Arendt Center Founder, Playwright, Slated to Speak at MRS. STERN WANDERS THE PRUSSIAN STATE LIBRARY

Luna Stage's World Premiere production of Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library opens this Saturday, October 19, at 8pm. Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities Roger Berkowitz, playwright Jenny Lyn Bader, director Ari Laura Kreith, and assistant director Chris Kuiken will join the audience for post-show conversations during the first two weekends of Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library at Luna Stage. A discussion about the graphic novel The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt: A Tyranny of Truth by Ken Krimstein will also precede one performance.

Inspired by real events surrounding the arrest of Hannah Arendt (Mrs. Stern) in 1933 Berlin, Bader's play centers around Arendt's relationship with the young officer assigned to interrogate her.

Upcoming Special Events

10/19 - Opening Night performance, post-show reception with cast and creative team (limited number of premium tickets available)

10/20 - Post-show conversation with Playwright Jenny Lyn Bader and Director Ari Laura Kreith

10/25 - Post-show conversation with Roger Berkowitz, Founder and Academic Director of Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities

10/27 at 2pm - Pre-show discussion of Ken Krimstein's graphic novel The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt: A Tyranny of Truth

**Both preview performances (10/17 and 10/18) will also be followed by a post-show conversation with a member of the creative team.

The World Premiere of Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library runs through November 10. Tickets are $25-$40, and are available at LunaStage.org or by calling OvationTix at 866-811-4111. Pre-and post-show events are scheduled throughout the run, and the full schedule will be posted at LunaStage.org.

Roger Berkowitz is Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities, and Professor of Politics, Philosophy, and Human Rights at Bard College. He authored The Gift of Science: Leibniz and the Modern Legal Tradition (Harvard, 2005), and is co-editor of Thinking in Dark Times: Hannah Arendt on Ethics and Politics (2009), The Intellectual Origins of the Global Financial Crisis (2012) and Artifacts of Thinking: Reading Hannah Arendt's Denktagebuch (2017). His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The American Interest, Bookforum, The Forward, The Paris Review Online, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, and many other publications. Berkowitz is also a co-editor of Just Ideas, a book series published by Fordham University Press. He is the winner of the 2019 Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought given by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Bremen, Germany.

Jenny Lyn Bader is a playwright and author. Her plays include None of the Above (New Georges), In Flight (Turn to Flesh Productions), and Manhattan Casanova (Hudson Stage). For This Is Not a Theatre Company, she wrote The International Local (Subway Plays app) and co-authored Café Play (Cornelia St. Café). Her work has been published by Dramatists Play Service, Smith & Kraus, Vintage, Applause, The Lincoln Center Theater Review, and The New York Times, where she was a frequent contributor to the "Week in Review." At the O'Neill Theatre Center, she received the Edith Oliver Award for a playwright who has, in the spirit of the late New Yorker critic, "a caustic wit that deflates the ego but does not unduly damage the human spirit." A Harvard graduate, Bader has received a Lark Playwriting Fellowship (nominated by Wendy Wasserstein), is a 2019 Athena Theatre Playwriting Fellow, and will be featured in the 2019 United Solo Festival on Theatre Row with her play Equally Divine.

Ari Laura Kreith is the Artistic Director of Luna Stage, where she recently directed Gabriel Jason Dean's Heartland and J.Stephen Brantley's Pirira and conceived/co-directed the site-specific Secret Cities. She is also the founder and Artistic Director of Theatre 167, where she conceived and directed The Jackson Heights Trilogy-167 Tongues, You Are Now The Owner Of This Suitcase, and Jackson Heights 3AM - three full-length plays collaboratively written by 18 playwrights featuring 37 actors in 93 roles in 14 languages, inspired by the world's most diverse neighborhood. Other directing highlights include Mourning Sun, which premiered at Theatre 167 and toured to Uganda; the world premiere of Tina Howe's Singing Beach; commissions for Queens Theatre and the New Ohio, and the European premiere of Adam Guettel's Myths and Hymns. A recipient of the LPTW Lucille Lortel Visionary Award and the NYIT Caffe Cino Fellowship, Kreith grew up in 27 countries.

Luna Stage develops and produces vibrant plays about local and global experiences. We bring communities together for artistic events that spark conversations and create understanding and change. Firmly rooted in New Jersey's Valley Arts District-a crossroads of cultures-we celebrate the diverse voices that surround us.

Luna is committed to eliminating barriers to participation and nurturing the next generation of audiences and artists. In addition to its artistic season, the company offers classes for children and adults, and developmental programs for early-career artists.

Luna Stage has contributed to the development of over 100 new works for the stage, earning a reputation for artistic excellence. Luna's unique approach to producing, as well as the work itself, fosters an environment of inclusivity, understanding, and infinite possibility.

Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library

by Jenny Lyn Bader

Directed by Ari Laura Kreith

At Luna Stage, 555 Valley Road, West Orange, NJ | Luna Office: 973-395-5551

First Preview: Thursday, October 17 | Closes: Sunday, November 10

Performance Schedule: Thursdays at 7:30pm, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 3pm
Tickets: $25-$40 at LunaStage.org or OvationTix: 866-811-4111

Running Time: 90 minutes, no intermission

LunaStage.org | Facebook.com/LunaStage

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