most widely-produced plays in the United States from 2012-2016, and three World Premieres by Obie winner Nikkole Salter: Lines In The Dust (Luna commission), Indian Head (Luna co-commission) and Carnaval.

Luna received the NJ Arts People’s Choice Award for Favorite Small Theatre in New Jersey, the Giles R. Wright Designation for Excellence in African American History, and has contributed to the development of over 100 new works for the stage.

59E59 Theaters was established by the Elysabeth Kleinhans Theatrical Foundation in 2004 to grant professional space and expertise to non-profit theater companies premiering their work in New York City. Under the leadership of Val Day, Artistic Director, and Brian Beirne, Managing Director, 59E59 Theaters presents a year-round curated program of Off Broadway plays and musicals that are nurtured and supported by providing performance spaces and equipment as well as production, ticketing, FOH, marketing, and press support. These theater companies receive 80% or more of the ticket revenue and pay no weekly rent to 59E59.

 

EVENT PREVIEWS

A One-Night-Only Play Reading of "Holiday" to Benefit The Acting Company

(NEW YORK, NY) -- The Acting Company has announced additional casting for its upcoming, one-night-only benefit reading of Holiday, a new adaptation by Tony Award winning playwright Richard Greenberg, from the play by Philip Barry. Ella Beatty, Lilli Cooper, Hiram Delgado, Chris Perfetti, and John Slattery join previously announced Rachel Brosnahan and David Corenswet. Tony Award winner Robert Falls will direct the all-star cast in an evening presented by The Acting Company , by special arrangement with Eric Falkenstein. The special event will take place Sunday, October 6, 2024 at 7:00pm at The Gerald W. Lynch Theater (524 W 59th Street, at The John Jay College of Criminal Justice of The City University of New York, NYC). All proceeds from the event will benefit The Acting Company.

 

UPCOMING EVENTS

McCarter Theatre presents the World Premiere of "Empire Records: The Musical"

(PRINCETON, NJ) -- McCarter Theatre Center has announced the cast for the world premiere of Empire Records: The Musical based on the beloved 1990s cult-classic film. This dynamic adaptation, featuring an original rock score by Princeton native Zoe Sarnak and a book by the film's screenwriter Carol Heikkinen, is set to capture the hearts of audiences with dynamic and defiant characters, throwback nostalgia, and an electrifying soundtrack. Empire Records: The Musical is produced by special arrangement with Bill Weiner. It will run September 6 – October 6, 2024 in McCarter's Berlind Theatre.

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Classic American Tales presents stories by Paley, Goyen, Baum, Hecht, Ade, and Wells

2024-09-09 to 2024-10-10