I AM MY OWN WIFEBy Doug WrightDirected by John GoingMAJOR SPONSOR: SBC YELLOW PAGES

CONTENTS2 The 4113 A/S/L & RMAI4 FYI5 An American in

Berlin6 F2F8 IRL

10 RBTL12 SWDYT?

STUDY GUIDES ARESUPPORTED BY A GENEROUS GRANTFROM CITIGROUP

2005—2006 SEASON

MISSOURI ARTS COUNCIL�

10. TBA Ushers will seat your school or class as a group,so even if you are dying to mingle with the group from theall girls school that just walked in the door, stick with yourfriends until you have been shown your section in thetheatre.

9. SITD The house lights will dim immediately before theperformance begins and then go dark. Fight off that oh-so-immature urge to whisper, giggle like a grade schooler, oryell at this time and during any other blackouts in the show.

8. SED Before the performance begins, turn off all cellphones, pagers, beepers and watch alarms. If you need totext, talk, or dial back during intermission, please make sureto click off before the show resumes.

7. TMI Not to sound like your mom, but “if you need to gonow, you needed to go then.” Leaving the theatre during theperformance is disruptive, so take care of any personal needsbefore the show starts.

6. RTM When you arrive at the theatre, read the productionprogram. It’s like a deluxe version of liner notes and a freesouvenir, all in one.

5. P-ZA? NW! Though your ability to eat ten slices at onesitting may impress your friends, no one wants to listen toyou chew, slurp, or smack, so please leave all food, drink,and gum outside the theatre.

4. TLK-2-U-L-8-R We know that you will be dying todiscuss what you see onstage with your friends, but pleasewait until intermission. Any talking—even whispering— isvery distracting for both the actors onstage and the audienceseated around you.

3. LOL Without you, we really wouldn’t have a show. It’syour job to laugh when a scene is funny or maybe even sheda tear or two in a tender moment. However, since you arenot the audience at The Jerry Springer Show please refrainfrom inappropriate responses such as talking, whistling,making catcalls or singing along with the performers.

2. SOP While it’s great that you want a celeb picture of yourday at The Rep, the theatre is off-limits to the paparazzi.Flash photography interrupts the performance and alongwith videorecording is prohibited by Actors Equity rules. Youcan sneak a peek at production photos on our website,www.repstl.org.

1. LLTA Let the actors know that you respect their work byremaining for the curtain call at the end of the performance.Show your appreciation through applause.

MIHYAP: TOP TEN WAYS TOSTAY CONNECTED AT THE REP

The Teacher’sLoungeIn an effort to make our educational materials more accessible tostudents and easier for educators to incorporate into the classroom, we have adopted a new, more student-oriented format. We hope that you will circulate thisguide among your students in the weeks preceding yourvisit to The Rep, encouraging them to browse it beforeand after class and as time allows, using it as a launchpoint for both pre- and post-performance discussions.You may also want to visit our website, www.repstl.orgfor additional information regarding the production elements, such as scenery, costumes, and lighting. Any materials, either from this guide, or from our

website may be reproduced for use in the class-room. As always, we appreciate yourmaking live theatre a part of your class-

room experience and welcome yourfeedback and questions.

Show Me Standards: CA 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7; FA 1, 2 ,3, 4, 5; SS 2, 3, 6, 7and Illinois Learning Standards: 1, 4, ,5, 14, 16, 18, 25, 26, 27, SEL 3.

At The Rep, we knowthat life moves fast—okay, really fast.But we also knowthat some things

are worth slowing down for. We believe that live theatre is one of those pit stops worth making and are excited thatyou are going to stop by for a show. To help you get themost bang for your buck, we have put together WU? @ THE REP—an IM guide that will give youeverything you need to know to get at the top of yourtheatergoing game—fast. You’ll find character descriptions(A/S/L), a plot summary (FYI), background informationon the playwright (F2F) and other NTK information.Most importantly, we’ll have some ideas about what this all means IRL, anyway.

WHILE I Am My Own Wife is a fictionalizedretelling of the playwright’s experienceswith Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, all characters,including Charlotte and Doug Wright arebased on actual people or compilations ofseveral individuals.

