Playhouse on the Square continues its 52nd season with on-stage performances streamed right to your living room.
“Offering productions in this new format gives us the exciting opportunity to meet the demands of our patrons, but also keeps our team and community safe. In addition, we have the chance to share who we are and what we do to a much larger national audience, and that is pretty exciting,” says director of community relations, Marcus Cox.
Bill Simmers
Charlotte von Mahlsdorf
Art does, after all, have its place during a national crisis. During Nazi Germany’s national crisis, traditional art was the only acceptable art. “Degenerate” art was not allowed. Or as Nazi Germany called it, modern art — gasp and pearl clutch. They would not have allowed the play I Am My Own Wife, penned by playwright Doug Wright and based on the true story of a real-life German trans woman, Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. She managed to survive both the Nazi onslaught and the repressive East German Communist regime. She was a tough cookie.
Michael Gravois will play the role of Mahlsdorf — again. He first performed the one-person play at Circuit Playhouse in August 2006. The production earned Gravois and director Stephen Hancock Ostrander nominations. The production was also nominated in the 2007 Ostranders for best play. Associate director and resident company member Dave Landis will direct this current production.
I Am My Own Wife, online from Playhouse on the Square, playhouseonthesquare.org, opens Friday, Feb. 19, 7-10 p.m., and continues through Feb. 28, $25.