I Am My Own Wife PROGRAM

Tasmania Performs presents the
Tasmanian Theatre Company production of
I Am
My Own
Wife
The remarkable true story of
Charlotte and her escape from
persecution during the Second World
War will leave you breathless!
The only one–person play ever to win a
Pulitzer Prize
by Doug Wright
Starring Robert Jarman
Tasmania Performs proudly presents the Tasmanian Theatre Company Production of I Am My Own Wife in partnership with...
Arts Deloraine
The Great Lake Community
Out On A Limb Regional Arts
Brighton Council
Palais Theatre, Franklin
The Rotary Club of Scottsdale
Channel Regional Arts Group
Great Oyster Bay Regional Arts
about
tasmania
performs
Tasmania Performs is a State
Government initiative that works
in partnership with artists and
regional communities to present
the best Tasmanian performances
across the state.
Tonight’s production of I Am My Own
Wife is touring to nine communities
across Tasmania.
about bout
thanks
Many thanks to our Tasmania
Performs Presenting Partners and
their volunteers, we couldn’t do
it without you, and if we did… it
wouldn’t be nearly as much fun!
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Tasmania Performs
Producer: Annette Downs
Management: Performing Lines Ltd
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Graphic Design: Sarah Owen Design
If you would like to discuss the
possibility of hosting a performance
for your organisation or wish to
send feedback on the production
please contact:
Annette Downs
Tasmania Performs
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[email protected]
03 6233 5935
We love to hear your from you.
The Rotary Club of Scottsdale,
Jan Hughes, Scottsdale
DHS, Pamella Krushka,
Grant Morrison and Roses
Newsagents
In St Helens: John McCallum,
Carol Liefting from Choc-ALolly and Elaine Sullivan from
Purple Possum Wholefoods,
Star FM, Heidi Howe, Judy
Spilsbury, Kay Barraclough and
especially Tony Lawson-Brown,
Viv at Bear Cottage Crafts and
the hardworking committee of
Great Oyster Bay Regional Arts
Palais Management
Committee, Charles Zuber,
David Sales, Loris and Alan
Patman, Deb Coombes,
Merlene Abbot, and David Sales
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Channel Regional Arts Group,
Paul and Belinda Sangha
(Kettering Central Shop)
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The Great lakes Community
Centre Inc, Community
Rural Alive and Well, Central
Highlands Council, Central
Highlands Lodge.
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Tasmania Performs is supported by
Tasmania’s Minister for the Arts through
Arts Tasmania
Brighton Post Office, Brighton
Council and Cathy Harper
The various businesses that
provided ticketing outlets
across the State
Tasmania Performs would like
to thank Jen Cramer and Julie
Waddington.
at this
tasmania performs
a note from the director
The Tasmania Performs
The Tasmanian Theatre
A few years ago Robert Jarman
passed me a small envelope…
performance
proudly presents annette downs
Production of
I Am My Own Wife
By Doug Wright
Touring team:
Cast: Robert Jarman
Tour Manager: Jill Munro
Technical Manager: Jessica Smithett
Mechanist Assistant Tour Manager:
Mark Nicholson
I Am My Own Wife
By Doug Wright
By arrangement with Hal Leonard
Australia Pty Ltd
On behalf of Dramatists Play
Services, Inc
Director: Annette Downs
Cast: Robert Jarman
Designer: Rachel Lang
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There will be one interval of 20
minutes
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Photography and video are not
permitted
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This venue is strictly nonsmoking
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Patrons are advised that this
production contains adult
themes and the occasional use
of strong language
Sound Designer: Matthew Dewey
Stage Manager: Jill Munro
Set Builder: Mark Nicholson
Costume Maker: Nicole Ottrey
Lighting Technician: Jessica Smithett
This production opened May 6, Earl
Arts Centre, Launceston for Theatre
North’s 2009 Subscription Season,
transferring to the Backspace
Theatre, Hobart, running May
14–23 2009. It was remounted for a
tour in 2011 which opened at The
Whitehorse Centre, Nunawading,
Victoria on April 27, 2011 and until
July 15, 2011.
The Broadway Production Of I Am My
Own Wife was produced by
Delphi Productions: David Richenthal
In it was the script for this play and
a note — he wanted to perform it,
he wanted me to direct it, he didn’t
have any money for either but he
thought it was an extraordinary
play and that we should do it
anyway!
I read the script and was
immediately swept into Charlotte’s
world, with her astounding
tales of survival and the myriad
of contradictions surrounding
them. Fortunately, in mid-2008
the Tasmanian Theatre Company
decided to program I Am My Own
Wife for their subscription season,
making this fully professional
treatment possible and allowing
us the time and resources to do the
play justice. Doug Wright’s script
is a magnificently crafted, awardwinning work and his subject
completely intriguing.