CHARLOTTE VON MAHLSDORF holds theattention of the German public for manyyears, giving guided tours of her GründerzeitMuseum and of her life as a transvestite whosurvived both the Nazi and Communistregimes in East Berlin.

DOUG WRIGHT is an award-winningplaywright and screenwriter who takes onthe monumental task of sharing Charlotte’sstory with the world.

JOHN MARKS is a journalist covering the fall of the Berlin Wall when he discovers Charlotte and relays her story tohis longtime friend, Doug Wright.

TANTE LUISE is Charlotte’s aunt and thefirst person to witness and accept hertransvestitism.

LOTHAR BERFELDE is Charlotte’s givenname, used in the play to indicate herboyhood.

MAX BERFELDE is Charlotte’s abusivefather who is a member of the Nazi party.

MINNA MAHLICH is the proprietor of theMulackritze, a tavern for gays and lesbianswhich Charlotte preserves in its entirety inthe basement of her home when Communistrule forces it to close.

ALFRED KIRSCHNER is an antiques dealerand friend of Charlotte’s who is imprisonedfor illegal trading after Charlotte providesincriminating information to the Stasi.

Agee, Joel. Twelve Years: An American Boyhood in EastGermany. U of Chicago Press,2000.

Dennis, J.M. The Rise and Fall ofthe German Democratic Republic1945–1990. Longman, 2000.

Gellately, Robert and NathanStoltzfus, eds. Social Outsiders inNazi Germany. Princeton UP, 2001.

Grau, Gunter and ClaudiaShoppmann, eds. The HiddenHolocaust?: Gay and LesbianPersecution in Germany 1933–45.Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1995.

Von Mahlsdorf, Charlotte. I Am MyOwn Woman: The Outlaw Life ofCharlotte Von Mahlsdorf, Berlin’sMost Distinguished Transvestite.Cleis Press, 1995.

Von Praunheim, Rosa.[videocassette] I Am My OwnWoman. Cinevista, 1994.

http://www.gruenderzeitmuseum.de&lp=de_en&tt=url

http://www.hirschfeld.in-berlin.de/index1024_en.php

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERnazi.htm

READ MORE ABOUT ITWe encourage you to examine these topics in-depth by exploringthe following books and websites.

The Gründerzeit (literally: the Founding Epoch)denoted the first decades after the foundation in 1871 of thePrussia-led German Empire.

It was the Golden Age of Germany, when the disasters of theThirty Years War and the Napoleonic Wars were remedied, German scientists were developing new technologies faster thananyone else, German industrialists were developing new methods

and products that no other nation could compete with, andGerman merchants were once again taking over marketafter market around the world. This was the time whenparticularly the German middle class rapidly increasedtheir standard of living, buying modern furniture andkitchen fittings and household machines, of a standard that wasn’t to be outshined for generations.

MOST SUCCESSFUL writers, beyondhaving an innate technical talent forassembling words on a page, also have aparticular gift for seeing potential in peopleand events that others might overlook andtranslating that potential into somethingmeaningful and accessible for the largerpublic. Fifteen years ago, playwright DougWright noted that potential in Charlotte vonMahlsdorf, and spent months interviewingher and piecing together the remarkablestory of her life. He was enthralled with thisaging German transvestite who survivedboth the Nazi and Communist regimes in theformer East Berlin, but for all the rawpotential of her history, he could notmanage the translation. Representing herfairly was a daunting task and one which hedelayed for several years until he realizedthat he could portray her and her myriadcomplexities and contradictions if heincluded an intermediary in the play. Andso, a decade after his first encounter with

Charlotte, Wright produced his translation of that experience—a play that allows the audience to see her through his eyes and experience his enchantment,disillusionment and awe as she slips in and out of her roles as a museum curator, a young boy in an abusive home, a Stasiinformant and more. I Am My Own Wifeencapsulates Wright’s discovery process,including him as one of the almost 40characters played by a single actor, anduncovering, one anecdote at a time, the lifeof Charlotte von Mahlsdorf as well as theculture in which she lived. The narrative isalways Charlotte’s, though not always in herown voice, suggesting that history is notstatic but a fluid progression from oneobserver to the next. Regardless of the voicethough, the record exists and must beplayed for the listener to hear and evaluate.That is the value of a close, but loosetranslation.

