Details Revealed For HERE THERE ARE BLUEBERRIES Discussion Series at New York Theatre Workshop

New York Theatre Workshop and Tectonic Theater Project have announced additional details and moderators for their series of talkbacks for Here There Are Blueberries, presented in partnership with Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics (FASPE).

A co-production with Tectonic Theater Project, Here There Are Blueberries is co-written by NYTW Usual Suspect and Tony & Emmy Award nominee Moisés Kaufman(The Laramie Project) & Emmy Award nominee Amanda Gronich (The Laramie Project) and conceived & directed by Moisés Kaufman. Here There Are Blueberries will begin previews April 17, 2024, at New York Theatre Workshop (79 E 4th Street), with opening night set for May 13, for a run through June 2, 2024.

As the play's Content & Conversation Partner and in collaboration with NYTW and Tectonic Theater Project, FASPE will curate a series of post-show discussions where leading ethicists, scholars, and audiences can discuss the complex issues raised in the play—and consider their relevance for today. These discussions will be held following performances on Thursday April 25, Wednesday May 1, Tuesday May 7, Friday May 10, Thursday May 16, Thursday May 23 and Wednesday May 29.

FASPE challenges its professionals to recognize and exercise their ethical and leadership responsibilities as influencers. FASPE’s distinctive approach is to examine the roles and behavior of individual professionals in Germany and elsewhere between 1933 and 1945 as an initial framework for approaching ethical responsibility in the professions today. 

Each year, FASPE awards 80 to 90 Fellowships to graduate students and early-career professionals in Business, Design & Technology, Journalism, Law, Medicine, and Seminary. The Fellowships begin with intense study in Germany and Poland where FASPE takes advantage of the urgency created by the power of place to translate the history into the present. Visit faspe-ethics.org to learn more.

Thursday April 25 

There Were Blueberries: The Transformation of Norms and Complicity as the New Normal

Moderators: Thorsten Wagner, Executive Director for Strategy and Academics, FASPE and Jordyn Holman, Business Reporter at The New York Times, FASPE Journalism Fellow '18

In the course of the 1930s and 1940s, German society experienced a gradual, comprehensive, and ever-accelerating transformation of its system of ethical and moral values. As much as the sense of leisure and happiness characterizing the visual representations of the Nazi perpetrators disturbs us, the presumable normalcy might be powerful evidence of this transformation. Frequently, professionals were key players in this process, and the central role of doctors, lawyers, and accountants for the crimes of Nazism, so central to the play, raises fundamental questions about contemporary professional ethics and professional responsibility.

Wednesday May 1 

Of Monsters to (Ordinary?) Men (and Women)

Moderators: Nate Silver, Head of Operations and People, Adonis, FASPE Business Fellow '19 and Stuart Liebman, Professor Emeritus of Film Studies and Theatre, CUNY Graduate Center

Here There Are Blueberries invites us to consider: were Nazi perpetrators incomprehensible monsters or "ordinary" individuals? Film and theater representations of Nazi perpetrators have evolved over time, from their depiction as inhuman monsters in the earliest portrayals following the war to somehow "ordinary" individuals with families, some who were not even overtly racist against Jews. This discussion delves into the various portrayals of Nazi perpetrators, and the complex questions they raise about evil, complicity, and human nature.

Tuesday May 7 

Mass Complicity and Transitional Justice

Moderators: Trevor Morrison, Professor of Law and Dean Emeritus, New York University School of Law, FASPE Law Faculty and Jessica Roth, Professor of Law, Co-Director, Jacob Burns Center for Ethics in the Practice of Law, Cardozo School of Law, FASPE Law Faculty

As Here There Are Blueberries brings vividly to light, the perpetrators of the Holocaust included many individuals who were far from the Nazi “top brass.” Some of these lower-level individuals were later held accountable for their actions. But many others were not and were often seamlessly integrated back into society, even into their prior professions.Here There Are Blueberries invites us to consider the limits of formal institutions of justice in the face of mass complicity, the consequences of inconsistent accountability, and the responsibility of the professions when perpetrators return to the fold.

