This month, La Jolla Playhouse is launching the world premiere of the searing new play Here There Are Blueberries, written by Tony Award nominee Moisés Kaufman (Playhouse’s 33 Variations) and Amanda Gronich, conceived and directed by Moisés Kaufman. Co-produced with Tectonic Theater Project, the production runs through August 21.
When an album of never-before-seen World War II-era photographs arrives at the desk of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum archivist Rebecca Erbelding, she and her team of historians begin to unravel the shocking story behind the images. The album soon makes headlines around the world. In Germany, a businessman sees the album online and recognizes his own grandfather in the photos. He begins a journey of discovery that will take him into the lives of other Nazi descendants – in a reckoning of his family’s past and his country’s history. Here There Are Blueberries tells the story of these photographs, and what they reveal about the Holocaust and our own humanity.
“We are honored to welcome back Moisés, Amanda and Tectonic Theater Project for this searing new work that centers on a recently-discovered photo album from Auschwitz and the shocking aspects of the human psyche it exposes,” said Christopher Ashley, the Rich Family Artistic Director of La Jolla Playhouse.
In partnership with Tectonic Theater Project and the Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics (FASPE), the Playhouse will present a series of free audience talkbacks on the themes and issues in Here There Are Blueberries: August 2: Doctors at Auschwitz: Joseph Mengele and the Role of Medicine in Nazi Germany; August 3: The Next Generation: How do we deal with the sins of our fathers, both literally and metaphorically?; August 16: Ethics in Nazi Germany: Himmler’s Posen Speech; August 17: There were Blueberries: the Transformation of Norms and Complicity as the New Normal; August 18: Nazi Crimes and the Complicity of Business Leaders and Professionals.
For more information and tickets, visit lajollaplayhouse.org.
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