Examples of Gründerzeit era furniture

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…the event [the fall of the Wall] blewme away. The sight of hundreds ofthousands of people taking to the streetsand overthrowing an unjust dictatorshipfilled me with awe then…and continuesto move me. It was like watching a birth.In Berlin, the revolution happenedwithout bloodshed. Unlike the RussianRevolution, and most other politicalconvulsions of the Twentieth Century, the Fall of the Wall did not bring deathand destruction in its wake, but it didbring about the end of four decades ofrepression. I consider myself to be a childof 1989, politically, socially, culturally…The fall of the Wall marks the beginningof our era. In a very real sense, wecannot comprehend the world as it now exists, politically, economically orculturally, without grasping this rupture,which, virtually over night, put an end to what was once called the Cold War.Seldom does history offer such dramaticturning points. Until 1989, most peoplelived under the shadow of a globalconflict between two nuclear superpowersthat might break out at any moment and destroy the world. At the same time,oddly enough, people had certainassurances. The world made sense. Underthe watchful eyes of the Soviet Union andthe United States, conflicts around theglobe could be contained. Because bothsides had weapons of mass destruction,neither side could win; therefore, neither

side had an interest in using them. Thedemons of nationalism and religiousfanaticism might exist, but were held incheck by these larger forces, which gave ahigher ideological meaning and shape toall strife. In retrospect, the Cold Warmade the world a very simple place tounderstand and a relatively easy one tomanage. Its ending has left us nearlyincoherent, struggling for definition, andthe transition from one state to the otherhas never ceased to fascinate me. Third,and last, the collapse of the Communistregimes of Eastern Europe in 1989showed me history not as a collection ofdecisions made by powerful states, ofdiplomatic cables or economic statistics,not as a set of facts looking for atheoretical context, but as a livingforce—history, if you will, as an Act ofGod. I'm not saying that I interpret theseevents in a religious fashion or that I see anything divine in them at all.What I'm saying is that, as they occurred,they appeared to come out of the sky. At the time, I was a clerk in theWashington bureau of the New YorkTimes, and I still remember the faces ofveteran correspondents as they came tothe copy desk to watch the television; in response to the images on the set,Berliners dancing on the Wall, massdemonstrations in Prague, fighting in thestreets of Bucharest, their jaws woulddrop. History had taken us by surprise…

John Marks, a character in I Am My Own Wife, and the real-life foreign correspondent andfriend of Doug Wright who first made the connection between Wright and Charlotte vonMahlsdorf is also a novelist, drawing from his experiences in Berlin to craft a spy thriller setagainst the fall of the Wall. In discussing his aptly titled 1999 novel, The Wall, he providesinteresting insights into the world in which Charlotte gained notoriety allowing a fullerunderstanding of some of the forces that may have motivated her more questionable decisions:

AN AMERICANIN BERLIN

read more on pg. 7

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INTERVIEWER KENNETH JONES, ofPlaybill On-line, spoke with playwright Doug Wright shortly after Wright wasnotified of winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for I Am My Own Wife.Excerpts of that conversation are reprintedbelow, with the full text available athttp://www.playbill.com/celebritybuzz/article/85381.html.

Playbill On-line: I keep telling people it’ssome of the best storytelling on Broadway. I miss clean storytelling. But even sayingthat, there’s nothing clean about thisbecause Charlotte is a confusion to thisonstage character that you created—thecharacter named Doug Wright. She’s amystery still.

DW: [Laughs.] She’s a complete and vexingmystery, and I felt like in exploring her life,the best way to honor her was to present herwith all of her contradictions intact. That’swhy I chose to tell the play through my owneyes, so that the audience would share myjourney as I discovered, first—I thought—a hero, then, upon closer scrutiny realized, no—I’d actually stumbled upon a human being.

PBOL: As complex as any of us.

