a co-production with
STAGE west
+ special collaboration w/ watering hole collaboration
Directed by
LAURA Lyman Payne
STT Previews:
December 2nd & 3rd
Pay what you can
STT Opening:
December 4th
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STT Run:
December 2nd -December 19th
It’s 1938 and a lonely sixteen-year-old girl’s parents have made a decision: She will go to the Long Island summer camp her aunt’s been attending for the past couple of years. To be honest, she is not really into it—everyone there is really excited about their German heritage, what with the oompah music and beer flowing every night. So when a seventeen-year-old boy is the first to befriend her, they find in each other a connection that grows deeper as the summer progresses. They feel understood, and almost nothing will stop their burgeoning love. Based on the real Camp Siegfried created by the German American Bund just before World War II, Bess Wohl's play is about the compromises, self-deceptions, and hurt we endure when intoxicated by the need to be loved.
playwright
BESS WOHL
Bess Wohl is a playwright and filmmaker. Her plays have been produced on and off Broadway, regionally, and internationally and her feature film debut, BABY RUBY, starring Noémie Merlant and Kit Harington, premiered at the 2022 Toronto Film Festival and was released by Magnolia Pictures. She also wrote for the Apple TV+ series, “Extrapolations,” created by Scott Z. Burns.
Recently, her play LIBERATION (Outer Critics Circle Winner, Drama Desk, Drama League and Lucille Lortel noms.) had an extended run at Roundabout Theater Company and she made her West End debut with a sold out run of BARCELONA starring Lily Collins. Other plays include GRAND HORIZONS (Tony Nominations for Best Play & Best Featured Actress, Outer Critics Circle Honor, Drama League Award nom); MAKE BELIEVE (NYTimes Critic Pick, Best of 2019, Outer Critics Circle Honor); CAMP SIEGFRIED; CONTINUITY; SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS (John Gassner Outer Critics Circle Award, top ten lists in The New York Times, The New York Post, The Guardian); AMERICAN HERO; TOUCHED; IN; CATS TALK BACK and the musical PRETTY FILTHY with composer/lyricist Michael Friedman and The Civilians (Lucille Lortel and Drama Desk nominations for Outstanding Musical).
Wohl’s plays have been produced or developed at theaters including Second Stage, Manhattan Theater Club, Ars Nova, The Williamstown Theatre Festival, Goodman Theater, The Geffen Playhouse, People’s Light and Theatre Company, The Contemporary American Theater Festival, Vineyard Arts Project, The Pittsburgh Public Theater, Northlight Theater, Ojai Playwright's Conference, the Cape Cod Theatre Project and PlayPenn. Awards and honors include the Sam Norkin special Drama Desk Award for “establishing herself as an important voice in New York theater,” multiple Outer Critics Circle honors, the Georgia Engell Comedy Playwriting Award from the Dramatists Guild, the Athena Award for her screenplay VIRGINIA, MacDowell Fellowships and inclusion on Hollywood’s Black List of Best Screenplays.
Wohl is an associate artist with The Civilians, an alumna of Ars Nova’s Play Group, and the recipient of new play commissions from Manhattan Theatre Club, Lincoln Center and Williamstown Theatre Festival. In her previous life as an actress, she appeared onstage in New York and regionally, and in numerous films and TV shows where she has given birth, solved crimes, committed crimes, been wrongly accused, and come back from the dead. She is a graduate of Harvard and the Yale School of Drama.
director
LAURA
LYMAN PAYNE
Laura Lyman Payne is thrilled to make her professional directing debut with Camp Siegfried. She is a theater-maker deeply rooted in the Dallas-Fort Worth theater community. You may have seen Laura on stage at Uptown Players, Theatre Three, Second Thought Theater, Stage West, and others. She holds an MFA in Acting from Brown University/Trinity Repertory Company, where she also developed her work as a director. As Co-Executive Director of Watering Hole Collective - a proud collaborating partner on this production - Laura is passionate about building community through bold, meaningful artistic work in DFW. Camp Siegfried marks an exciting and significant new chapter in her life in the theater.