All of you watching this
performance are in for a treat. The
play requires an incredible actor to
bring nearly 40 characters to life
and Robert rises to the task. He
has captured the spirit of Charlotte
von Mahlsdorf and allows her to
sparkle. The production has enjoyed
a recent successful tour to Victoria
and the ACT and following this
return season in Hobart, Tasmania
Performs will present the show
in nine regional areas across
Tasmania.
President; Anthony D Marshall
Chairman; Charlene T Marshall
Executive Vice President
Annette Downs
Director
the tasmanian
theatre company
The Tasmanian Theatre Company
is a professional theatre company
for all Tasmanians. It produces
contemporary Australian theatre
and focuses on telling Tasmanian
stories and promoting the work of
Tasmanian artists.
The Company operates three major
programs:
The Professional Producing Program
which includes public seasons
of plays, commissioning and
developing new work, a training
program, an annual playreading
series of 10 new Tasmanian
plays, partnering with other arts
organisations and regular touring
throughout the state.
The Aurora Energy Community
Enrichment Program is a statewide program which includes
programs for and with indigenous
performers, emerging artists, young
people, elderly people, prisoners
and performers with a disability.
The Theatre Royal Backspace is
the performance home of the
Tasmanian Theatre Company.
The Backspace offers a curated
support program for independent
Tasmanian theatre artists. In 2012
a new program: Creative Coalitions
will be made available to artists
from around Tasmania.
Visit tastheatre.com for the latest
Tasmanian Theatre Company news,
production information, online
bookings and email updates.
playwright
director
cast
designer
sound designer
stage manager
Doug Wright won an Obie Award
for Outstanding Achievement in
Playwriting and the Kesselring
Award for Best New American Play
from the National Arts Club for his
play Quills.
Previously for The Tasmanian Theatre
Company, Annette has directed I Am
My Own Wife (2009) and Andrew Corder
Thinks Twice (2010).
A freelance theatre artist, Robert is a
director, performer, writer, designer
and teacher.
Rachel is a graduate of the National
Institute of Dramatic Art, in Set
and Costume Design. During
her time in Sydney she worked
for Belvoir Street Theatre, Griffin
Theatre, Tuggeranong Theatre
(Canberra), SBS television, and
was employed as a designer for the
Australian Museum.
Matthew is a Tasmanian born
composer and sound designer.
His compositional work includes
four chamber operas: A Priest’s
Passion, The Death of Chatterton, 15
Years on Hold and The Buzz of the Sea;
an array of concert music, scores
and sound designs for numerous
theatrical productions including
underwhere, Con Artists and Macbeth.
Jill has worked as Stage Manager
or Assistant Stage Manager on
every Tasmanian Theatre Company
production. She has worked
on several other large Hobart
productions including Miss Saigon,
Dido and Aeneus, and The Wizard of
Oz. Jill is also a qualified Floral
Designer and Interior Designer.
She has a varied background in
costume design, puppet making
and prop construction. She studied
and worked in Sydney making
and designing costumes and
props for television and stage, for
companies such as The Wiggles,
Raggs Club, The Simpsons, the NRL
and AFL, and New MacDonald’s
Farm. As a floral designer she won
several national and international
awards and has created sculptural
installations for window displays,
functions and promotions. Jill is
currently designing The Boy with the
Longest Shadow for the Tasmanian
Theatre Company.
doug wright
He went on to write the screenplay
adaptation, making his motion
picture debut. The film was named
Best Picture by the National Board
of Review and nominated for three
Academy Awards with Geoffrey Rush
going on to win his first Oscar for
Best Performance Quills.
His screenplay was nominated for a
Golden Globe Award and received the
Paul Selvin Award from the Writers
Guild of America.
Doug’s stage work has been produced
at New York Theatre Workshop,
Lincoln Center, WPA Theater,
Geffen Playhouse, Wilma, Woolly
Mammoth, McCarter Theater
and La Jolla. Titles include The
Stonewater Rapture, Interrogating the
Nude, watbanaland, Buzzsaw Berkeley and
Unwrap Your Candy.
Doug has been published three
times in The Best Short Plays series
and his work has appeared in The
Paris Review.
He’s a member of the Dramatists
Guild, the Writers Guild of
America, the Society of Stage
Directors and Choreographers and
serves on the board of the New York
Theatre Workshop.
annette downs
Annette is currently the Producer
of Tasmanian Performs, an Arts
Tasmania initiative supporting
product and market development for
the performing arts.