DW: Right. Absolutely.

PBOL: There was a time when this was a pileof interview transcripts. You were stymied.You didn’t know if it was a play.

DW: Yes, I didn’t. In fact, it was the tirelesscollaboration of Moisés Kaufman andJefferson Mays that coaxed the play out ofme, and I feel like I would be remiss if Ididn’t say that three dramatists have beenawarded the Pulitzer this year, because thetwo of them were absolutely indispensable tothe evolution of this play.

PBOL: The script grew out of “theatregames,” at Sundance Theatre Lab, wasn’t it?

DW: It was. Moisés said, “You’ve got thisgiant stack of raw material, you want it tobecome a play, you’re completely blocked, solet’s get rough and crazy and let’s start tocreate a few theatre games based on thematerial.” We did, and suddenly he got me tothink about its theatrical possibilities in aradically new way. Had Jefferson and Moisésnot interceded, I don’t think there would be aplay.

PBOL: Moisés put on a dress in thatSundance workshop —

DW: He did indeed. Jefferson carvedminiature furniture out of old shirtcardboard. And I read what Moisés claimed tobe a very tattered copy of the gay guidebookto Berlin. I suddenly realized that by showingsnippets from her life, we could suggest thefabric of an entire 20th century and that wasour goal. [In the final version of the soloshow, Mays wears a black dress and pearls,Charlotte does indeed read snippets from thegay guidebook and miniature furniture ispulled from an oaken box to suggest thepassion the character has for antiques.]

PBOL: In the play, Charlotte appears on awild German TV talk show.

DW: Yes, that is my invention, but entirelytrue to the German TV shows on which sheappeared. They’re every bit as lurid and overthe top as our Jerry Springer. I rememberonce she was on a show that was,“Celebrating Difference With Charlotte Von Mahlsdorf and a Dwarf!”

PBOL: In its development, Robert Blacker,artistic director of Sundance Theatre Labs,helped.

DW: Yeah, he was instrumental. When I wasso blocked about the play and felt like Icouldn’t tell it in an honest or a true way, hesaid, “You can’t tell all of European history.You’ve got no authority.” He said, “Instead,just tell the story of your burgeoningrelationship with her. You’re not writing ahistory play, you’re writing a love story.”Suddenly, the play made enormous sense.

PBOL: I Am My Own Wife is unusuallystructured, small, surprising, some wouldsay experimental — in a way, the narrator-playwright is on an investigation. It doesn’tattempt to be what you would call “a well-made play,” but it’s rich with story.

DW: I am a passionate devotee of narrative. Ithink that storytelling has fallen out offashion, and yet I think it’s one of the mostfundamental ways we communicate with one

another. I tell my students at NYU that ifsomething funny happened to you at 9 a.m.in the morning, you test fly it over the watercooler, you’ve evolved it into a pretty funnyjoke at brunch, and by dinnertime you’vecreated an epic. It’s how we communicate our experience, by building narrative. I still think it’s a critical and indispensablepart of playwriting.

PBOL: Did you know Doug Wright, theplaywright, would be a character?

DW: I didn’t until Robert [Blacker] said,“Make it a love story.” Then I knew I had to be [a character]. It also kept me honest: I thought, if I’m going to commit Charlotte’slife to paper, I need to show equal courageand attempt to commit my own—and be fair to both of us, and be equitable in mypresentation of us both.

I wrote a novel because I did not believethat a reporting of the events could dojustice to their magnitude or to theirdrama. I wanted to try and imagine whatit would be like to have investedeverything emotionally, spiritually andpsychologically in one view of the worldand then see that world turned upsidedown. And I could not really do that tomy satisfaction in a non-fiction work.Having said that, the novel is steeped inmy experiences as a journalist in Centraland Eastern Europe between 1990 and1995. I have been to most of the placesdescribed in the book, interviewed dozens of people who experienced thetransformation firsthand—spies,dissidents, student revolutionaries; I have retraced the events of the variousrevolutions and tried to stay true to the broader historical sweep. Also, as awork of fiction, The Wall has to do withmy own personal and intellectualtransformation during the last years of

