A Message from Arnold Mittelman After a career in not-for-profit and commercial theater spanning more than 40 years I was honored in 2007 to found the National Jewish Theater / Foundation and in 2010 to assume leadership of its Holocaust Theater International...
The Soldier and the Time Traveler
Author(s): Ronni Sanlo
Beth is a present-day teen who is infuriated by her history teacher’s denial of the holocaust. Beth has heard stories from her Jewish great-grandfather Sam. Beth time-travels back to 1945 to accompany Sam, 19, through the last 5 months of WWII Europe and the liberation of Dachau. While there, Beth encounters 2 teen girls and discovers what happened to German girls who lived in the war ravaged villages. Beth also discovers why Sam went to war. The story is based on actual letters from Sam to his wife Lois. It creates both political and historic links between 1945 and the present time.
Format: Full Length
Cast Size:5M,4W
Character breakdown:
Old Sam Stein: Old man in his 90s. Beth’s present-day Jewish great-grandfather. WWII veteran. He sits in a wheelchair, wears his WWII Veteran baseball cap, purple heart medal on his chest.
Beth: Seventeen-year old computer nerd and time traveler from present day who goes back to 1945 to accompany her 19-year-old great-grandfather through the last five months of WWII. In ACT I Scene 1, Beth wears teen clothes of the present day. Throughout the remainder of the play, she wears a WWII military-style jacket over her jeans. She identifies as a lesbian.
Lupe Beth’s Latina girlfriend: She wears cool teen clothes of the present day. Identifies as queer. Seventeen years old.
Young Sam Stein: nineteen-year old Jewish soldier during WWII
Beth’s great-grandfather: He wears a WWII army cap and jacket with a rainbow
division insignia on the upper left sleeve.
Ken Ketchum: twenty-year old soldier from Ocean Shores, WA, and Sam’s army buddy. He wears a WWII army cap and jacket with a rainbow division insignia on the upper left sleeve.
Harvey Lazar: twenty-year old gay (but closeted) Jewish soldier from a unit different from Sam’s. He wears a WWII army cap and jacket.
Ludvig: eighteen-year old German time traveler from present day who is still painfully embarrassed by his family’s involvement in WWII. He wears a military style cap and jacket. German accent.
Helga: sixteen-year old German girl in her bombed-out town who was repeatedly victimized by soldiers of every army. Flat affect; sister of Inga. She wears tattered clothes and shoes. German accent.
Inga: a fourteen-year old German girl in her bombed-out town who was
repeatedly victimized by soldiers of every army. Flat affect; sister of Helga. She wears tattered clothes and shoes. German accent.
Notes:
Date of authorship: 2020
Snapshot
Nationality of Author: U.S.
Original Language: English
Production Rights Holder:
Ronni Sanlo
HTC Insights
Views, reference and research of interest.
Lifetime Achievement Award
The National Jewish Theater Foundation presented its 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award to Alfred Uhry. The presentation took place as part of the Lincoln Center Library event on January 27th 2025 in commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on the 80th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz
Lifetime Achievement Award
On September 30, 2024, French playwright, Mr. Jean Claude Grumberg received the Lifetime Achievement Award. It was presented by NJTF HTII President, Arnold Mittelman with Dominique Trimbur, PhD-Manager for the History of Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, Teaching of the Holocaust of Fondation Pour La Memoir de la Shoah Project.