Held on September 25, 2013
The horrific possibility that the Nazis turned Jews into soap is the catalyst for “The Soap Myth,” a play by Jeff Cohen. Cohen’s lead characters, a survivor and a young investigative journalist, go on a collision course to ascertain how much fact is needed for something not to be fiction.
Jeff Cohen is an American theater director, playwright, and producer. His play, “The Soap Myth,” was produced by the National Jewish Theater Foundation at the Roundabout Theater Company's Steinberg Theater Center in the Spring of 2012. The production, directed by Arnold Mittelman, featured Andi Potamkin, Greg Mullavey, Dee Pelletier, and Donald Corren. That production caught the attention of prominent Holocaust scholar Michael Berenbaum who, in an editorial in the Jewish Forward (among other places), has championed the play as authentically capturing the tension between Holocaust survivors and Holocaust historians, and promoting a detente between the two groups.
Jeff Cohen has been an actor, playwright, producer and director during his four-decade award-winning theater career. His work has won every major theatrical award short of the Tony, including the Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Drama League, Outer Critics, Obie and AUDELCO.