the Cold War. When I went to Marburg asa student in the early 1980’s, I had neverbeen out of the American South.Suddenly, I was thrust into the greattragedies and schisms of Central andEastern Europe. Marburg was then one ofthe “red” universities of West Germany. It had a high percentage of hard-lineLeftists in its student body, and theywere outspoken in their hatred for theUnited States and its policies.…I traveled to the Soviet Union and East Germany, where I experienced boththe repressiveness and strangeness ofCommunist governments, but also met,for the first time, perfectly reasonablepeople who professed the Marxist creed.That year changed my life, changed theway that I looked at my country and my upbringing and lots of things that I had previously held dear. When the Wall fell, this period of my life itself had to come under examination.

AN AMERICANIN BERLIN continues

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In reflecting on his writing process for I AmMy Own Wife, playwright Doug Wright saidof his subject, Charlotte von Mahlsdorf:

In the end, she was as profoundlyhuman as any of us. She did makecompromises to lead this iconoclastic life;she protected her museum and sheprotected her own, very atypical identitythrough these notorious regimes. Those are huge accomplishments, and to thinknaively that she could have done that withminimal sacrifice denies the magnitude ofthe achievements themselves. No, she didthose remarkable things at a deeplypainful price…I didn't want to face thisinitially but then I realized that theoriginal intention I had of writing thispiece of hero-worship was morepropagandistic than artful. I thought, ‘If you really do admire her, if you reallylove her, then you should be able towithstand the full truth of her life and notjust selective portions of it.’

Though he was not creating a conventionalbiography, Wright shared many of the samechallenges and conflicts faced by these

writers in recording a life. As historian,editor of The Economist, and notedbiographer Ann Roe wrote recently in The Tablet of London:

…biographers have care of souls. We areresponsible sometimes briefly, sometimesfor much longer for the reputation andafterlife of other people. We hold theirmemorial flame, and snuff it out or makeit blaze as we please. What we say aboutthese people becomes, for awhile at least,the truth of who they were. By writingbiography, we recast in the world theshadow of a soul that still lives, thatcannot defend itself. That soul depends on us.

At the same time, those who choose toportray the lives of others have anobligation to the reader to examine thesubject fully, look at all sources and selectwith care those that are most credible. Thereader, or in this case, audience, also has aduty in interpreting what is presented.According to author Myra Zarnowski in her2003 book, History Makers: A QuestioningApproach to Reading and Writing

1770The Mulack-Ritze Cabaret inBerlin is founded.

1877Thomas Alva Edison inventsthe phonograph. EmileBerliner invents thegramophone.

1911Magnus Hirschfeldpublishes Die Transvestiten.

1920Adolf Hitler organizes theNational Socialist GermanWorker’s Party (NAZI).

March 18, 1928 Lothar Berfelde (laterCharlotte von Mahlsdorf) is born.

January 1933Adolf Hitler is appointedChancellor of Germany.Article 48 of the WeimarConstitution denies civilliberties in time of nationalemergency. Federal policeagencies, SA (Storm Troops)and SS (Special Security),are created.

1933–45Minorities, including Jews,Gypsies, gays and thephysically and mentallydisabled are deported toconcentration camps.

1934 Lothar begins collectingphonograph records andclocks.

1935The Nazi Party passes theNuremberg Laws,persecuting the GermanJews.

The lover of Lothar’s TanteLuise is murdered under theNazi euthanasia program.

1937Participation in Hitler Youthbecomes mandatory.

November 9, 1938Nazis burn synagogues,businesses and homes ofJews in Kristallnacht (TheNight of Broken Glass).

1939World War II begins.

The Life andTimes of

Charlotte vonMahlsdorf

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Biographies, heedlessly accepting the written or spoken word is just as dangerousas giving an inaccurate account. She encourages readers to ask two primary questions when exploring anindividual’s life:

• What are the turning points?• What if a different decision had been

made?

This approach, much like Wright’s techniqueof the one-person play, forces us to see the individual and the larger historicalcontext for what they are—fluid works in progress—rather than static,predetermined stories to be learned by rote.

