I Am My Own Wife

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I Am My Own Wife is a play by Doug Wright which examines the life of German individual Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, born Lothar Berfelde, who killed his father when he was a young boy and survived the Nazi and Communist regimes in East Berlin as a transvestite.

The one-man play premiered Off-Broadway in 2003 at Playwrights Horizons. It opened on Broadway later that year. Jefferson Mays starred in the Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, playing some forty roles. 'I Am My Own Wife' won the 2004 Tony Award for Best Play, the 2004 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play and the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Mays won the 2004 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play and the 2004 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance.

The play won the Lambda Literary Award for Drama in 2005.

In 2004, the play had its European premiere at Stockholms Stadsteater, Stockholm, starring Björn Kjellman. In 2006, the play was staged in Toronto, Ontario at CanStage, with Stephen Ouimette in the starring role, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at the Playhouse Theatre with Canadian actor Tom Rooney, in Portland, Oregon at the Gerding Theater starring actor Wade McCollum, in Portland, Maine at the Portland Stage Company starring actor Tom Ford, and in Ann Arbor, Michigan at the Performance Network Theatre starring actor Malcolm Tulip. In January 2007, the San Pedro Playhouse in San Antonio, Texas successfully mounted the play. It was also performed at the George Street Playhouse, New Brunswick, NJ from Jan 16, 2007 to Feb 11, 2007. It featured Mark Nelson, and was directed by Anders Cato.