Originally trained as a dancer,
Annette has worked as a university
lecturer, performer, artistic director,
general manager and producer. She
came to Tasmania to work with the
Salamanca Theatre Company in
1991. From 1992-99 she was Artistic
Director of Terrapin Puppet Theatre.
Annette is a Churchill Fellow and
the 1998 Telstra Tasmanian Business
Woman of the Year. She has served
on numerous Boards including the
Australian National Playwrights
Centre, Tasdance, Salamanca
Arts Centre, Tasmanian State
Development Board, Tasmanian
Arts Advisory Board, The Federal
Governments Playing Australia
Committee and the Australia
Councils Theatre Board. Annette is
currently member of the Theatre
Royal Management Board.
robert jarman
Previously for the Tasmanian
Theatre Company, Robert performed
in Poxed (2011) directed and designed
Sex, Death and a Cup of Tea (2010),
directed Bombshells (2008), starred
in I Am My Own Wife (2009), and
designed Andrew Corder Thinks Twice
(2010).
Robert’s performance credits
are extensive: over a hundred
productions, mainly in Tasmania,
Sydney and North Queensland, and
national touring. He has created a
series of eight solo shows; the most
recent, The Spectre of the Rose, was
invited for presentation (its third
season) in the 2007 Ten Days on the
Island Festival.
Robert has been an occasional
lecturer in Performance and
Communications, Movement,
Music-Theatre, Opera and Cabaret
for the Tasmanian Conservatorium
of Music, and in Modern Drama for
the Department of English, UTAS.
He has also tutored at Al Quds
University (Abu Dis), and Birzeit
University Ashtar Theatre Company
(Ramallah), and is an associate
member of the General Union of
Palestinian Artists.
In 2002, Robert was awarded the
Centenary of Federation Medal for
services to the performing arts and
in 2009 was one of eight nominees,
drawn from across all art forms,
for the inaugural Distinguished
Tasmanian Artist Award.
rachel lang
Rachel moved to Tasmania in
1998 and during her time in
Hobart has been raising her three
beautiful children and studying
a Bachelor of Fine Arts, majoring
in painting and installation art.
Rachel has maintained her love
for theatre working as a designer
for Salamanca Theatre Company,
Terrapin Puppet Theatre, IHOS
Opera, The Old Nick Company,
Directions Theatre and Tasmania
Performs. She has also undertaken
the role of Art Director for The
Promising, a short film funded
by Screen Tasmania, and aims to
continue her career as a practicing
designer and artist.
matthew dewey jill munro
Matthew’s compositions have been
commissioned and performed by
groups including: The New York
Miniaturist Ensemble, IHOS Music
Theatre laboratory, the Seymour
Group (Sydney), Hobart Chamber
Orchestra, Terrapin Puppet Theatre
and by musicians including Jean
Louis Forestier (Conductor), Joshua
Rubin (Clarinetist – International
Contemporary Music Ensemble) and
Harry Spaarnay (Bass Clarinet).
Matthew’s first symphony
was recorded by the Russian
Philharmonic Orchestra in 2009.
For more information, please visit
Matthew’s website at
www.matthewdewey.com
the stasi
the state within the state
Charlotte von Mahlsdorf (Formerly Lothar Berfelde)
“I am an optimist. I believe in the triumph of goodness even if it
is sometimes slow in coming. That idea has often kept me alive.
Eventually the city will inherit everything, since we can’t
take anything with us into the cold grave — the last garment
has no pockets.
The city of Berlin has, in this house and this museum,
a golden egg. It only needs a bit of cleaning up.
As long as I’m alive, naturally, I’ll take care of it.”
The Ministerium für
East Germans collaborated with
employed about 480,000 full-time
Staatssicherheit (German for
the Stasi, one of the highest
agents to oversee a nation of 280
Ministry for State Security),
penetrations of any society by
million, which means there was
commonly known by the
an organization. When the East
one agent per 5,830 citizens. Using
abbreviation Stasi, was the
Germany government fell, the final
Wiesenthal’s figures for the Nazi
main security (secret police) and
figure for all political prosecutions
Gestapo, there was one officer for
intelligence organization of the
was somewhere around 300,000.