She also suggests follow-up questions of:

• What do I think?• What else?

These questions prompt us to recognize thebroader applications and long-terminfluences of seemingly isolated events andactions. It also makes us vital participants inour own history. While it is not the task ofhistorians—amateur or professional—tomake history, we do have a responsibility toattend to it and note its implications for ourlives. Our responses to the choices of thosewho preceded us will shape not only how weexist today but also how we are perceived inthe future.

➤ APPLY Myra Zarnowski’s questions to Charlotte vonMahlsdorf’s life. What were her major turning points?What if she had made different choices? Now consider your own history to this point. What have been the major turning points so far? How might yourlife be different if you had made different decisions atthose points?

1943Lothar and family evacuateBerlin and move toBischofsburg. He receivesGründerzeit furnishingsfrom Tante Luise.

1944Lothar’s father, MaxBerfelde, dies.

April 26, 1945Berlin is liberated by AlliedForces.

1945–49Gay social life is restored inBerlin, following the war.

1949The German DemocraticRepublic is founded.

1952–63In East Germany,Communists close gay andlesbian bars, including theMulack-Ritze.

1959Lothar takes possession ofHultschiner Damm 333 andbegins restoration.

1960 Gründerzeit Museum(formerly HultschinerDamm 333) opens.

1961The Berlin Wall, separatingEast and West Germany, iserected.

1963Mulack-Ritze Cabaret isresurrected in the basementof the Gründerzeit Museum.

1971Lothar permanentlyassumes the identity of“Charlotte von Mahlsdorf”,taking the first name of hisaunt’s lover and adding thesurname, “of Mahlsdorf”.

1989Under internationalpressure, the Berlin Wall istorn down.

1990East and West Germanyunite. Charlotte receives thecountry's Federal ServiceCross for her restorationefforts.

1991Charlotte moves to Swedenamidst allegations of being aStasi informant.

April 30, 2002Charlotte passes away inBerlin.

December 5, 2003I Am My Own Wife opens onBroadway.

KEYS:“I wanted to sneak out the door, but it wastightly locked. But even then I had in mypocket…keys.”

“And I collected, when I was a child, many keys. Keys for desks. Keys for doors.Keys with no locks; castaways. These I still carry in my apron, ja?”

Whether it is a conscious or unconscious act,Charlotte’s obsession with keys is an aptillustration of her desire to control her owndestiny. She can, at will, open those doorswhich she chooses to and alternately, lockthose in which she keeps hidden her darkersecrets.

GRAMOPHONES,POLYPHONES, PIANOLAS:“…the music would pour through the hornand make things better”

Charlotte’s interest in gramophones is alsoheavily based in a need for control. By her own explanation, gramophones are preferable to radio because the ownerdictates what is heard, not an externalforce. This can be seen as a reaction againstany number of harsh authority figures andinstitutions that she encountered, from herfather to the Nazi and Communist regimes.

RECORDS:“No matter what people want to see orhear, I’ll show or play it.”

As demure and—oddly enough—understated, as Charlotte can be, she is bynature, presentational. Her love of records isreflected in her own continual recounting of her life and times. Just as each recordcarries a label for the song that it holds,Charlotte carries an internalized catalog of anecdotes that she tells. She is a walkingcollection of albums, with each repetition ofa story using the same words and cadencesas the one that preceded it.

CLOCKS:“In French, this clock is called ‘regulatour.’Because it is regulating the time. And auf Deutsch we say ‘Wanduhr’oder‘Freischwinger’ Because the pendulum isn’t encased in a glass box; it’s freelysuspended.”These two seemingly opposing names for the same clock are a wonderfulrepresentation of the duality of Charlotte.She is simultaneously, a “free swinger”,ranging outside of conventional norms andcarefully regulated, a meticulously groomedelderly woman archiving an entire culture in her home.

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In I Am My Own Wife, playwright Doug Wright presents a loose narrative of the life

of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, skillfully weaving her real-life events and interests into a

script that is rich with symbolism. The images below play recurring, significant roles

throughout the piece.

MUSEUM:“Museum. Furniture. Men. This is the order in which I have lived my life.”

