Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library

04/14/2026

In 1933, collecting and disseminating antisemitic materials in Germany — in any form including statements by teachers, circulars from trade associations, professional journals, advertisements, cartoons — became a capital crime.

Hannah Arendt was arrested, accused of researching such materials in the state library and potentially / allegedly sharing them abroad too.

The play Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library tells the story of how she escaped these accusations and ultimately escaped Berlin too.

She was one of the lucky ones.

Today we remember those not lucky enough to escape persecution by race laws and to survive the Holocaust, as we mark Yom Hashoah.

02/21/2026

The woman who directed our premiere has a birthday today... Happy Birthday, Ari Laura Kreith!

02/11/2026

He was born on this day and in addition to being known as a visionary playwright, he is also an important offstage character in Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library!

Soon after Hi**er came to power, in the wake of the Reichstag fire, the secret police seized Mr. Brecht's address book, finding in it the names of many leftist intellectuals — including Mrs. Stern's husband Günther. Mr. Stern skipped town. Mrs. Stern stuck around and wandered N**i Berlin for a while after that...

Happy BIrthday, Bertolt Brecht!

01/27/2026

Today is the birthday of Ella Dershowitz, who starred in our New York premiere. Happy Birthday, Ella Dershowitz!

01/17/2026

Do you want to continue the conversation about Hannah Arendt? Playwright, Jenny Lyn Bader will be having a public conversation with Roger Berkowitz, Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center, about "Why Hannah Arendt matters."

At the Autumn Garden Society salon this Tuesday in midtown Manhattan . Tickets available at this link:

Hannah Arendt arrived in the United States in 1941, a stateless refugee from Hi**er's Germany and occupied France. Had she not escaped from Europe, as a Jew, and one active in Jewish causes, she would almost certainly have died. In 1951 she published The Origins of Totalitarianism, the first of a se...

12/17/2025

One year ago today, December 17th, we celebrated our "opening night" at WP Theater, where our 59E59 production was blessed to be able to move so we could bring this story to more people. Thanks to all who gathered with us that night.

12/17/2025

Among our most dedicated audience members, David Hoffman, whose birthday it is today, not only saw the Off-Broadway production seven times, he also returned to see it in New Jersey and gave an audience testimonial to STATE OF THE ARTS / PBS afterwards, where among other things he said he reminded us that the play is about "whether or not people can actually listen to each other"

He also said "maybe we will... maybe we will."

Would that it were so.

Happy Birthday, David Hoffman!

12/04/2025

On this day half a century ago, we lost Hannah Arendt.

Thinking of her death and her life today and of how although 50 years have passed, she continues to influence and inspire.

12/03/2025

At this time of Thanksgiving, it feels appropriate to share this quotation about loving the world.

Photo taken of the tote bag from this fall’s Hannah Arendt Center annual conference, where we are grateful we were able to do a staged reading of this play at a gathering about joy.

Quotation taken from a 1955 letter Arendt wrote to Karl Jaspers, published in their correspondence. It is also cited the introduction to Arendt’s Love and Saint Augustine — edited by Joanna Vecchiarelli Scott and Judith Chelius Stark.

We are grateful to Prof. Stark for participating in a talkback at one of our performances last month. And of course, for helping to bring this quotation about gratitude to a wider audience. And grateful to the Arendt Center for helping to keep Arendt’s real words alive, with so many phony passages floating around…. Be careful out there!

11/25/2025

Last year novelist Dawn Tripp, who had just come out with her book Jackie, joined us for a post-show conversation about writing history. Among other things she spoke about the ways some nonfiction authors can be interpretive and take liberties while certain fiction writers can cleave closer to historical truth. In their conversation, she and playwright Jenny Lyn Bader also found so many interesting parallels between these works to discuss. Especially how female personages are too often viewed through the lens of men in their lives and not through their great moments of moral courage or the richness of their inner lives or their passion for ideas. Happy Birthday, Dawn Tripp!

11/24/2025

November 23rd was the birthday of Günter Gaus. He was the journalist who conducted the 1964 interview with Hannah Arendt, "What Remains?" — later published in the book The Last Interview. He asked her about her arrest in Berlin. That was the only time she ever spoke in public about what happens in the play. Today, on his birthday, we think of Günter Gaus and that iconic interview with gratitude.