Alissa Rubinstein

Alissa Rubinstein is a German-American-Jewish-Californian based in Berlin since 2012. She writes plays, screenplays, essays, short fiction, poetry, and hybrid forms about the fragmentation of identity and memory, the human inclination to ritualize and remember, and people yearning for something they can’t quite name.

That sounds kinda serious, but tbh her preferred register is weird campy black comedy or maybe like tragicomedy?

Alissa's work has been supported by the German Academic Exchange Service, English Theatre Berlin | International Performing Arts Center, and Matchbox Theater Berlin. She received a BA in Theater and German from Tufts University and an MA in Public History from the Freie Universität Berlin.

Alissa Rubinstein is a German-American-Jewish-Californian based in Berlin since 2012. She writes plays, screenplays, essays, short fiction, poetry, and hybrid forms about the fragmentation of identity and memory, the human inclination to ritualize and remember, and people yearning for something they can’t quite name.

That sounds kinda serious, but tbh her preferred register is weird campy black comedy or maybe like tragicomedy?

Alissa's work has been supported by the German Academic Exchange Service, English Theatre Berlin | International Performing Arts Center, and Matchbox Theater Berlin. She received a BA in Theater and German from Tufts University and an MA in Public History from the Freie Universität Berlin.

Scripts

WHALES!

by Alissa Rubinstein

Cast Size
2
Genre
comedy,
dark comedy

TEN MINUTES - WHALES! is a tragicomedy about a brother / sister relationship destabilized and potentially destroyed by the restrictions and expectations inherent in a world based on stereotypical gender roles. Edda and Bjorn want things they can’t have - the freedom to explore without limits, to dream and to see their dreams realized. They are imprisoned by the established logic of the world they live in, so...

TEN MINUTES - WHALES! is a tragicomedy about a brother / sister relationship destabilized and potentially destroyed by the restrictions and expectations inherent in a world based on stereotypical gender roles. Edda and Bjorn want things they can’t have - the freedom to explore without limits, to dream and to see their dreams realized. They are imprisoned by the established logic of the world they live in, so they push it to its extremes, committing cruelties big and small in the process. But maybe that world, however faulty, has the potential to be a little more flexible, a little more mysterious, a little more beautiful than they thought.

This play asks - If your present situation isn’t working for you, can you (literally?) burn it all down and start again?

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Divine Dirt

by Alissa Rubinstein

Cast Size
5
Genre
comedy,
dark comedy,
farce,
melodrama,
parody/spoof,
period,
satire,
tragedy

TEN MINUTES - There is a giant pile of dirt in Ted and Martha's living room. Ted insists it is full of powerful spirits. Martha just wants it out of the house. When the servants fall under Ted's spell, mortal peril is just around the corner. Don't wake the baby!

TEN MINUTES - There is a giant pile of dirt in Ted and Martha's living room. Ted insists it is full of powerful spirits. Martha just wants it out of the house. When the servants fall under Ted's spell, mortal peril is just around the corner. Don't wake the baby!

The 614th Commandment

by Alissa Rubinstein

Cast Size
1—10
Genre
dark comedy,
docudrama/historic,
drama,
political

FULL LENGTH* - A darkly funny play examining both the role of Holocaust history in contemporary Jewish identity and American-Jewish perspectives regarding Germany in the 21st century. Based on over 100 interviews conducted with Jewish people of a variety of backgrounds in Los Angeles.

*Original production was around 60 minutes, but could be longer or shorter depending on casting choices

FULL LENGTH* - A darkly funny play examining both the role of Holocaust history in contemporary Jewish identity and American-Jewish perspectives regarding Germany in the 21st century. Based on over 100 interviews conducted with Jewish people of a variety of backgrounds in Los Angeles.

*Original production was around 60 minutes, but could be longer or shorter depending on casting choices

How to Feel Feelings

by Alissa Rubinstein

2
Cast Size
3
Genre
comedy,
dark comedy

TEN MINUTES - Two women sign up for a strange psychology experiment. One is a little depressed. One always sees the glass half full. Which one of them is also an angel of death?

TEN MINUTES - Two women sign up for a strange psychology experiment. One is a little depressed. One always sees the glass half full. Which one of them is also an angel of death?