How to Live

Author(s): Mindy Pfeffer
Poland, 1941: A young Jewish girl watches in horror as her father is brutally beaten by German soldiers. Postwar, the girl, Maria Pfeffer Orwid, becomes one of Poland’s leading psychiatrists and finds herself face-to-face with a man who worked as a doctor at Auschwitz. Inspired by actual events, fact and fiction intertwine in this story of survival, forgiveness, and learning from the past to move into the future. The play is a meditation on grief and courage.
Format: Drama

Snapshot

Original or Prominent Production:
14th Street Y Theatre, East Village, New York, January 2023; presented as part of LABA: A Laboratory for Jewish Culture.
Original Source Material: Based on the life of Maria Pfeffer Orwid, a Jewish Polish psychiatrist who lived from 1930–2009.
Nationality of Author: U.S.
Original Language: English
Production Rights Holder:

Visit author’s website: mindypearlpfeffer.com

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