Welcome

Welcome to Here There Are Blueberries.

Moisés Kaufman, Amanda Gronich, and Tectonic Theater (together and separately!) have significant history at Berkeley Rep, and I’m proud to welcome them back with this hugely important and vibrantly theatrical story.

Tectonic has always turned the notion of documentary theatre on its head, and in fact, prefer to refer to their work as investigative theatre. This distinction feels particularly important with this play, as a mystery needs to be solved of this album that has arrived on the desk of a curator at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. In some ways, Here There are Blueberries functions as a detective story, but with an archivist as the protagonist. On the face of it, perhaps not the stuff of gripping drama, but such is the magic of Tectonic’s theatre-making!

Tectonic has always made evident the active task of storytelling, placing it at the center of the plays. At a time in which journalists in our country and elsewhere are facing attacks on the integrity of their process, I feel very fortunate to be sharing a play with our community that celebrates the rigorous investigation of the truth. Here There Are Blueberries invites each of us to contemplate the continuum of complacency/complicity/culpability (as Moisés has described it), and the need to wrestle with the fact that at different moments throughout history, we have each taken our place somewhere along that spectrum when faced with society’s greatest challenges. I hope that spending time immersed in this theatrical event gives us the courage to give voice to the stories of those who may not be able to tell their own, and to fight for truth, together.

Thank you for sharing in this with us.

Warmly,

Johanna Pfaelzer | Artistic Director

At its most powerful, theatre does not merely present a story — it demands that we reckon with it. Here There Are Blueberries is one such work: a haunting, deeply human exploration of complicity and conscience, of the unsettling ease with which ordinary people can become enmeshed in history’s darkest chapters.

When a mysterious album of photographs arrives at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, it sets off an astonishing investigation into the lives of Nazi officers and staff at Auschwitz — people who, in one moment, are complicit in unspeakable atrocities and, in the next, are eating blueberries, laughing in the sun. Created by Moisés Kaufman and Amanda Gronich of Tectonic Theater Project, this searing work of theatre forces us to confront the banality of evil and the moral responsibility of bearing witness. In presenting Here There Are Blueberries, Berkeley Rep continues its commitment to theatre that challenges, provokes, and deepens our understanding of the world and of humanity.

As we look ahead to the 2025/26 season, which begins in September, we invite you to join us for another year of ambitious storytelling — bold new works, reimagined classics, and theatrical experiences that catalyze conversation and build community. Subscribing ensures your place for the season’s hottest productions, while offering you the best prices, prime seats, free exchange privileges, priority access to special limited engagement events, and a host of other great benefits to make your theatergoing easy, flexible, and affordable.

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Thank you for joining us. Enjoy the show!

Tom Parrish | Managing Director