The Brecht Project, Round 2, producers Susan E. Evans and Scott Munson, are thrilled to announce the premiere performances of 11 new short plays: When We Fight, We Win! by Scott Munson; Judicial Process by Reg Clay; The Virologists by Gene Mócsy; The Alien Wife by Sean Michael McCord; The Naturalized Husband by Tlaloc Rivas; Quota by Kate Monaghan; The Informer by Christine U’Ren; The Black Shoes by Peggy Powell; Workers’ Playtime by Craig Souza; For When They Gas Us by Denmo Ibrahim; and The Revolutionaries by Scott Davis Jones, forming the first contributions to Round 2 of The Brecht Project: FEAR AND MISERY OF THE FOURTH REICH. Inspired by Bertolt Brecht’s 1938 documentary portrait Fear and Misery of the Third Reich, FEAR AND MISERY OF THE FOURTH REICH will have four live virtual performances, with the plays split into two series, on April 16, April 17, April 18 and April 19, 2026. Tickets are free, at thebrechtproject.org, with suggested $10-50 donations to The Brecht Project encouraged and welcomed.

WHY ROUND 2 And why now?

Fear and Misery of the Third Reich was one of the first documentary theatre pieces. Nearly a century ago, Brecht asked the world: “How did this happen? How did Germany come to be ruled by the National Socialist dictatorship? How are the people’s actions or inactions allowing the regime to thrive? How and when will Resistance manifest? Will it be the misery that eventually defeats the fear?” The Brecht Project Round 1 playwrights transported these same questions to 2020 America. The first live virtual performances of the first five plays in The Brecht Project, entitled The Private Life of the (Not So) Master Race, premiered in October 2020. And, now, 2026 we are in a new America and it is time to ask these questions again.

THE BRECHT PROJECT

In 2007, Eastenders Repertory Company produced Bertolt Brecht’s Fear and Misery of the Third Reich. Charles E. Polly, Founder, and Susan E. Evans, Artistic Director, co-directed 18 of the scenes in Brecht’s play. The play made a lasting impression on everyone involved. Fast forward about 10 years. Evans and playwright Scott Munson percolated on the idea about updating Fear and Misery to present day America, envisioning the creation of its component pieces, written by many voices, expanding outward in concentric circles. The playlets would exist independently, and could be performed anywhere, but also could be performed as a living globe. Blink again and it’s 2020. A pandemic and a tumultuous election year and the urgency to actually produce this piece (not to mention write it) kicked up more than a few notches. The Brecht Project was launched. Starting with four of the core pieces, much as Brecht did, plus one more, four San Francisco Bay Area writers using Brecht as their inspiration transported and transmuted the themes and stories to our United States. 2024. Another election year. Scott and Susan began talking about Round 2. More time passes. Suddenly, it’s 2026 and the same questions – and even more frightening ones – are in the air with even more urgency. How did we arrive at this moment in America? How and when did Fear take the reins? And what are we doing, or not doing, to stop this pendulum swing towards autocracy? Turning again to The Brecht Project, Round 2, moving towards resistance.

THE NEW STORIES

Each of these 11 potent short plays is inspired by one of the scenes in Brecht’s original. A Trump supporter bullies and spars with a worker and his waitress girlfriend (When We Fight, We Win!); a Judge faces an impossible case (Judicial Process); two scientists watch their backs and words (The Virologists); a wife sees her husband’s true colors (The Alien Wife); a professor sits in detention in the new world order separated from his wife (The Naturalized Husband); a husband joins ICE as his wife watches his transformation (Quota); a couple dreads where their son’s loyalties may lie (The Informer); a soldier is forced to resign or deny her identity (The Black Shoes); an influencer interview goes awry (Workers’ Playtime); a family lives in fear and under siege (For When They Gas Us); and two actors weigh courage against careers (The Revolutionaries). The playlets are directed by Susan E. Evans, Kimberly Ridgeway, Cynthia Lagodzinski, and David Minton; and the Brecht Project Round 2 ensemble is comprised of 22 performers, hailing from all over the United States of America.

