by Jessica Litwak

My Heart is in the East is a theatre piece that uses history as a model for peace and conflict transformation. The play is a duet performed by two actors who play many roles; including 10 puppets, in present day conflict zones and 11thCentury Cordoba. The play brings wit and whimsy to circumstances of impossible paradox and invites the audience to imagine art as a vehicle for change. 

Workshop presentation: Tuesday, October 20, 2015 7:00pm  10:00pm at La MaMa ETC.

1 man, 1 woman

By Jessica Litwak

A play about astrophysics, the global water shortage, greek mythology and family. Last performed at Naropa University, 2013. 

10-15 Actors

A new play by Jessica Litwak, with Amir al-Azraki.

Developed with The Joiner Center, Fortpointe Center Channel Theatre, UMASS, and University of Basra, Iraq

The story merges the fantastic and the realistic as it moves across time and geography and traverses the worlds of the living and the dead. It is a tragic-comedy about two soldiers, one from Iraq and one from the U.S. Although both have been killed, they come to see the horror and humor of their lives while a gravedigger poet buries them. As the gravedigger rushes through his job, they go over their lives, from history to religion to the women they love and will miss. They come to a reconciliation and are motivated to make peace in the afterlife. Meanwhile, their mothers, on opposite sides of the world, come to terms with sorrow, rage, and regret. They meet years later to ask each other: Is understanding possible? Is forgiveness possible? Is peace?

5 actors: 3 men, 2 women

Created by The DREAM Act Union
Written by Chiori Miyagawa, Mia Chung, Jessica Litwak, Saviana Stanescu, and Andrea Thome
Directed by Kristin Horton

Produced by HERE and the Skirball Center

In Dream Acts, five undocumented students from Nigeria, Mexico, Ukraine, Korea, and Jordan relate stories of their extraordinary challenges in living ordinary lives under the Homeland Security radar. Each story is moving and urgent; some are funny, others are tragic, and through their experiences, we learn about the DREAM Act and the secret lives led by undocumented students.

3 Women, 2 Men

By Jessica Litwak

Developed with The Lark and NGTE.The final piece in Litwak's Emma Goldman Trilogy, which follows Emma in her last four years as she passionately pours her heart into the fight against fascism on the active battlefields of The Spanish Civil War.

This trilogy of plays explores the life and work of the in/famous anarchist Emma Goldman. 

The plays cover four decades of Goldman’s life.  The trilogy begins with a small play: Love Anarchy and Other Affairs - one actor, one night in 1901 and progresses to a larger piece The Snake and The Falcon - four actors, telling a story that takes place during six months in 1919, and the trilogy culminates a much bigger tale Nobody Is Sleeping which is performed by six actors who tell a story that occurs over a period of four years, starting in 1936. 

6 actors: 3 women, 3 men

By Jessica Litwak

Developed at The Lark, University of Connecticut, Serious Play!, The Boston Museum Of Science, Epic Theatre

 A love story about neuroscience. A tour-de-force for actors, each actor plays a Brain Doctor, a Brain Patient, and a Rhesus Macaque Lab Monkey. The intricate relationships between doctors, patients, and monkeys tell a tragic and humorous tale of love, loss and neuroplasticity. 

3 women, 2 men

By Jessica Litwak

Developed at The Lark, Serious Play!, Theatre J, and NGTE

"In 1919, Emma Goldman and J. Edgar Hoover were afraid of nothing...except each other"

2 Men, 2 Women

By Jessica Litwak

Developed by The Lark and The Culture Project

A play about the history of women’s reproductive rights and a modern trial dealing with the right to privacy.

5 women

Developed at LA Gay and Lesbian Center, Ovation Award and D2 Theatre, NYC

A play about Sex, Religion and The Senior Prom, circa 1976, San Francisco.

1 woman

By Jessica Litwak

Developed at LA Gay And Lesbian Center, Renberg Theatre, Ovation Award

A Brother, A Sister, A Secret and James Bond, a story about love and espionage in the time of AIDS.

 1 woman, 2 Men

Developed at Rattlestick, and The Goodman Theatre, and Artist's Repertory Theatre. Drammy Award, Oregon Book Award

A play wherein 17th century pirates appear to a contemporary history professor. Lake Michigan and The High Seas.

4 women, 1 man

By Jessica Litwak

Developed at The National Federation Of Jewish Culture, Budapest and New York

A Partisan Fighter and a Rabbi's wife hide in the forest during World War Two on one fateful night.

2 Women , 2 Men

By Jessica Litwak

Developed at ARTemis Productions, 78th Street Theatre Lab

A Storefront psychic sells a miserable receptionist the “Reincarnation Package Deluxe,” transporting her back to several of her past lives.

2 Women

By Jessica Liwak

Developed with Anne Bogart, produced by The Women's Project and Productions

One night in 1901a woman hides from the police for her alleged complicity in the sudden assassination of the President by a man she has never met

A play about the famous Russian anarchist the night she is arrested for the alleged complicity in the plot to assassinate President McKinley

1 woman

A Play for Youth

The history of war in America from the perspective of three families.

12 Teenagers

A Play for Children.

Based on Homer's The Odyssey.

15-55 children

A play for children.

Based On The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer.

15-55 children

By Jessica Litwak

Developed at The Barrow Group and NGTE.

A Darkly Humorous Urban Collage of Seven of The Grimm Brother’s Fairy tales 

3 men, 7 women