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their backstories, and I would like to think 
that having me in the room is helpful to 
them. It’s an artistic challenge in the best 
possible way. And playwrights always con-
tinue to make changes,” Maisel says.
“The most beautiful part about theater is 
the collaboration. And although the words 
on the page are mine, a play isn’t a play 
until the actors, director, designers and 
other members of the creative team have 
contributed their expertise and talents — 
which is why each production is the same, 
yet unique,” she adds. “I want to be part of 
the different collaborations that rise with 
each production of a play.”

THE LAST SEDER
Eight Nights isn’t the only Jewish-themed 
play that Maisel has written. She won 
Showtime’s Tony Cox Screenwriting Award 
for the screenplay adaptation of her play 
The Last Seder, which had its world pre-
miere in Chicago followed by an Off-
Broadway run with Gaby Hoffmann, 
Greg Mullavey and Sarah Winkler. 
“When we were in Chicago for The 
Last Seder, I was pregnant with my 
first child and Jennifer was also preg-
nant with her daughter. I played the 
pregnant sister in the play, and they 
didn’t need to pad me at all,” Winkler 
says with a laugh.
Maisel says that while The Last 
Seder and Eight Nights are radically 
different plays, they both embrace her 
love of the Jewish holidays.
“We celebrate primarily with our 
family and using our own family rituals,” 
says Maisel, pronounced “May-Zelle.”
“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel TV series 
pronounces it wrong,” laughs the self-pro-
fessed original Ms. Maisel. “I grew up 
with people pronouncing it incorrectly a 
million different ways. Now, because of the 
TV show, everyone — including Siri — 
mispronounces it the same way.”
For Jennifer Maisel, all is beshert in love 
and TV
. Actress Marin Hinkle, who plays 
Miriam’s mom on The Marvelous Mrs. 
Maisel, starred with Ed Asner and Cloris 
Leachman in an early charity celebrity 
reading of Jennifer Maisel’s The Last Seder. 
But unlike The Last Seder, Eight Nights 
came from a different space according to 
Maisel. Like many of her fellow writers and 
artists, Maisel found herself “really stuck” 
right after the 2016 election.
“That January, someone was tweeting 

the manifest of the St. Louis [the ship 
America turned back to Germany], track-
ing where each passenger ended up — and 
became obsessed with the fact that about a 
third of them perished in the camps. They 
were so close to freedom, and it was poli-
tics and antisemitism that held them back,” 
Maisel says. “
At the same time, I started 
reading articles from the 1930s in the NY 
Times about ‘the Jewish problem’ while 
reading the 2017 articles about the Muslim 
refugee problem.
“I saw the ties between these points in 
history and the traumas so many groups in 
the U.S. have experienced, and Eight Nights 
started to come to life for me. Trump took 
office, the next day the Muslim ban went 
into effect and the day after that, I started 
writing the play.” 
SPEAKING OUT AGAINST BIGOTRY
At a Jewish retreat that she recently attend-
ed, Winkler asked publicly: “Why do I 

feel so compelled to speak up and speak 
out against bigotry and hatred when it is 
directed at races, religions and ethnicities 
that are not my own, but have such a diffi-
cult time doing so when bigotry or hatred 
is directed at my own culture and commu-
nity?”
At the same time that Winkler was 
asking this important and uncomfortable 
question of herself, the opportunity to play 
the roles of Rebecca Blum and Rebecca’s 
mother, Anna, was right in front of her.
“One of the great gifts of this role — in 
addition to working on Jennifer Maisel’s 
beautiful script and collaborating with 
a spectacular cast and creative team — 
is that it provides me the opportunity, 
through my work, to fully stand inside my 
identity and history, tell this urgent story 
and speak up and out against bigotry and 
hatred directed at the Jewish community 

and so many other communities.”

DPT IN SCHOOLS
All four of DPT’s artistic leaders are moth-
ers and teaching artists who are committed 
to ensuring students have access to these 
stories. Since DPT’s first season, DPT 
has had an excellent partnership with 
the Detroit Public Schools Community 
District (DPSCD).
“DPT is committed to ensuring the sto-
ries we tell are impactful, accessible to our 
community and that they catalyze dialogue 
and empathy,” Winkler says.
Since 2015, DPT has shared DPT 
Executive Artistic Producer Dominique 
Morisseau’s play Detroit ’67 with thou-
sands of DPSCD students, both at the 
theater and through a touring production 
and education program generously sup-
ported by PNC. DPT developed a curric-
ulum in collaboration with ninth grade 
history teachers to connect the play 
to students’ studies of the Civil Rights 
Movement. 
This year, DPT received gen-
erous funding from the Max M. 
and Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation 
and the Vera and Joseph Dresner 
Foundation to expand the program. 
Because of this funding, hundreds of 
Detroit Public High School students 
will also be exploring Eight Nights in 
their American History classrooms. 
Following work at school, the students 
will come to the theater for dedicated 
student matinees and engage in facil-
itated post-show discussions to process 
what they’ve seen and learned. 
Eight Nights runs approximately 90 
minutes with no intermission. Facilitated 
post-show talkbacks will follow every 
Saturday and Sunday matinee for the 
general public. Following Thursday and 
Friday evening performances, Eight Nights 
cast and DPT’s producing artistic directors 
will discuss themes of the show with the 
audience. 
“While there is surely profound grief 
in the play, there is also profound joy, 
celebration and catharsis,” Winkler says. 
“I hope that audiences will leave the 
theater each night filled with curiosity to 
learn more about cultures and histories 
not their own, with heightened empathy 
and commitment to community and with 
a desire to actively combat hatred and 
bigotry wherever they encounter it.” 

Sarah Winkler stars 
in Jennifer Maisel’s 
award-winning play 
Eight Nights.

PHOTO BY CHUK NOWAK 