Brecht’s Play – Performance History

Of his play Fear & Misery of the Third Reich Bertolt Brecht wrote: “ … what a fragile foundation fear and misery are … how ineffectual terror is bound to be, in fact, how inevitably it must create resistance, even in sections of the population that originally welcomed it with cheers.” More than just a historical recording, this play shows us how fear and intimidation can impact a society – how thought and action can become paralyzed in a fascist state – and it urges us toward resistance and action. Beginning in 1933 with the first day of Hitler’s regime and concluding with the invasion of Vienna in 1938, Brecht’s drama paints a chilling portrait of everyday life under the Nazis. In 24+ scenes, the documentary play gives a cross-section of all German society in a series of intimate snapshots depicting the impact of the National Socialist dictatorship. Five scenes, The Chalk Cross, Judicial Process, Occupational Disease, The Jewish Wife and The Spy (aka The Informer) formed the nucleus from which Brecht built up his full script. From 1935 to 1938 that script grew from five to 17 to 27 playlets (the number of scenes eventually totaled 30, with more in outline form). John Willett’s masterfully brutal English translation of Fear and Misery first published in 1983 included 24 scenes. The first official production, comprised of only eight scenes, was presented in a 1938 Paris production entitled 99%, an ironic reference to the fact that 99% of the German voters voted Nazi in the March 1936 elections. The American wartime adaptation was called The Private Life of the Master Race (surviving now only in Eric Bentley’s translation).

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHTS

Reg Clay (Playwright of Judicial Process, inspired by Judicial Process) is an actor, playwright and occasional stage manager who has worked with Eastenders Repertory Company, Central Works, Ray of Light Theatre, Playground SF, among many other companies. A graduate of Duke Ellington School of the Arts and NYU, he hopes our work on The Brecht Project will bring enlightenment and hope to restore democracy in America.

Denmo Ibrahim (Playwright of For When They Gas Us, inspired by Any Good Against Gas?) is an American playwright and actor of Egyptian descent. Her plays include Arab Spring (World Premiere: SFBATCO & Golden Thread, June 2026, Finalist: Princess Grace Award, BABA (TBA Award for Best Original Script), and A Country Made of Salt (Legacy Playwrights Award). She serves as Chair of MENA Theater Makers Alliance.

Scott Davis Jones (Playwright of The Revolutionaries, inspired by Release) plays include “Good Grief” for HBO’s U.S. Comedy Arts Festival, and “Dark of the Woods” for which he received a Drama-Logue award. His screenplays include, “Counterfeit Contessa” (Fox), “Change of Habit” (ABC), “Touch of Hope” (NBC) and “Mr. Headmistress” (Disney). Scott is proud to be included in this important Brecht series.

Sean Michael McCord (Playwright of The Alien Wife, inspired by The Jewish Wife) is an awardwinning playwright living in Charlottesville, Virginia. He received his MFA in Playwriting at Hollins University and taught at UAB. Sean has been an invited Playwright at the O’Neill Center National Playwrights Conference and is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild and New Play Exchange.

Kate Monaghan (Playwright of Quota, inspired by Ersatz Feelings) has studied playwriting at the University of Virginia, and remains active in the Charlottesville, VA, theater community as a playwright, actor and director. She has BA and MA degrees from Rosemont College, Rosemont, PA. Her plays have been produced in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, Ohio, Minnesota and North Carolina.

Gene Mócsy (Playwright of The Virologists, inspired by The Physicists) is a Bay Area writer, actor, and video game designer. Son of a refugee. Wedded to Christine U’Ren. Fan of Kati Karikó.

Scott Munson (Playwright of When We Fight, We Win!, inspired by The Chalk Cross) was born and raised in Hollywood, California, into a family of actors and torch-song singers. He received his education at UCLA, the W.B. Yeats School in Sligo, Ireland, and Harvard. His award-winning work has been performed in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Chicago. He earlier explored the life of Bertolt Brecht in his full-length play, “Dearest Frank Lights A Cigar.”

Peggy Powell (Playwright of The Black Shoes, inspired by The Black Shoes) is a San Francisco Bay Area playwright. Her short plays and one-acts have been produced around the country, while her full length plays have received readings locally.

