Oklahoma Samovar

by Alice Eve Cohen

In 1887, two Latvian teenagers flee the Russian Army and become the only Jews in the Oklahoma Land Run. One hundred years later, twenty-year-old Emily tries to decipher her late mother’s mysterious request to have her ashes spread on Sylvia’s farm. In the process, Emily discovers her long-lost ninety-year-old Great Aunt Sylvia in rural Oklahoma. In tandem with their ancestors, Sylvia and Emily reinvent their...

In 1887, two Latvian teenagers flee the Russian Army and become the only Jews in the Oklahoma Land Run. One hundred years later, twenty-year-old Emily tries to decipher her late mother’s mysterious request to have her ashes spread on Sylvia’s farm. In the process, Emily discovers her long-lost ninety-year-old Great Aunt Sylvia in rural Oklahoma. In tandem with their ancestors, Sylvia and Emily reinvent their family history. Traveling through time in a story that covers a century, five generations move East to West and then West to East, staking their claims in Oklahoma and in Brooklyn. Along the way, they put down roots and dig graves, embodying their own Jewish variations on the turbulent and mythologized American Dream.

It is a play about storytelling: stories that change with every teller and each new telling; stories that are joyfully told and embellished; and hidden family stories filled with shame and despair. Secret stories have a life of their own; they survive, carried from one generation to the next, through ineffable ancestral memories, sometimes with the help of ghosts.

Driven by the very different perspectives of a young woman and an old woman, Alice Eve Cohen’s personal and thought-provoking play examines the identity, traditions, and culture clashes that shape one Jewish family’s immigrant experience. Merging real events with magic realism, the play is performed by a cast of six, along with puppets and animated objects. Based on the playwright's family history, OKLAHOMA SAMOVAR is an utterly human and absolutely unique American story.

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Oklahoma Samovar

Recommended by

  • Cynthia L. (Cindy) Cooper: Oklahoma Samovar

    ‘Oklahoma Samovar’ by Alice Eve Cohen is a richly layered, multigenerational story that takes us across time and geography to show the history of one family, and, by extension, the diaspora of Jewish lives. We are carried along with deftly-written intercutting and stylistically imagined moments, all held together by a single container -- a samovar -- that is filled with legacies, hopes and dreams.

    ‘Oklahoma Samovar’ by Alice Eve Cohen is a richly layered, multigenerational story that takes us across time and geography to show the history of one family, and, by extension, the diaspora of Jewish lives. We are carried along with deftly-written intercutting and stylistically imagined moments, all held together by a single container -- a samovar -- that is filled with legacies, hopes and dreams.

  • Jacquelyn Reingold: Oklahoma Samovar

    A big play with a lot heart, history, and surprises along the way. A Jewish family on a farm in Oklahoma? Yes, it's true! This unusual family crashes into another immigrant clan in Brooklyn. Sparks fly, cultures collide. Jews are not monolithic, thankfully, as sensitively written by Alice Eve Cohen. She brings joy, nuance, and warmth to this lovely play.

    A big play with a lot heart, history, and surprises along the way. A Jewish family on a farm in Oklahoma? Yes, it's true! This unusual family crashes into another immigrant clan in Brooklyn. Sparks fly, cultures collide. Jews are not monolithic, thankfully, as sensitively written by Alice Eve Cohen. She brings joy, nuance, and warmth to this lovely play.

  • David Winitsky: Oklahoma Samovar

    This play is such a treasure! Themes of Jewish identity are in the bones of Alice Eve Cohen’s work. This work features a buoyant spirit, unreliable narrators and a ton of fun theatricality to rope audiences in.

    This play is such a treasure! Themes of Jewish identity are in the bones of Alice Eve Cohen’s work. This work features a buoyant spirit, unreliable narrators and a ton of fun theatricality to rope audiences in.

Development History

  • Type Reading, Organization Jewish Theatre of Oklahoma, Year 2022
  • Type Reading, Organization JCC Manhattan & Jewish Plays Project, Festival of New Jewish Plays, Year 2022
  • Type Reading, Organization Jewish Plays Project, National Jewish Playwriting Contest virtual tour, Year 2021
  • Type Reading, Organization Ensemble Studio Theatre Playwrights Unit, Year 2020

Production History

  • Type Workshop, Organization Jewish Theatre of Oklahoma, Year 2022
  • Type Workshop, Organization Workshop , Jewish Plays Project, Festival of New Jewish Plays , Year 2022
  • Type Workshop, Organization 78th Street Theatre Lab, Year 2009

Awards

  • Midwest Jewish Playwriting contest
    Continuum Theatre, Chicago and Jewish Plays Project, NYC
    Winner
    2021
  • Silicon Valley Jewish Playwriting Contest
    Jewish Plays Project
    Winner
    2021
  • 10th Annual National Jewish Playwriting Contest
    Jewish Plays Project
    Winner
    2021
  • 10th Annual National Jewish Playwriting Contest
    Jewish Plays Project
    Winner
  • Silicon Valley Jewish Playwriting Contest
    Jewish Plays Project
    Winner
  • Midwest Jewish Playwriting contest
    Continuum Theatre, Chicago and Jewish Plays Project, NYC
    Winner