Friday May 10

What did Americans know? What did they do?

Moderators: Rebecca Erbelding, Educator and Historian, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Thorsten Wagner, Executive Director for Strategy and Academics, FASPE

By 1944, the ongoing murder of European Jews was not a secret in the United States. Journalists, artists, activists, and theater-makers all called Americans' attention to the ongoing crimes, and often, demanded that the United States government try to rescue the Nazis' victims. They ultimately convinced the Roosevelt administration to set up a government agency tasked with rescuing Jews—the War Refugee Board. And while the Board was attempting its lifesaving work, Karl Höcker and his colleagues were murdering hundreds of thousands of Jews. How are the actions—and inactions—of the United States reflected in Karl Höcker's album?

Thursday May 16 

The Next Generation: How Do We Deal with the Sins of Our Fathers – Literally and Metaphorically?

Moderators: David Goldman, Chairman, FASPE and Father Steven Bell, CSP, Paulist Mission Priest, FASPE Board Member and FASPE Seminary Faculty 

Here There Are Blueberries invites us into the minds of the children and grandchildren of some of the most complicit of the Nazi perpetrators. With this discussion, we ask not only how those “heirs” are to think about the sins of their fathers, but also how we are to think of the perpetrators, themselves, in their normal lives as fathers and grandfathers, as husbands and children. Is it possible to compartmentalize criminal behavior from “normal” lives? Or should we even allow the idea of compartmentalization in such fashion?

Thursday May 23

Democracy in Retreat: Journalism Under Siege—Then and Now 

Moderators: Mark Lukasiewicz, Dean, The Lawrence Herbert School of Communication, Hofstra University, FASPE Journalism Faculty and Sheila Coronel, Toni Stabile Professor of Professional Practice; Director of the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism, Columbia Journalism School, FASPE Journalism Faculty

Wherever—and whenever—democracy is under attack, journalists find themselves on the frontline. Populists and autocrats see the press as the enemy. Journalists are intimidated, censored, harassed, surveilled, jailed and sometimes killed. The Nazi party labeled journalists the “lügenpresse” - the lying press - and once in power, moved rapidly to shut down all independent journalism. In its place, the Nazis created a powerful propaganda machine that successfully swayed world opinion and even co-opted some important voices in international journalism. Today journalists in places where democracy is in retreat struggle to speak truth to power. Their credibility is under attack; they are called liars, tools of liberal elites, “presstitutes.” Is it legitimate for journalists to keep themselves safe by compromising with autocrats? Is full and open opposition the only legitimate choice for journalists in an autocratic regime?

Wednesday May 29 

Mengele at Auschwitz

Moderators: Dr. David G. Marwell, author of Mengele: Unmasking the Angel of Death, FASPE Board Member and Dr. Claire Rosen, FASPE Medical Fellow ‘22

Josef Mengele is perhaps the most recognizable figure among the many photographs that make up the album which is at the center of Here There Are Blueberries. Made famous by his portrayal in movies, novels, and plays, Dr. Josef Mengele has emerged as a grotesque caricature that threatens to obscure the frightening man that he was. Join the author of Mengele: Unmasking the Angel of Death in conversation with Dr. Claire Rosen as they discuss the man behind the myth.

In addition, there will be two NYTW AfterWords post-show discussions:

Wednesday April 24

In Conversation: Moisés Kaufman, Amanda Gronich & David Bengali

How do you make a play from an album of photographs? NYTW Associate Artistic Director, Theatre & Productions Aaron Malkin interviews Here There Are Blueberries co-writer Amanda Gronich, co-writer and director Moisés Kaufman, & projection designer David Bengali on the process of bringing the Höcker album to life.

Wednesday May 15

In Conversation: Amanda Gronich, Moisés Kaufman and Menachem Rosensaft

NYTW Usual Suspect & Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Doug Wright moderates a conversation between co-writer and director Moisés Kaufman, co-writer Amanda Gronich and Menachem Rosensaft, Adjunct Professor of Law, Cornell Law School; Lecturer-in-Law at Columbia Law School, and General Counsel Emeritus of the World Jewish Congress.

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