Charlotte’s overriding commitment to herconservation efforts reflect her desire topreserve and present herself, a portion of her country and a way of life.

TIGERS:“Sitting on either side of him, two tigers.Cubs, sure, but they’re still as big as he is.And they’re not fond of posing, either.Their eyes are dangerously alert. At anymoment, they might revolt; they mightscratch or bite. But Lothar has one armaround each tiger, and they’re resting theirforepaws on his knees.”

Wright’s remembrance of this final image ofCharlotte, as a boy posing with two tigercubs, encapsulates the delicate balance ofher extraordinary life played out under thearms of two oppressive governments.

GENDERED LANGUAGE:“This table, he is over one hundred years old.”

It is noteworthy that Charlotte, on occasion,carries the German grammatical rule ofgendered nouns into her English, which notonly personifies the table, in the aboveexample, but also attributes a sexualidentity to it.

TRANSFORMATION:“When families died, I became thisfurniture.”

“A transvestite becomes such a medal.”Charlotte’s frequent slips into her nativetongue often belie a deeper truth, as is thecase with her use of the word “become.” She uses the English form, “become”, but intends the German meaning “to get or receive”, of the word “bekommen.”

This clever play on the languages lends dual meaning in the above contexts.Although Charlotte technically means thatshe “got” the furniture and the medal, the notion of transformation given by the English word allows a telling secondreading of her statements.

ONE-ACTOR PERFORMANCE:The use of a single actor to portray all of theroles in this play is not only an impressivefeat from a performance standpoint but alsoan important physical manifestation of thefluidity of historical narrative. A single storyflows out of many perspectives, alwayschanging, each shaping the others.

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“And so I took old paper—brown grocerypaper—and I cut it in the shape of labels.And I wrote with ink false titles: Aryanpolkas and waltzes, yes? And I glued themonto the records, for safety. And when thewar was over I took a sponge and withwater I took the labels back off. And thenthe Hebrew titles with the dog Nipper werevisible again.”

➤ What significance do you think Charlotte’stelling of this story has? How does it parallelwith her own life and that of others in WorldWar II? Have you ever pretended to besomething or someone that you were not inorder to protect yourself?

“We…have been systematically denied ourown history. Our own past. Perhaps that’swhy we’re so eager to embrace a martyr,even when she’s made of glass?”

➤ In the play, this question is asked by a gayrights activist, but the words could easily bethose of any number of minority groupsthroughout history. What other peopleshave been or currently are being deniedtheir history? How have they or are theyresponding? What does the activist meanwhen he says, “even when she’s made ofglass”?

“Be as smart as the snakes; it’s in theBible.” “Never forget that you are living inthe lion’s den. Sometimes, you must howlwith the wolves.”

➤ When pressed about her involvement withthe Stasi, Charlotte offers these quotes fromher Tante Luise. Do you think that Charlotteconsiders these admissions of guilt orjustifications for her actions? Difficultcircumstances do present ethical challenges,but do they merit compromises of personaltrust? Would you value your own safetyover that of a friend?

“And she turned to me and she said,‘Lottchen, it’s all very well to play dress-up. But now you’ve grown into a man.When will you marry?’ And I said to her,‘Never, my dear Mutti…I am my own wife.’”

➤ What does the play’s title, inspired by thisstory from Charlotte mean?

“Her stories aren’t lies per se; they’re self-medication.”

➤ What do you make of the psychiatrist’sinterpretation of Charlotte’s behavior? Can fabrications or alterations of the truthbe therapeutic?

“But I need to believe in her stories as muchas she does!...I need to believe that thingslike that are true. That they can happen inthe world.”

➤ Doug Wright probably is not alone in his desire to see Charlotte’s storiesauthenticated. What about accounts oftriumph over adversity is so appealing tous? Why is it important for us to believethat people overcome incredible odds?

“You must save everything. And you mustshow it—auf Englisch, we say—“as is.”

➤ Why do you think Charlotte is so committedto preserving her collection and in turn her life “as is”? Do you think that theplaywright has been successful inpresenting Charlotte in this way?