SURVIVORS by Jeff Stolzer
After his landlord triples the rent, Henry Cohen, a Polish-Jewish refugee from World War II, refuses to close his small barber shop in Los Angeles and retire. Instead, he raises prices and hires a second barber, Isaac Roth, a widower who lives in the neighborhood, and business improves. But Henry’s wife Ruth, an Auschwitz survivor originally from Romania, grows suspicious of Isaac after he seems vague about the...
After his landlord triples the rent, Henry Cohen, a Polish-Jewish refugee from World War II, refuses to close his small barber shop in Los Angeles and retire. Instead, he raises prices and hires a second barber, Isaac Roth, a widower who lives in the neighborhood, and business improves. But Henry’s wife Ruth, an Auschwitz survivor originally from Romania, grows suspicious of Isaac after he seems vague about the details of his past and eventually confronts him about his personal history, unearthing long-buried secrets that change their lives forever.
SURVIVORS received the 2009 Arts Club of Washington National Playwriting Award, was a finalist for the 2014 Colonial Players Promising Playwright Award and garnered Second Place in the 2014 Jewel Box Theatre Playwriting Competition. It was twice a Finalist in the Dorothy Silver Playwriting Competition (2009, 2010) and was a Semifinalist for the 2013 Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, the 2010 Princess Grace Playwriting Award and the 2009 Playwrights First Award.