2,000 people. The ratio for the Stasi
German Democratic Republic (East
In every case, the Stasi was
was one secret policeman per 166
Germany). Widely regarded as one
involved either in the initial
East Germans. When the regular
of the most effective intelligence
arrest or in pretrial interrogations
informers are added, these ratios
agencies in the world, it was
during which “confessions” were
become much higher. In the Stasi’s
modeled on the Soviet KGB. The
usually extracted by physical or
case, there would have been at
Stasi’s influence over almost
psychological torture, particularly
least one spy watching every 66
every aspect of life in the German
between the mid-1940s and the
citizens! When one adds in the
Democratic Republic cannot be
mid-1960s.
estimated numbers of part-time
overestimated. Until the mid-1980s,
Excerpted from: the full-length article from
Wikipedia:
snoops, the result is nothing short
a civilian network of informants
(Inoffizielle Mitarbeiter (IMs),
Charlotte Von Mahlsdorf
I Am My Own Woman
www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi
of monstrous: one informer per 6.5
citizens. It would not have been
or unofficial collaborator) grew
To ensure that the people would
unreasonable to assume that at
within Germany, East and West.
become and remain submissive,
least one Stasi informer was present
By the East German collapse in
East German communist leaders
in any party of ten or 12 dinner
1989, it is estimated that the Stasi
saturated their realm with
guests.
had 91,000 full-time employees
more spies than had any other
and 300,000 informants. This
totalitarian government in recent
means approximately one in 50
history. The Soviet Union’s KGB
Excerpted from: Stasi: The Untold Story of the
East German Secret Police by John O. Koehler.
Oxford: Westview Press, 1999.
www.nvtimes.comlbooks/firsVklkoehlerstasi.html
“These Stasi-Johns behaved
like big shots… ‘we have the
power and you are zero’ was
their message. Their puffed
up masquerade simply
amused me.”
Charlotte Von Mahlsdorf
I Am My Own Woman
selected
chronology
1770-1952
Founding and flourishing of Mulack-Ritze Cabaret in Berlin.
1877
Thomas Edison invents the phonograph. Emile Berliner invents the
gramophone.
1911
Magnus Hirschfeld publishes “Die Transvestiten.”
1920
Adolf Hitler organizes National Socialist German Worker’s Party (NAZI).
Mar 18, 1928
Lothar Berfelde (later Charlotte von Mahlsdorf ) is born.
Jan 1933
Adolf Hitler appointed Chancellor. Article 48 of Weimar Constitution
denies civil liberties in time of national emergency. Federal police agencies,
SA (Storm Troops) and SS (Special Security), are created.
1933-45
Gays deported to concentration camps.
1934
Lothar begins collecting phonograph records and clocks.
1935
The Nazi Party passes the Nuremberg Laws, persecuting the German Jews.
The lover of Lothar’s Tante Luise is murdered in Nazi’s euthanasia program
1937
Participation in Hitler Youth becomes mandatory.
Nov 9, 1938
Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass),
Nazis burn synagogues and homes of Jews.
1939
World War II begins.
1942
Lothar and family evacuate Berlin and move to Bischofsburg. He receives
Grunderzeit furnishings from Tante Luise.
1943
Lothar’s father, Max Berfelde, dies.
Apr 26, 1945
Liberation of Berlin by Allied Forces.
1945-49
Resurgence of gay life in Berlin.
1949
Founding of German Democratic Republic.
1952-63
Communists close gay and lesbian bars, including the Mulack-Ritze.
1959
Lothar takes possession of Hultschiner Damm 333 and begins restoration.
1960
Gründerzeit Museum (formerly Hultschiner Damm 333) opens.
1961
Berlin Wall, symbol of the Cold War, erected.
1963
Mulack-Ritze Cabaret is resurrected in the basement of the Gründerzeit
Museum.
1971
Lothar permanently assumes the identity of “Charlotte von Mahlsdorf.”
1989
Berlin Wall falls.
1990
East and West Germany unite. Charlotte receives the country’s Federal
Service Cross for her restoration efforts.
1991
Charlotte moves to Sweden
30 Apr, 2002
Charlotte passes away in Berlin.
5 Dec, 2003
I Am My Own Wife by Doug Wright opens on Broadway to stellar reviews.
Timeline source: www.iammyownwife.com
United States
production
credits
I Am My Own Wife was originally
produced on Broadway by Delphi
Productions and David Richenthal.
Playwrights Horizons, Inc., New
York City, produced the World
Premiere Off-Broadway in 2003.
This play was written with support
from Playwrights Horizons,
made possible in part by funds
granted to the author through
a program sponsored by Amblin
Entertainment, Inc.
A workshop of the play was
presented by La Jolla Playhouse; Des
McAnuff, Artistic Director, Terrence
Dwyer, Managing Director.
Developed in part with the support
of the Sundance Theatre Laboratory.
A workshop was also presented
by the About Face Theatre (Eric
Rosen, Artistic Director) in
association with the Museum of
Contemporary Art.