Received special Commendation from Jewish Plays Project 2024 short-play festival.

The theme of this short play, rooted in Jewish history, is the incalculable loss to future generations when artists or inventors die before their prime, whether because of illnesses or other tragedies -- human-made or not.

The drama, with comic undertones, takes place in the imagination of a former Nazi, Heinz in 1995, in a Milwaukee hospital room, who, for the first time, realizes the generational impact of his crimes. While facing the imminent death of his son from AIDS, at a time when treatments were limited, he sees a news story about the death of the Jewish inventor of the polio vaccine, Jonas Salk. That sparks him to imagine a present-day confrontation with a Jewish boyhood friend, Abraham, an aspiring inventor and doctor, whom he had killed in a concentration camp during WWII.

AWARDS and PRODUCTIONS:
Production, Spectrum New Plays Festival, First Run Theatre, St. Louis, Feb/March 2026.

A previous version:
Finalist in Chicago Dramatists’ “Ten-Minute Play” Competition, receiving staged reading with Steppenwolf actors. Judged by David Zak of the Bailiwick Theater, Spring 1999.

First-place winner of play competition of the Unfinished Works program of AIDS Services Foundation Orange County, Irvine, California, December 2005.

Winner of Diversity Festival, Eastern New Mexico University, Portales, New Mexico, March 2001.