My Brother's Gift: An Interview with Claudia Haas and Eva Schloss
Interview with Claudia Haas and Eva Schloss

Watch the video above of the in-depth discussion about the new play, My Brother’s Gift, with playwright Claudia Haas, collaborator Eva Schloss, and Stage Partners Education Director, Maria McConville.

Eva is an Austrian-English survivor of the Holocaust, a memoirist, the step-daughter of Otto Frank, and active speaker on the atrocities that happened to her family and the Jewish people during World War II. Eva lost her father, Erich Geiringer and brother, Heinz, to the Holocaust.
Eva’s brother Heinz was an accomplished musician, writer and painter. In 1942, Eva and her mother hid from the Nazi’s separately from her father and brother in Amsterdam. While in hiding, Heinz created many magnificent pieces of art. The family was betrayed by a double agent and sent to Auschwitz. After the war, Eva and her mother recovered the work of her brother and have since shared his work with the world. Thanks to Eva, the paintings and his poems have a home at the Dutch Resistance Museum.
Heinz's paintings also play a large role in the play. "My Brother's Gift," published by Stage Partners, is adapted by Claudia Haas from the writings and memories of Eva Geiringer Schloss and the poetry and paintings of Heinz Geiringer. Many of Heinz's actual paintings are projections used as a backdrop throughout the play.
Claudia Haas – Stage Partners

Claudia Haas focuses on theatre for young audiences and inter-generational audiences. She seesaws between characters in their teens and roles for “fine-wine actresses.” She was an O’Neill Conference semifinalist for her 9/11 play Making Some Noise. Her plays have been widely produced in all fifty states as well as on five continents. Her youth plays have been developed through the Bonderman Symposium (now called “Write Now”), Purple Crayon Players at Northwestern University, the Playwrights-in-our-Schools grant and the Old Miner’s Children’s Playwriting Contest at Utah Valley University. Her adult plays have been work shopped with The William Inge Short Play Festival, Workhouse Theatre, Little Lifeboats and Theatre Pro Rata. Honors include winner of the Aurand Harris Memorial Playwriting Award, Anna Zornio Playwriting Competition, AATE’s Unpublished Play Reading Project, University of Central Missouri’s Children’s Playwriting Competition, East Valley Children’s Theatre Playwriting Competition, Jackie White Memorial Playwriting Contest and others. Fifty of her plays are published. She is a member of the Dramatist Guild of America, the Playwright’s Center of Minneapolis and the American Alliance for Theatre Education. Claudia lives in White Bear Lake, MN where there are many loons and ducks that bring smiles but sadly no penguins.

Click here for to read more plays by Claudia.