Tlaloc Rivas (Playwright of The Naturalized Husband, inspired by The Jewish Wife) is an award winning playwright, director, and educator originally from the Bay Area, California. He is on the faculty of the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. He is a member of the Dramatist Guild, Stage Directors & Choreographers, and a Usual Suspect from New York Theatre Workshop.

Craig Souza (Playwright of Workers’ Playtime, inspired by Workers’ Playtime) is a San Francisco -based actor, director, playwright and filmmaker. A proud member of the Eastenders Repertory Company diaspora, he’s thrilled to have this opportunity to “get the band back together” and put on a show with old friends. Art matters, especially in times like these. Let’s rumble!

Christine U’Ren (Playwright of The Informer, inspired by The Spy) has written stage plays produced by small companies, and radio scripts performed on KALX, Berkeley. She is not happy that we need an updated version of The Brecht Project, but is glad to be a part of it, especially with her husband, Gene Mocsy.

ABOUT THE DIRECTORS

Susan E. Evans (Director, When We Fight, We Win!, Judicial Process, Quota, The Informer, Workers’ Playtime, The Revolutionaries) served as the Artistic Director of Eastenders Repertory Company, the Douglas Morrisson Theatre, Town Hall Theatre, and Live Arts Theater over the past 23 years, and has directed numerous productions of reenvisioned classics and new works’ premieres. SDC Associate Member.

Cynthia Lagodzinski (Director, The Alien Wife) is a professor of Theatre at Las Positas College and a multifaceted theatre artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work as an actor, director, and designer has been featured at prominent local theatres including SPARC, Central Works, and Hillbarn Theatre, as well as internationally.

David Minton (Director, For When They Gas Us) is a director, actor, instructor, playwright, and theatre manager with over 45 years of professional theater experience in Dallas, New York, and Washington, DC. David was the co-Founder and Artistic Director of Lumina Studio Theatre in the DC area, a high-concept youth Shakespeare company currently celebrating its 28 th year of operation.

Kimberly Ridgeway (Director, The Virologists, The Naturalized Husband, The Black Shoes ) is an award-winning director, playwright and actor, who has directed at many Bay Area Theatres including Altarena Playhouse, Central Works, City Lights, New Conservatory Theatre, Oakland Theatre Project, Palo Alto Players, and Town Hall Theatre; as well as Three Willows(TX), National Black Theatre(NY), and Spokane Civic Theatre(WA).

CALENDAR Information on FEAR AND MISERY OF THE FOURTH REICH:

WHO: THE BRECHT PROJECT ROUND 2 presents: FEAR AND MISERY OF THE FOURTH REICH

WHAT: FEAR AND MISERY OF THE FOURTH REICH: ELEVEN SHORT PLAYS

Series A

When We Fight, We Win! by Scott Munson Judicial Process by Reg Clay The Virologists by Gene Mócsy The Alien Wife by Sean Michael McCord

Series B

The Naturalized Husband by Tlaloc Rivas Quota by Kate Monaghan The Informer by Christine U’Ren The Black Shoes by Peggy Powell Workers’ Playtime by Craig Souza For When They Gas Us by Denmo Ibrahim The Revolutionaries by Scott David Jones

CAST: Daniel Atwood, Reg Clay, Deborah Cortez, Cadessa Davis, Carolyn Doyle, Ben Gafni, Nick Hagy, Haydn Haring, Suzan Kendall, Cynthia Lagodzinski, Aiyana Marcus, David Minton, Kate Monaghan, Jet Ogoy, John Rabasa, Tom Reilly, Caitlin Reinhard, Francisco Javier Rodriguez, Katie Rogers, Craig Souza, Michael Swanberg, Katie Wu

DATES & TIMES: Thursday, April 16 – Sunday, April 19, 2026

Series A Thursday, April 16, 5:30pm, Pacific Time/8:30pm, Eastern Time Saturday, April 18 4:30pm PT/7:30pm ET

Series B Friday, April 17, 5:30pm PT/8:30pm ET Sunday, April 19, 2:00pm PT/5:00pm ET

WHERE: Thebrechtproject.org

REGISTER FOR TICKETS TO WATCH: https://www.thebrechtproject.org/round2

TICKETS: FREE; $10-50 Suggested Donation

INFO: https://www.thebrechtproject.org/contact; htsevans@gmail.com